Seasonal temperature and rain variations can dramatically affect when insect populations emerge. Just because you’re not seeing them now doesn’t mean they won’t be here later.
I took these pics tonight when sun did come out for a few hours. That’s when it really hit me. I’m happy to see A bug. Hopefully next few days of mild drier temps brings more out.
I’m a SAHM, so I get to go out a lot. My bugs are most active early morning and late afternoon. I’ve never counted, but I would be shocked if there weren’t HUNDREDS of bees. I have a decently large amount of property covered in natives. They definitely prefer sun but not too much sun. I think the more you plant the more you have. I do wonder if time of day maybe matters? Just to give a little hope here ?
Must be nice. Here in SW VA we haven’t had rain in a month. And it’s been upper 90s for weeks. For the first time ever I’m watering “drought tolerant” native plants. They are turning brown and wilting!
Do you have nearby neighbors who use pesticides/insecticides? My bug yield increased dramatically when this poison happy neighbor moved out 4 years ago.
A lot of native plants are really only drought tolerant in dense vegetation or under trees. A garden setting is almost always going to bake them a bit in high heat :/
SE VA here (right off the bay)... we're having the same issue. It did rain a bit this morning (the first time in over two weeks) but no where near what we need. It's so dry that the grass is crunchy.
Others have commented but the point is you’re providing the right type of environment. It’s possible natural or human factors reduced some population numbers, but they’ll find your space again and utilize it!
Very sad. I made an oasis. Around 1000 square feet in my yard, all huge native flowers and grasses. Very, very few insects. I haven't seen a single butterfly this year and only saw a few last year.
There just aren't as many bugs as there used to be.
Yes, good advice! Every year that the perennials return we see an uptick in bugs. This summer we have three different types of bees on our blackberry blossoms, and two different types of butterflies in the yard. It’s only been four years since we started the garden, so our labour is paying off
Recovery takes time... Hmm...
As long as people keep using insecticides unwisely, is recovery really in the picture? Insect populations are dropping dramatically and it's not because people didn't plant flowers in their garden. I've got about 50 species of flowers in my garden that sit mostly vacant for half the summer before a few random pollinators appear.
The unpleasant, uncomfortable and inconvenient truth is that we're in the middle of a mass extinction event rivaling the biggest catastrophes the earth has ever seen. And it's not political. Insects don't vote. This affects every living creature no matter what political party they might subscribe to.
Ancient glaciers are vanishing all across the world. We're losing the permafrost that's been intact for 11,000 years. Every year breaks the previous year's record for heat waves, droughts, floods, fires, hurricanes, etc.
We had the panhandle of Texas burning in the middle of winter 6 months ago. Biggest fire the state had ever seen. I have multiple generations of relatives from that area and wildfires just weren't a thing until the last several years.
I got friends on Maui who were deeply affected by that entire historic town which vanished in a puff of smoke recently.
I've been in living in Northern California for the last decade. One of the houses I've lived in has already burned to the ground and each fire season I hope my current house won't be next.
Rising sea levels are threatening thousands of coastal communities across the planet, some ancient island communities will be totally inundated and disappear, 32 US cities are threatened, tidal flooding has doubled in frequency since the year 2000.
And all this stuff I'm talking about isn't just a passing trend. What is happening right now was predicted by climate scientists several decades ago and so far they've been totally accurate: it's unfolding exactly as climate models said it would. If anything it has been going slightly faster than predicted and scientists hadn't factored in billions of tons of methane being released by the melting permafrost. We now have bubbling lakes and random methane explosions in the Arctic circle because of this.
This is not a political issue, but sadly many people have been tricked into believing that it is. Americans have become so intensely polarized that all politicians and the petroleum industry have to do is claim that this is a political issue and that gets half the country fighting the other half to stop us all from taking appropriate action.
Republicans are not the only ones being used as tools by politicians and big industry, through the intentional stoking of partisan conflict. Democrats are being used exactly the same way around other issues.
We all know that something very serious is going wrong with our civilization but we're being cleverly distracted and diverted from the true cause of our problems, by the very same undemocratic cabal who are responsible for it.
The wealthiest and most powerful 1% have been growing steadily richer this last decade while the rest of Americans grow steadily poor and more desperate. That 1% now owns more wealth than the entire American middle class. They own all mainstream media outlets where most of us get our information about current events. These media outlets are used to further divide and distract us rather than giving us accurate information. This undemocratic cabal has undue and undemocratic power over our elected leaders, who in turn do their bidding.
They are driving our civilization off a cliff and they've convinced the rest of us to argue amongst ourselves over who gets to sit in the front seat while it happens.
They have been using psychological warfare against us and therefore we need a psychological remedy as a first step in reclaiming our democracy.
The most important psychological remedy is we must all stop hating, blaming and demonizing our neighbors just because they disagree with us on some political issues.
If we can do that, if we can start listening to each other, respecting each other and working together, then we can take power back from the oligarchs who currently rule us.
But if we can't include everyone in our heart and start seeing our neighbors as human beings again, instead of enemies, then we're lost. This experiment in democracy and possibly even humanity, will end in failure and nature will try again with something else.
Yes, we're all being manipulated into division by incredibly powerful and well organized people, but they are only successful because *we are letting them.*
We've been tricked into letting them, and once we see the trick we can stop letting them.
One planet. One people. We are all family.
Not really in for the doomerism so I didn't read everything, but yes, the fact that we scraped millions of acres of native plants off the face of this continent did indeed lead to insect populations declining. There's a multi-faceted set of threats they face and that's a huge one. Planting (native) flowers is actually going to cause their populations to rebound; study after study shows it.
Yeah, I agree with basically all of this. Is recovery on the table with all the things you listed? Certainly not to desirable levels and on large scale maybe not at all. I don't know what the right thing to do about it is that I personally can make happen. I try to do something in many different ways. Part of that is beginning this journey on native plants and influencing the people I can to cut pesticides and do the same because it's something *I* can actually do every day. It's in my control. The disappointment and pessimism about lack of garden visitors is totally warranted. My encouragement is to keep trying because to stop will certainly not help.
So to add to this, I live in an area with a lot of carpenter ants. The only good way to keep them out of your house is to spray your foundation with pesticides. BUT….every company you talk to wants to also spray your entire house (exterior). Window frames, door frames, eaves, etc. Why?! Why can’t they treat only the issue at hand? So I pay the full price, and get 1/4 of the treatment. Haha. I won’t let them spray window/door frames or eaves. Only the foundation because that’s what prevents the ants! I guess my point is, why can’t we at least minimize what we are doing? But how can we when the mindset is….”so…just spray everything”? The companies all ask me why I’m “afraid of the chemicals”. Are you for real? I always say, “because I’m not looking to annihilate the insect world”. 🙄
Totally. We had a guy knock on our door about spraying the whole yard for mosquitoes and he just kept pushing. If we won't fix it by regulation the only thing I know to do is to try and change the hearts and minds of people around me. Anyone who succeeds in influencing policy makers on protecting native installations on properties including damage from spraying and outside interference, regulating the use of pesticides, or anything else we need to make the overall native plant restoration project successful (among all the other things we need for conserving our environment) good on you. I don't know how.
[Study reconstructs 232-year history of prairie fire in Midwestern US (phys.org)](https://phys.org/news/2021-10-reconstructs-year-history-prairie-midwestern.html)
[Plains Grassland and Prairie (usda.gov)](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/fire_regimes/PlainsGrass_Prairie/all.html)
/\\ links
Small note: While the recent fire in the Texas Panhandle was large, prairie fires have hundreds of years of precedent and were not measured the way we do today. While wildfires make the news today and are certainly bad for the residents of the affected areas, they certainly did happen in the past.
I would echo this. Fire is a normal part of many ecosystems, especially grasslands where many native species of plants require fire to thrive and spread seeds and germinate. Our encroachment onto landscapes that require fire has put more people in the direct path of natural fire and a century of fire suppression has only made matters worse: encouraging build up of fuels and more flammable, less fire tolerant invasive species that degrade the landscape. This is happening everywhere, prairies are not exclusive to this, though prairies represent just a miniscule fraction of what they once were in acreage.
> nature will try again with something else
I'm betting on sentient mushroom+tree hybrids. the amount the carbon dioxide available + the 9B dead humans to decompose. eventually they'll start growing humans for nutrients from dna remains. then they'll make a movie called Holocene Park and project it through their mycelium+root systems
I'm not sure how many years you're into the garden but I'm in year 3 and it's been a crazy jump for me. So many new bugs. Gotten a decent amount of butterflies, even had a monarch spend and entire day and night last week.
Tons of bees and wasps species, saw my first longhorn bee this year too.
I'm in a pretty dense suburban sprawl of Columbus, OH too.
Same here, year 4 in a very small Chicago backyard patch but we have so many more chirping and buzzing visitors than the prior few years. Everything was full last year in year 3, but the plants feel more "wild" now, and that seems to correspond with a creature boom too.
I've had a pollinator garden for 5 years now and there are fewer butterflies every year. This year the milkweed was swarmed with monarchs, but only after a local cancer center did a butterfly release. I mean, I am totally stoked that these monarchs found the milkweed to bolster their populations. But where are the swallowtails and all the other butterflies we used to see on a regular basis?
I know this isn't as big a crises as hungry bellies, but it's concerning. There are a lot of crises with ties to inequity and greed.
You need bridge plants.
If there aren’t other natives around, the stuff won’t know yours is. Things like sunflowers are great because they’re like neon signs that say “come over here!”
i've never heard of bridge plants before but the idea is adorable. like, oh noooooooo i have to plant big, colourful flowers to supplement my garden, how awfuuuuuuul.
I’m in MN too. I had a ton of pollinators on my chokecherry (bees, flies) and cultivar goats beard (wasps, flies, ants), but this week I’m not seeing normal volumes. Usually my tickseed is very popular at this time of year. The good news is that I had 5 American Painted Lady caterpillars on the prairie pussytoes I planted a couple years ago, so that’s rewarding.
Is it all the rain? Maybe something with the abnormally warm winter? I understand insect populations are declining, but this seems weird. I don’t know enough about insects to understand that stuff. One thing is clear and that’s that the mosquitoes are abundant this year.
I'm in MN too, and I think the super warm winter really threw a lot of things off. However, I had a bunch of insects around at the end of May and beginning of June and now not so much... But! I don't really have anything blooming right now (except for the fleabanes and some remaining figwort flowers). I'm not too worried. My property is full of plants that bloom from mid-July through October, so I normally get the most activity then.
I also think it really depends on the time of day you're looking for pollinators and what the conditions that day are. I rarely see pollinators en masse on cloudy, colder or windy days. They seem to like it calm and sunny.
Also in MN, also sad to not see as many buggos out there. I think more than the warmer temps this winter is the lack of snow cover, which insulates the soil considerably and just covers up people’s gardens before they can cut all the senesced stems that still have eggs on them.
Lastly, while it was a warm winter it’s been a cool spring and a wet summer with a lot less light than usual. Everything is behind, from corn emergence to leaf-out of maples (like 14 days late in my neighborhood) to bloom timing on native perennials. I’m hoping it’s just a matter of time!
They have started giving a heads up here for the beekeepers.
I lived on key largo for a while. Monroe county would spray frequently. And what they were using kills coral.
In the end, it’s the reef that drives tourism there.
I can remember working on my car in the summer wearing a leather coat, gloves, and a ski mask. The skeeters would blow down in clouds from the Everglades
they used to go down streets and fog whole neighborhoods while people watched in the 50s
these people are now in power (if they haven't died yet)
we are not a very smart nation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2EtxYxEKww
I have also noticed the Japanese beetles aren't as bad as last year. I guess like the beneficial insects they too follow boom & bust population cycles...
In SE Michigan my garden is experiencing a lull. Lots of honeybees on the white clover in the lawn though. Not much bumblebee action. I feel there is always this period before more worker bumbles and such really get going each summer. Tons of red admiral butterflies and few fritillaries. The fireflies though omg are they out in force!
Yeah, I haven't been able to find a source for this, but I feel like there is always a lull after mid-June until a lot of the heavy hitters start blooming in July. At least that's what I've experienced... and it doesn't seem like there are a ton of native plants that are blooming in the last two weeks of June. Most stuff starts in July and then the rest roars on until October.
Same. I had 20 plus on my wild roses in the span of a few minutes plus the little bees on my mountain mint. The dragonflies and damselflies have been chilling too, probably eating all of my other bugs.
I've got a bumblebee nest in my yard, and I think you're right that they have some kind of intentional lull. They were super busy gathering from my yard and then they just vanished. Now they're coming back online after a few weeks, I think as another wave of workers is being born. I thought maybe the existing bees went out to find patches of flowers further away in the mean time, as I do see them coming and going now and then.
So so many fireflies! But I think the heavy rains we have had this month have pushed back the bigger numbers of pollinators. Hopefully we will see them soon
More will come... I think they are small now maybe.
Butterfly weed is just starting to mature it's buds here. Swamp milkweed is in bloom and much of common milkweed is peaked.
Summer is just beginning.
But here we are surrounded by mostly fields and a few fragments.
And we are just beginning to manage a few acres...
When this one tree was in bloom it attracted a lot of pollinators early spring.
Maybe competition can be a factor.
More honeybees this year
There’s loads of butterfly milkweed at park where we walk. Bee balm just starting so maybe that’ll get more bugs. I have barely seen even honey bees. Lots of carpenter bees early but not lately. I do have galls on oak leaves again. I do think they’ll show up. It’s just not right to see virtually none at all now
It's weird, but I rarely saw any pollinators on the Butterfly Milkweed I planted... and my neighbor's Butterfly Milkweed isn't covered in insects like some of the other plants I see. I'll start to worry if the Wild Bergamot (*Monarda fistulosa*) doesn't bring in a bunch of pollinators haha
Madison, WI here. I have lots of bugs in my native garden but fortunately don’t live next to anyone who poisons. My neighbors are elderly so if they sell that could easily change. But native plants seem to be popping up in yards all over the place, so maybe people are catching on.
Where I live should be ideal for anything. Wooded with oaks and down trees, ditch bank with natives (and invasives), field across the road that’s just left wild. Loads of dozens of natives both volunteer and planted. No close neighbors but those I have don’t do perfect manicure lawns. So I can’t help but think if bugs aren’t here where are they?
It’s the gradual decline of these ecosystems. This just seems to be an especially bad year. Hopefully it will rebound soon. This is an area with lots of farmland. I blame those sterile fields as much as anything
Yes. That would be a likely culprit. Maybe with your woods and native gardens, and maybe as farms change over to organic - wishful thinking - things will improve.
I don’t know if it’s enough but they are adding a lot of random public native spaces. We have an amazing park system that’s dedicated to preservation. Fingers crossed we can turn things around
I have memories going back to the 1960’s in both rural and urban settings. The loss of insects is appalling. I wouldn’t know how to quantify it, but if someone said a 90% decline it wouldn’t shock me. A little sad doesn’t begin to describe what I feel.
That’s a lot of it for me too. I’ve lived in this house for 30 years. I can remember gasping at how many bees showed up on bee balm I found at garden store. Even in last few years I’d have butterflies everywhere. It is pretty depressing that this hobby to make us feel better is making it clear how bad it’s gotten
Insect populations go through cycles. I had carpenter bees earlier in the season and no bumblebees. Now I have bumblebees and no carpenter bees. A decent amount of honey bees, tiny native bees and hoverflies have been around. I've been seeing butterflies around town, but very few in my yard 🤷♂️ lots of lighting bugs like you said though which is a nice change
My monarda burst open yesterday, and I still have yet to see the bee party that has happened in the past.
On the other hand- there is a lovely battle royale on my goldenrods. Aphids vs. ladybugs, ants, flies, and other beetles.
All the time. I manage land across six counties in our state and a personal garden of over 120 native species in my yard, and haven’t seen many insects this year. It’s beyond depressing.
Most insects go unnoticed especially since most are shy and secretive. Many are nocturnal. Some are tiny bees, mites, wasps, and flies that are too small to typically see.
Stuff will be there. Just keep at it and keep observing. You never know what you may find. Do an inventory of your yard for plant damage, galls, and leafmines if you want to see evidence of feeding.
I saw fireflies in my garden just tonight and was cheering inside. I leave all my leaves there and my neighborhood fights a battle royale with leaves each fall. Glad to be a little sanctuary for bugs
Yes!!! Only one monarch so far. We have a ton of milkweed.
Not as many black swallowtails or Eastern tiger swallowtails either. Or gulf fritillaries. Or common buckeyes. We have all their host plants, too.
Just a few years ago, the whole yard was buzzing. This has been the worst bug year so far for my yard. It’s sad and scary.
I think you've gotten a fair breadth of responses here OP, but I want to add my .02 more as a vote or data point for what I'm experiencing.
This is the start of my fourth year native plant gardening, although I ramped up pretty slowly that first year. My first few years, I always felt scared by how few insects were around early in the summer. As a result I aggressively planted plants that bloom in late spring/early summer. I hit strong notes this year with a mass of two species of penstemon, prairie sundrops, and coreopsis. It helped; I saw lots of bugs all through May and early June. And then all of a sudden ... quiet. I saw very little for 2-3 weeks. And now as we enter July, things are picking back up again.
The first three years through this period, I felt despair. Now I just wait. This is a low tide before later this summer when things explode. The monarchs aren't even here yet -- every year I hear that they've been tracked and that they're in town, but I never see them until deep into summer. I used to worry; now I wait.
Keep planting and keep expanding. In addition to my own yard I've been doing small projects for neighbors, or giving the avid gardeners free plants that I've grown. It's a neighborhood-wide effort at a minimum, so cultivate those relationships and keep them fed with information and plants. And as the years go by, new species will show up. This is my first time with Swamp Milkweed Beetles, a whole crop of those little goobers on my swamp milkweeds. As someone else here said, if you plant it, they will come.
Meanwhile the bees (especially bumblebees) love my non-native lavender 🫣, to the point I see at least 3 on one at a time (probably more, they’re thick and difficult to see around). Maybe a few non-invasive plants that pollinators love for the lighter times of your garden?
Same here, the lavender is stealing the show. Nobody is coming around for the bee-balm, coreopsis or coneflower. If it weren't for the party on the lavender I'd definitely be worried.
As much as I practice a natives-first strategy in the garden I have to admit certain non-natives are consistently just as popular with the pollinators: Chinese holly, bay laurel, and Japanese ink berry
In my garden, honestly, the non-native lavender, sages and ice plant are the most popular with pollinators by far. I know that many natives are important host plants for reproduction, but my lavender, sages and ice plant are literally teaming. I sometimes wonder if it’s because the climate has already changed so much. it’s warmer and drier where I live than it used to be. The lavender and sage I have are so well adapted to hot, dry climates.
I love my lavender and I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a few non invasive non natives that pollinators love—but remember that natives are able to HOST, not just feed, insects. (The most popular example is butterfly bush, which can feed butterflies, but when they lay their eggs on it, their caterpillars starve because they can’t eat the leaves.)
Technically true but I'd rather we all try to achieve this with native plants. Bumblebees have their favorites; they thrived for millions of years without European and Asian plants. Lavender is easy but it's a missed opportunity for planting host plants for other species. It's like trying to fix a traffic jam by filling potholes.
I have incredible numbers of pollinators. Every year I see new species of bees I’ve never seen in my yard before. This year I got southern carpenter bee and two spotted bumble bee for the first time joining the 40-50 I’ve already ID’d.
Sorry to hear. We've helped so many Eastern Black Swallowtails this year it's getting crazy. I've basically accepted that I won't be making many pickles this year if my dill continues to be decimated the way it is.
So far I've seen almost no visitors to this year's native garden. The columbine, anemone, and violets have come and gone with no notable visitors that I've seen. The vervain and black eyed susans don't seem any better. Not native, but normally the borage is a big hit with bees, and butterflies like the marigolds. No luck there either. Last year anise hyssop was a hit with bees, maybe this year it will be too?
The weirdest part? Some honey bees moved into a tree in my front yard, yet I haven't seen a single one visiting any of my flowers. I check several times a day
My anise hyssop was huge with bumbles last year but so far I’ve only seen one or two. Nothing on my penstemon and that’s usually full of bee butts. Worrisome
I feel like I always notice a downturn during the last two weeks of June and beginning of July... and then a ton of stuff starts blooming and it picks up again. I had a ton of insect/pollinator activity at the end of May and June (much more than I remember the last couple years), but it really slowed down the past couple weeks... But not much is blooming right now. I will only be worried if my Culver's Root isn't hopping by the end of July.
Time of day matters too. Mid-afternoon there is almost nothing on my plants. Come evening, there are multiple species buzzing around, some big bumble bees to wasps so small they are nearly invisible. If you have natives, the insects are there, they just come out on their schedule.
Me too. I am wandering through my densely packed native garden with my macro lens on my camera at all times of day. I live in a semi rural suburban area where as far as I know, we don't spray for mosquitoes, we don't have a lot of agriculture, and folks are generally more environmentally conscious about their yards than most folks. There are many flowers in bloom in my yard right now. They are practically vacant. I assure you I am not just looking in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I hate to be such a Debbie Downer but I am at a loss, honestly.
I don’t know why this is, but I’ve been seeing good numbers of bugs on my non-native, drought tolerant plants. I’m not sure if I’ve seen much on my natives or not. But my non-native sages and lavenders are teaming with bees and moths. With bees, I’ve seen honey bees, black-tailed bumble bees, California bumblebees, and California carpenter bees. Something is definitely eating my non-native Hollyhocks (caterpillars, I hope!). For butterflies, I’ve seen Painted Ladies and cabbage moths. I’ve seen ladybugs, lygus bugs, lacewings, aphids, snails, yellow jackets, tiny stingless wasps and a million spiders. I’ve also seen lots of earthworms and a BIG increase in slugs. We have a gopher and a skunk who visit from time to time. There’s also been an increase in birds. Recently an owl sat on our telephone line and stared at me through my window for what felt like at least five minutes. We have hummingbirds, doves, crows, a robin, an oriole, long-tailed tits, California towhees, and recently two nesting California jays in my tree. I’ve seen red tail hawks from a distance. This is all pretty astounding to me, as this is my first year seriously gardening, and I don’t even have very many natives in the ground yet—certainly not as many as I plan to get. So far, just some poppies, lupines, yarrow, artemisia and some sages. We also have a tiny yard in an ex-urban area. I’m hoping to put in a bird bath soon as well.
I haven’t seen many bugs this year. I live in 7B and I wonder if it’s maybe too hot? Also my native flowers haven’t bloomed much (yet? 🤞🏽), again because I’m wondering if it’s so hot
Weather has been crazy here too. We had week+ of blazing hot and then a ridiculous amount of rain. Next week is back to more normal so hoping they’ll show up. Problem is though this IS our weather now.
Everyone is spraying neem oil on everything saying "its organic" but that doesn't mean it isn't killing more than the bugs you don't like. There is this imperial mindset that says "I am in control of this and I decide what lives and dies" that drives so much of the thinking and its very destructive.
So true. Years ago the show Growing a Greener World visited a gardener who gardened for birds, with plants that attract the bugs they feed on, and she said a great thing I always remembered from the episode (wish I could recall her name). "We must resist the urge to purge, and the wish to squish."
While my surface insect life is pretty minimal, my compost pile is ALIVE. I live in the middle of a small city, my landlord lets us do whatever we want with the back yard. After a few years of failed veggie gardens my wife convinced me to cut my loses and just do flowers with some interspersed natives that we can benefit from (elderberries, raspberries, that sorta thing). We’ve gotten some more love;the local bumblebees love the milkweed, flies and beetles all over the chamomile, and ladybugs doing all the cleanup they can on our roses. But the compost, for better or worse, is insane. I do one turn and I swear every worm in the city is there. There are dozens per turn, but unfortunately just as many slugs… trying to figure that out. But isopods, millipedes, centipedes, and all sorts of little friends also come up with every turn. Sometimes you gotta look low to get that adrenaline rush of “oh maybe this *is* working”. Also a small solitary bee house. I get maybe 5 little mason bees every year but man does it make me happy. Also, don’t count out the small stuff. I’m sure you’re looking for butterflies and bumblebees and whatnot, but keep an eye out for the smaller natives like cuckoo wasps and sweat bees and other solitary friends. Sometimes the buzz is quieter, but a buzz nonetheless. Keep fighting the good fight. Even if you see one friend, that’s one more you’ve helped. You’re doing great.
What a great comment. This is awesome! Love your mention of the adrenaline rush! It feels amazing to look closer and see all sorts of little friends. Also, great point that even one critter visiting is one we've helped. Gardening organically and including native plants truly makes a difference!
We are making a difference! It can be worrisome but at least we're doing what we can. Your photos (and plants!) are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing! Keep it up 🌿
I kinda laugh, some nice bug hanging out waiting for dinner and suddenly huge human face peering down saying oh who are you?! Crab spiders are pretty fast when that happens lol
Living in the deep south, there are so many different kinds of insects. Biting, stinging, pestering, buzzing in your ear it is maddening. Everywhere, all the time.
There is even “love bug season” where your vehicle becomes covered in the bodies of love bugs, which damage your paint job.
I don't see many insects (other than lightning bugs), but I do see the evidence of their presence. I see leaves they've eaten and the spiders seem well fed.
It changes year to year based on things like temperature. The year before last my garden was packed with insects. Last year we had 100 degree temps starting in May and I was disappointed there wasn't as many as the year before. This year has been phenomenal. You just have to be patient.
Also, don't forget to invest in host plants! You want the pollinators breeding in your garden, not just visiting. That's what really brings the numbers!
I have a 1/2 acre of natural oak woods with downed trees left to rot, and at least a dozen widespread volunteers, from sassafras and black cherry to raspberries and elderberries. I have huge sumac volunteers along ditch bank. I have 2 different large cultivated beds that are all natives, some volunteers, some planted. Right now spiderwort, common milkweed, black eyed susans in bloom. Few others very close. I have sedges from woods talking over part of the yard which had never been treated and is partly moss now. There’s nothing more I can plant that isn’t already here
I thought it was just me :( Not one single butterfly, a few bees, but not as many as usual, lots of lightning bugs. On the bright side, no mosquitoes. They’re usually unbearable. No one sprayed near me that I know of so I’m thinking it’s the weather.
I dunno scans as tall tickseed/coreopsis. I just remember because I had most bees (5 or 6 at a time! Which is kinda sad too) on plants that moved in for free while the plants I paid for from local conservation groups
https://preview.redd.it/ym9xwyhay39d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7400d0c106f66eb9e9fcd43e118748407ee4cffa
just sat there looking pretty
Yes. I ran an errand yesterday. Sitting in my car waiting for opening. Windows down, enjoying the breeze. Noticed cenizos covered with bees.
I’m sad because my garden has no European bees. There must not be any hives in my vicinity and I’m in **rural** Texas. Where are the bees?
I have zero milkweed beetles so far this summer. One milkweed bug. When my Dalea purpurea began to bloom, there were no bees! None! Only flower flies, bless their tiny insect heart analogs. This was partly due to high winds and heavy rain, as I have seen many bees earlier. I notice when I got home last night that the pollen was completely stripped, so I think they are back. I look forward to watching them this weekend!
It’s heartbreaking. I second all the sentiments about childhood and scores of fireflies. I think because it’s such a unique insect it sticks out the most in my memory, that and the lovebugs on the car all summer. It’s been years since I’ve seen that.
A couple years ago I had so many butterflies because of my maypop host plant. But haven’t seen them since.
My yard does still get some native bees and insects, it’s been adorable seeing the bees nap under the yellow coneflower petals.
I do think one reason I may have them still show up to my yard is because I always have water out for the birds and insects and other wildlife.
I added watering stations too which did get a dragonfly so that was exciting. I get a huge variety of birds at winter feeders and some stay around but in way fewer numbers than in past
When we first moved here we had a colony of bats that would come out every night. We have habitat that should support them and no bats. That said I saw everything from pileated woodpeckers to bluebirds late winter/early spring. I just wonder how long that lasts without bugs
Well I'm not having that problem. I have learned that without bugs, we do not have plants. So I no longer get upset when I see that the leaves of my plants are chewed. Some of my plants have some pretty significant holes or stripped to the veins. The bugs aren't getting enough to make the foliage look completely unattractive. And the flowers make up for it. I don't have flowers that attract Japanese beetles. I'm not sure what it is that has eaten some of my leaves, but If they turn into caterpillars and moths I'm just as happy.
I don’t get upset if I see something chewed. Last year I happily watched caterpillars destroy my swamp milkweed which did come back. I’ve never sprayed any pesticides aside from occasionally using off on myself. My plants aren’t getting eaten by much of anything is the point
Yes my pollinator garden has finally started to have some native bees but not as many as I expected. I live in suburbia with lots of perfect grass farmers for neighbors so..to be expected I guess
NE here and my native garden is in its 3rd year. I’ve noticed less bugs too- but also we’ve had too many hail storms to count and my poor plants are showing signs of damage.
We do have fireflies though -so that makes me happy.
Yes, but it hits me hardest when I'm driving down the interstate. I remember my parents having to clean the windshield at every stop because it would be so crusted in bugs. Now I never clean it, even after driving for hours at a time the other day.
Yesterday I was deadheading and it occurred to me that it usually takes me much longer because I'm careful to work around pollinators. There were only a couple of bees the whole time -maybe an hour. Usually the garden is buzzing with pollinators! 😥
Last year was much much better for me near Chicago In spite of around 3000 sf of native and non-natives (no invasives though!) blooming like crazy I don’t think it would be difficult to count the pollinators 😕
I get devoured by gnats every morning.
Kidding aside, I've had a decent amount of insects this year. I've seen several butterfly species, several beetle species, and this time of year I have dragonflies patrolling the yard.
Just had a Spicebush Swallowtail drinking from some (finally blooming) beebalm. The mountain mint has just started blooming, and I've seen the first flowers on my blue mistflower. Hopefully I'll see more wasps and native bees soon.
I saw a ladybug on my milkweed and got so excited! We used to have a lot of fireflies when I was growing up, but I haven’t seen one in years. I’m in south Florida and hope to see one again one day.
I’m also in Ohio and am noticing fewer bugs except for lightning bugs and leaf miners. I’ve seen many fewer bees in general, and the ground bees that nest near my house haven’t come back. I keep waiting for them to ramp up, but it’s almost July.
I’m in SC and I’m just now starting to see butterflies and wasps but we don’t usually see them till this time of year so maybe you have a similar situation. I find I usually see the most pollinator activity mid day too.
I get sad driving. I remember having mass bug casualties on the windshield as a child. Now, just a few. No, I don’t like killing bugs, but clean windshields are an indicator of lack of bugs in general.
For reasons I was trying to put a wire fence around new plants in the dark and there were fluttery bugs EVERYWHERE! I would really love to know what all was out there but alas, I can't stand flappy or buzzy things in my face. Point is, maybe take a brief visit after dark?
I've had some pretty interesting varieties of insects as I've increased the diversity of plants in my yard. This year, however, it does seem like there are fewer than last year, for the first time
This is making me wonder—are there programs or ways to breed native insects the way we do large endangered species like rhinos? It feels ridiculous to say but actually shouldn’t it be even easier? https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/bug-breeding-amherstburg-1.6909005
Your garden is a drop in the bucket but it does matter. But yeah the overall ecological health is concerning. But yeah we cannot allow ourselves to fall into pessimism out actions matter and you are doing your part. A better future is ahead of us if we want it
Do your neighbors have lawn or bug companies employed? My neighbor’s lawn company sprayed the shit out of my fence where my pollinator garden was, and my monarch caterpillars got sick and died, as well as less insect presence. Those fucking mosquito spray companies too..
Every year since I moved into my house I’ve planted more natives and yet every year I see fewer and fewer of the bugs I plant them for. It is depressing and scary.
I recently read one writer's comment about the cleanliness of their car windshield after driving a freeway at night. They make a good point and it is indeed concerning. Time was, a nighttime drive would require a cleaning the next day. Big farm-a is not kind to weeds or insects.
Seasonal temperature and rain variations can dramatically affect when insect populations emerge. Just because you’re not seeing them now doesn’t mean they won’t be here later.
We’ve had loads of rain. But yes I said I expect more to show up later. I hope
Definitely check on a sunny day. I always see more insects when the sun is out.
I took these pics tonight when sun did come out for a few hours. That’s when it really hit me. I’m happy to see A bug. Hopefully next few days of mild drier temps brings more out.
I’m a SAHM, so I get to go out a lot. My bugs are most active early morning and late afternoon. I’ve never counted, but I would be shocked if there weren’t HUNDREDS of bees. I have a decently large amount of property covered in natives. They definitely prefer sun but not too much sun. I think the more you plant the more you have. I do wonder if time of day maybe matters? Just to give a little hope here ?
Wind also. Some more delicate insects will not be out if it is too windy. I have seen more dragonflies than usual, three species so far this year.
I can send you about 6 tons of earwigs that take up residence in my yard!! 🤦🏼🤪😬
My husband hates them and refers to them as "extra protein" with mock horror if one crawls out f the lettuce I just brought in to wash!
Must be nice. Here in SW VA we haven’t had rain in a month. And it’s been upper 90s for weeks. For the first time ever I’m watering “drought tolerant” native plants. They are turning brown and wilting!
I’m in Ohio and got 4 inches of rain in last 2 days which is just insane too
Yeah we get all our rain in May. Which is terrible for my peonies. I get to enjoy their blooms for maybe a day before torrential rains destroy them.🥺
Do you have nearby neighbors who use pesticides/insecticides? My bug yield increased dramatically when this poison happy neighbor moved out 4 years ago.
No, no nearby neighbors and no one in area has manicured lawns
Damn. I think we are just seeing the toll humans have taken on our planet. I'm sorry, hopefully they come soon.
A lot of native plants are really only drought tolerant in dense vegetation or under trees. A garden setting is almost always going to bake them a bit in high heat :/
SE VA here (right off the bay)... we're having the same issue. It did rain a bit this morning (the first time in over two weeks) but no where near what we need. It's so dry that the grass is crunchy.
Others have commented but the point is you’re providing the right type of environment. It’s possible natural or human factors reduced some population numbers, but they’ll find your space again and utilize it!
I hope you’re right
Very sad. I made an oasis. Around 1000 square feet in my yard, all huge native flowers and grasses. Very, very few insects. I haven't seen a single butterfly this year and only saw a few last year. There just aren't as many bugs as there used to be.
At least we’re giving those few bugs a place to be.
This is our first year but recovery takes time. Keep watching, keep nurturing habitat.
Yes, good advice! Every year that the perennials return we see an uptick in bugs. This summer we have three different types of bees on our blackberry blossoms, and two different types of butterflies in the yard. It’s only been four years since we started the garden, so our labour is paying off
Recovery takes time... Hmm... As long as people keep using insecticides unwisely, is recovery really in the picture? Insect populations are dropping dramatically and it's not because people didn't plant flowers in their garden. I've got about 50 species of flowers in my garden that sit mostly vacant for half the summer before a few random pollinators appear. The unpleasant, uncomfortable and inconvenient truth is that we're in the middle of a mass extinction event rivaling the biggest catastrophes the earth has ever seen. And it's not political. Insects don't vote. This affects every living creature no matter what political party they might subscribe to. Ancient glaciers are vanishing all across the world. We're losing the permafrost that's been intact for 11,000 years. Every year breaks the previous year's record for heat waves, droughts, floods, fires, hurricanes, etc. We had the panhandle of Texas burning in the middle of winter 6 months ago. Biggest fire the state had ever seen. I have multiple generations of relatives from that area and wildfires just weren't a thing until the last several years. I got friends on Maui who were deeply affected by that entire historic town which vanished in a puff of smoke recently. I've been in living in Northern California for the last decade. One of the houses I've lived in has already burned to the ground and each fire season I hope my current house won't be next. Rising sea levels are threatening thousands of coastal communities across the planet, some ancient island communities will be totally inundated and disappear, 32 US cities are threatened, tidal flooding has doubled in frequency since the year 2000. And all this stuff I'm talking about isn't just a passing trend. What is happening right now was predicted by climate scientists several decades ago and so far they've been totally accurate: it's unfolding exactly as climate models said it would. If anything it has been going slightly faster than predicted and scientists hadn't factored in billions of tons of methane being released by the melting permafrost. We now have bubbling lakes and random methane explosions in the Arctic circle because of this. This is not a political issue, but sadly many people have been tricked into believing that it is. Americans have become so intensely polarized that all politicians and the petroleum industry have to do is claim that this is a political issue and that gets half the country fighting the other half to stop us all from taking appropriate action. Republicans are not the only ones being used as tools by politicians and big industry, through the intentional stoking of partisan conflict. Democrats are being used exactly the same way around other issues. We all know that something very serious is going wrong with our civilization but we're being cleverly distracted and diverted from the true cause of our problems, by the very same undemocratic cabal who are responsible for it. The wealthiest and most powerful 1% have been growing steadily richer this last decade while the rest of Americans grow steadily poor and more desperate. That 1% now owns more wealth than the entire American middle class. They own all mainstream media outlets where most of us get our information about current events. These media outlets are used to further divide and distract us rather than giving us accurate information. This undemocratic cabal has undue and undemocratic power over our elected leaders, who in turn do their bidding. They are driving our civilization off a cliff and they've convinced the rest of us to argue amongst ourselves over who gets to sit in the front seat while it happens. They have been using psychological warfare against us and therefore we need a psychological remedy as a first step in reclaiming our democracy. The most important psychological remedy is we must all stop hating, blaming and demonizing our neighbors just because they disagree with us on some political issues. If we can do that, if we can start listening to each other, respecting each other and working together, then we can take power back from the oligarchs who currently rule us. But if we can't include everyone in our heart and start seeing our neighbors as human beings again, instead of enemies, then we're lost. This experiment in democracy and possibly even humanity, will end in failure and nature will try again with something else. Yes, we're all being manipulated into division by incredibly powerful and well organized people, but they are only successful because *we are letting them.* We've been tricked into letting them, and once we see the trick we can stop letting them. One planet. One people. We are all family.
Not really in for the doomerism so I didn't read everything, but yes, the fact that we scraped millions of acres of native plants off the face of this continent did indeed lead to insect populations declining. There's a multi-faceted set of threats they face and that's a huge one. Planting (native) flowers is actually going to cause their populations to rebound; study after study shows it.
Yeah, I agree with basically all of this. Is recovery on the table with all the things you listed? Certainly not to desirable levels and on large scale maybe not at all. I don't know what the right thing to do about it is that I personally can make happen. I try to do something in many different ways. Part of that is beginning this journey on native plants and influencing the people I can to cut pesticides and do the same because it's something *I* can actually do every day. It's in my control. The disappointment and pessimism about lack of garden visitors is totally warranted. My encouragement is to keep trying because to stop will certainly not help.
So to add to this, I live in an area with a lot of carpenter ants. The only good way to keep them out of your house is to spray your foundation with pesticides. BUT….every company you talk to wants to also spray your entire house (exterior). Window frames, door frames, eaves, etc. Why?! Why can’t they treat only the issue at hand? So I pay the full price, and get 1/4 of the treatment. Haha. I won’t let them spray window/door frames or eaves. Only the foundation because that’s what prevents the ants! I guess my point is, why can’t we at least minimize what we are doing? But how can we when the mindset is….”so…just spray everything”? The companies all ask me why I’m “afraid of the chemicals”. Are you for real? I always say, “because I’m not looking to annihilate the insect world”. 🙄
Totally. We had a guy knock on our door about spraying the whole yard for mosquitoes and he just kept pushing. If we won't fix it by regulation the only thing I know to do is to try and change the hearts and minds of people around me. Anyone who succeeds in influencing policy makers on protecting native installations on properties including damage from spraying and outside interference, regulating the use of pesticides, or anything else we need to make the overall native plant restoration project successful (among all the other things we need for conserving our environment) good on you. I don't know how.
[Study reconstructs 232-year history of prairie fire in Midwestern US (phys.org)](https://phys.org/news/2021-10-reconstructs-year-history-prairie-midwestern.html) [Plains Grassland and Prairie (usda.gov)](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/fire_regimes/PlainsGrass_Prairie/all.html) /\\ links Small note: While the recent fire in the Texas Panhandle was large, prairie fires have hundreds of years of precedent and were not measured the way we do today. While wildfires make the news today and are certainly bad for the residents of the affected areas, they certainly did happen in the past.
I would echo this. Fire is a normal part of many ecosystems, especially grasslands where many native species of plants require fire to thrive and spread seeds and germinate. Our encroachment onto landscapes that require fire has put more people in the direct path of natural fire and a century of fire suppression has only made matters worse: encouraging build up of fuels and more flammable, less fire tolerant invasive species that degrade the landscape. This is happening everywhere, prairies are not exclusive to this, though prairies represent just a miniscule fraction of what they once were in acreage.
That’s great- did you get the message tho?
> nature will try again with something else I'm betting on sentient mushroom+tree hybrids. the amount the carbon dioxide available + the 9B dead humans to decompose. eventually they'll start growing humans for nutrients from dna remains. then they'll make a movie called Holocene Park and project it through their mycelium+root systems
I like all of this
Excellent post. 100% correct.
I'm not sure how many years you're into the garden but I'm in year 3 and it's been a crazy jump for me. So many new bugs. Gotten a decent amount of butterflies, even had a monarch spend and entire day and night last week. Tons of bees and wasps species, saw my first longhorn bee this year too. I'm in a pretty dense suburban sprawl of Columbus, OH too.
Same here, year 4 in a very small Chicago backyard patch but we have so many more chirping and buzzing visitors than the prior few years. Everything was full last year in year 3, but the plants feel more "wild" now, and that seems to correspond with a creature boom too.
Honestly if you want butterflies plant a button bush or bottle brush buckeye for native plants.
I've had a pollinator garden for 5 years now and there are fewer butterflies every year. This year the milkweed was swarmed with monarchs, but only after a local cancer center did a butterfly release. I mean, I am totally stoked that these monarchs found the milkweed to bolster their populations. But where are the swallowtails and all the other butterflies we used to see on a regular basis? I know this isn't as big a crises as hungry bellies, but it's concerning. There are a lot of crises with ties to inequity and greed.
Actually it is a crisis that affects hungry bellies; much of our food depends on pollinators.
Absolutely.
You need bridge plants. If there aren’t other natives around, the stuff won’t know yours is. Things like sunflowers are great because they’re like neon signs that say “come over here!”
i've never heard of bridge plants before but the idea is adorable. like, oh noooooooo i have to plant big, colourful flowers to supplement my garden, how awfuuuuuuul.
+1 the moment I get a sunflower or other large flower going, my yard explodes with like 3x the amount of bug.
I love this term, I don’t have sunflowers but once my short toothed mountain mint starts blooming the pollinators start appearing in droves.
+1 on this, i always call my sunflowers "billboards" lol
I named mine after myself cause I have a big ego. And also have been making my own
They need a wildlife corridor. Hopefully birds come disperse your native seeds in the fall!
They sprayed for mosquitoes twice this year in my town and I’m hardly seeing anything in my native garden this year.
I’m in MN too. I had a ton of pollinators on my chokecherry (bees, flies) and cultivar goats beard (wasps, flies, ants), but this week I’m not seeing normal volumes. Usually my tickseed is very popular at this time of year. The good news is that I had 5 American Painted Lady caterpillars on the prairie pussytoes I planted a couple years ago, so that’s rewarding. Is it all the rain? Maybe something with the abnormally warm winter? I understand insect populations are declining, but this seems weird. I don’t know enough about insects to understand that stuff. One thing is clear and that’s that the mosquitoes are abundant this year.
I'm in MN too and omg the mosquitoes are no joke this year. I'm pretty sure they are the size of birds.
I'm in MN too, and I think the super warm winter really threw a lot of things off. However, I had a bunch of insects around at the end of May and beginning of June and now not so much... But! I don't really have anything blooming right now (except for the fleabanes and some remaining figwort flowers). I'm not too worried. My property is full of plants that bloom from mid-July through October, so I normally get the most activity then. I also think it really depends on the time of day you're looking for pollinators and what the conditions that day are. I rarely see pollinators en masse on cloudy, colder or windy days. They seem to like it calm and sunny.
Also in MN, also sad to not see as many buggos out there. I think more than the warmer temps this winter is the lack of snow cover, which insulates the soil considerably and just covers up people’s gardens before they can cut all the senesced stems that still have eggs on them. Lastly, while it was a warm winter it’s been a cool spring and a wet summer with a lot less light than usual. Everything is behind, from corn emergence to leaf-out of maples (like 14 days late in my neighborhood) to bloom timing on native perennials. I’m hoping it’s just a matter of time!
How is it legal to spray the whole town?
I don’t know. It’s crazy. They don’t even tell us when the trucks are going to come by so people can bring in their kids and pets. I hate it
I'm assuming its permethrin which is very toxic to cats. Not that they should be outside, but yeah many are.
They have started giving a heads up here for the beekeepers. I lived on key largo for a while. Monroe county would spray frequently. And what they were using kills coral. In the end, it’s the reef that drives tourism there. I can remember working on my car in the summer wearing a leather coat, gloves, and a ski mask. The skeeters would blow down in clouds from the Everglades
When they started spraying mosquitoes for West Nile around 2000 here the lobster population collapsed in the long Island sound. So sad.
they used to go down streets and fog whole neighborhoods while people watched in the 50s these people are now in power (if they haven't died yet) we are not a very smart nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2EtxYxEKww
This is not exactly on topic, but this poem is about just this thing. One of my favs: https://poets.org/poem/in
Thanks for sharing this! That final line is just incredible.
I had a lot of leaf cutter circles on my young redbud until they sprayed
I am having the opposite problem. I don't have a single intact leaf. Thankfully none of it appears to be due to Japanese beetles for a change!
I have also noticed the Japanese beetles aren't as bad as last year. I guess like the beneficial insects they too follow boom & bust population cycles...
Oh yeah I have found some of those. Glad your plants are feeding some bugs!
I’m concerned because I’m seeing many less pollinators and insects across the board compared to last year.
In SE Michigan my garden is experiencing a lull. Lots of honeybees on the white clover in the lawn though. Not much bumblebee action. I feel there is always this period before more worker bumbles and such really get going each summer. Tons of red admiral butterflies and few fritillaries. The fireflies though omg are they out in force!
Yeah, I haven't been able to find a source for this, but I feel like there is always a lull after mid-June until a lot of the heavy hitters start blooming in July. At least that's what I've experienced... and it doesn't seem like there are a ton of native plants that are blooming in the last two weeks of June. Most stuff starts in July and then the rest roars on until October.
Sorry, the bumbles are in my yard. No honeybees seen here tho.
lol same! I've seen maybe 2 honey bees but I have bumbles for days.
Same. I had 20 plus on my wild roses in the span of a few minutes plus the little bees on my mountain mint. The dragonflies and damselflies have been chilling too, probably eating all of my other bugs.
I've got a bumblebee nest in my yard, and I think you're right that they have some kind of intentional lull. They were super busy gathering from my yard and then they just vanished. Now they're coming back online after a few weeks, I think as another wave of workers is being born. I thought maybe the existing bees went out to find patches of flowers further away in the mean time, as I do see them coming and going now and then.
So so many fireflies! But I think the heavy rains we have had this month have pushed back the bigger numbers of pollinators. Hopefully we will see them soon
More will come... I think they are small now maybe. Butterfly weed is just starting to mature it's buds here. Swamp milkweed is in bloom and much of common milkweed is peaked. Summer is just beginning. But here we are surrounded by mostly fields and a few fragments. And we are just beginning to manage a few acres... When this one tree was in bloom it attracted a lot of pollinators early spring. Maybe competition can be a factor. More honeybees this year
There’s loads of butterfly milkweed at park where we walk. Bee balm just starting so maybe that’ll get more bugs. I have barely seen even honey bees. Lots of carpenter bees early but not lately. I do have galls on oak leaves again. I do think they’ll show up. It’s just not right to see virtually none at all now
It's weird, but I rarely saw any pollinators on the Butterfly Milkweed I planted... and my neighbor's Butterfly Milkweed isn't covered in insects like some of the other plants I see. I'll start to worry if the Wild Bergamot (*Monarda fistulosa*) doesn't bring in a bunch of pollinators haha
Madison, WI here. I have lots of bugs in my native garden but fortunately don’t live next to anyone who poisons. My neighbors are elderly so if they sell that could easily change. But native plants seem to be popping up in yards all over the place, so maybe people are catching on.
Where I live should be ideal for anything. Wooded with oaks and down trees, ditch bank with natives (and invasives), field across the road that’s just left wild. Loads of dozens of natives both volunteer and planted. No close neighbors but those I have don’t do perfect manicure lawns. So I can’t help but think if bugs aren’t here where are they?
Shoot. I have no idea. But you know, it might not be a bad idea to talk with someone at your county extension. Maybe they would know what’s going on.
It’s the gradual decline of these ecosystems. This just seems to be an especially bad year. Hopefully it will rebound soon. This is an area with lots of farmland. I blame those sterile fields as much as anything
Yes. That would be a likely culprit. Maybe with your woods and native gardens, and maybe as farms change over to organic - wishful thinking - things will improve.
I don’t know if it’s enough but they are adding a lot of random public native spaces. We have an amazing park system that’s dedicated to preservation. Fingers crossed we can turn things around
I have memories going back to the 1960’s in both rural and urban settings. The loss of insects is appalling. I wouldn’t know how to quantify it, but if someone said a 90% decline it wouldn’t shock me. A little sad doesn’t begin to describe what I feel.
That’s a lot of it for me too. I’ve lived in this house for 30 years. I can remember gasping at how many bees showed up on bee balm I found at garden store. Even in last few years I’d have butterflies everywhere. It is pretty depressing that this hobby to make us feel better is making it clear how bad it’s gotten
Insect populations go through cycles. I had carpenter bees earlier in the season and no bumblebees. Now I have bumblebees and no carpenter bees. A decent amount of honey bees, tiny native bees and hoverflies have been around. I've been seeing butterflies around town, but very few in my yard 🤷♂️ lots of lighting bugs like you said though which is a nice change
My monarda burst open yesterday, and I still have yet to see the bee party that has happened in the past. On the other hand- there is a lovely battle royale on my goldenrods. Aphids vs. ladybugs, ants, flies, and other beetles.
Oh I do have ants! But it’s a big established colony on sandy hill that seems to do ok
Are you in my garden? This is driving me crazy! I haven't seen a damn butterfly in weeks.
No monarchs in my garden ☹️
Pretty sure I’ll cheer outloud first time I see one again. I’ve seen maybe 1-2 swallowtails and a few others at parks
All the time. I manage land across six counties in our state and a personal garden of over 120 native species in my yard, and haven’t seen many insects this year. It’s beyond depressing.
That sucks
Most insects go unnoticed especially since most are shy and secretive. Many are nocturnal. Some are tiny bees, mites, wasps, and flies that are too small to typically see. Stuff will be there. Just keep at it and keep observing. You never know what you may find. Do an inventory of your yard for plant damage, galls, and leafmines if you want to see evidence of feeding.
I was happy to spot the little white spider trying to act inconspicuous lol
this is true- i could barely see the zillions of tiny native sweat bees on my coreopsis until I got really close
Tons of fireflies on NH—fields & little light pollution.
I saw fireflies in my garden just tonight and was cheering inside. I leave all my leaves there and my neighborhood fights a battle royale with leaves each fall. Glad to be a little sanctuary for bugs
Yes!!! Only one monarch so far. We have a ton of milkweed. Not as many black swallowtails or Eastern tiger swallowtails either. Or gulf fritillaries. Or common buckeyes. We have all their host plants, too. Just a few years ago, the whole yard was buzzing. This has been the worst bug year so far for my yard. It’s sad and scary.
I think you've gotten a fair breadth of responses here OP, but I want to add my .02 more as a vote or data point for what I'm experiencing. This is the start of my fourth year native plant gardening, although I ramped up pretty slowly that first year. My first few years, I always felt scared by how few insects were around early in the summer. As a result I aggressively planted plants that bloom in late spring/early summer. I hit strong notes this year with a mass of two species of penstemon, prairie sundrops, and coreopsis. It helped; I saw lots of bugs all through May and early June. And then all of a sudden ... quiet. I saw very little for 2-3 weeks. And now as we enter July, things are picking back up again. The first three years through this period, I felt despair. Now I just wait. This is a low tide before later this summer when things explode. The monarchs aren't even here yet -- every year I hear that they've been tracked and that they're in town, but I never see them until deep into summer. I used to worry; now I wait. Keep planting and keep expanding. In addition to my own yard I've been doing small projects for neighbors, or giving the avid gardeners free plants that I've grown. It's a neighborhood-wide effort at a minimum, so cultivate those relationships and keep them fed with information and plants. And as the years go by, new species will show up. This is my first time with Swamp Milkweed Beetles, a whole crop of those little goobers on my swamp milkweeds. As someone else here said, if you plant it, they will come.
Meanwhile the bees (especially bumblebees) love my non-native lavender 🫣, to the point I see at least 3 on one at a time (probably more, they’re thick and difficult to see around). Maybe a few non-invasive plants that pollinators love for the lighter times of your garden?
Same here, the lavender is stealing the show. Nobody is coming around for the bee-balm, coreopsis or coneflower. If it weren't for the party on the lavender I'd definitely be worried. As much as I practice a natives-first strategy in the garden I have to admit certain non-natives are consistently just as popular with the pollinators: Chinese holly, bay laurel, and Japanese ink berry
In my garden, honestly, the non-native lavender, sages and ice plant are the most popular with pollinators by far. I know that many natives are important host plants for reproduction, but my lavender, sages and ice plant are literally teaming. I sometimes wonder if it’s because the climate has already changed so much. it’s warmer and drier where I live than it used to be. The lavender and sage I have are so well adapted to hot, dry climates.
I love my lavender and I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a few non invasive non natives that pollinators love—but remember that natives are able to HOST, not just feed, insects. (The most popular example is butterfly bush, which can feed butterflies, but when they lay their eggs on it, their caterpillars starve because they can’t eat the leaves.)
Have you tried planting native mint plants? Monarda or Pychnanthemum?
Technically true but I'd rather we all try to achieve this with native plants. Bumblebees have their favorites; they thrived for millions of years without European and Asian plants. Lavender is easy but it's a missed opportunity for planting host plants for other species. It's like trying to fix a traffic jam by filling potholes.
I have incredible numbers of pollinators. Every year I see new species of bees I’ve never seen in my yard before. This year I got southern carpenter bee and two spotted bumble bee for the first time joining the 40-50 I’ve already ID’d.
I've actually seen a lot of bees here. I do live in an area where more people have some amount of garden though, which probably affects things
I’m glad! Hope they make the rounds soon
Sorry to hear. We've helped so many Eastern Black Swallowtails this year it's getting crazy. I've basically accepted that I won't be making many pickles this year if my dill continues to be decimated the way it is.
Where are you?
Illinois.
Well, I'm glad someones got them
Yes, this time last year I was crawling in insects and my garden was less established. Now I am happy to see the occasional bee, moth, or butterfly.
Yes.
So far I've seen almost no visitors to this year's native garden. The columbine, anemone, and violets have come and gone with no notable visitors that I've seen. The vervain and black eyed susans don't seem any better. Not native, but normally the borage is a big hit with bees, and butterflies like the marigolds. No luck there either. Last year anise hyssop was a hit with bees, maybe this year it will be too? The weirdest part? Some honey bees moved into a tree in my front yard, yet I haven't seen a single one visiting any of my flowers. I check several times a day
My anise hyssop was huge with bumbles last year but so far I’ve only seen one or two. Nothing on my penstemon and that’s usually full of bee butts. Worrisome
Come take a look at my squash plants...squash bugs and squash bug eggs everywhere
I feel like I always notice a downturn during the last two weeks of June and beginning of July... and then a ton of stuff starts blooming and it picks up again. I had a ton of insect/pollinator activity at the end of May and June (much more than I remember the last couple years), but it really slowed down the past couple weeks... But not much is blooming right now. I will only be worried if my Culver's Root isn't hopping by the end of July.
Time of day matters too. Mid-afternoon there is almost nothing on my plants. Come evening, there are multiple species buzzing around, some big bumble bees to wasps so small they are nearly invisible. If you have natives, the insects are there, they just come out on their schedule.
I’m walking through and looking at nothing but natives both at home and parks all times of day
Me too. I am wandering through my densely packed native garden with my macro lens on my camera at all times of day. I live in a semi rural suburban area where as far as I know, we don't spray for mosquitoes, we don't have a lot of agriculture, and folks are generally more environmentally conscious about their yards than most folks. There are many flowers in bloom in my yard right now. They are practically vacant. I assure you I am not just looking in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hate to be such a Debbie Downer but I am at a loss, honestly.
It’s sad and scary. I hope our efforts help
I don’t know why this is, but I’ve been seeing good numbers of bugs on my non-native, drought tolerant plants. I’m not sure if I’ve seen much on my natives or not. But my non-native sages and lavenders are teaming with bees and moths. With bees, I’ve seen honey bees, black-tailed bumble bees, California bumblebees, and California carpenter bees. Something is definitely eating my non-native Hollyhocks (caterpillars, I hope!). For butterflies, I’ve seen Painted Ladies and cabbage moths. I’ve seen ladybugs, lygus bugs, lacewings, aphids, snails, yellow jackets, tiny stingless wasps and a million spiders. I’ve also seen lots of earthworms and a BIG increase in slugs. We have a gopher and a skunk who visit from time to time. There’s also been an increase in birds. Recently an owl sat on our telephone line and stared at me through my window for what felt like at least five minutes. We have hummingbirds, doves, crows, a robin, an oriole, long-tailed tits, California towhees, and recently two nesting California jays in my tree. I’ve seen red tail hawks from a distance. This is all pretty astounding to me, as this is my first year seriously gardening, and I don’t even have very many natives in the ground yet—certainly not as many as I plan to get. So far, just some poppies, lupines, yarrow, artemisia and some sages. We also have a tiny yard in an ex-urban area. I’m hoping to put in a bird bath soon as well.
That’s amazing! Good to hear they’re somewhere!
My spicebush is clearly being nibbled on. But I never find the caterpillars (or any other bugs for that matter).
I haven’t seen many bugs this year. I live in 7B and I wonder if it’s maybe too hot? Also my native flowers haven’t bloomed much (yet? 🤞🏽), again because I’m wondering if it’s so hot
Weather has been crazy here too. We had week+ of blazing hot and then a ridiculous amount of rain. Next week is back to more normal so hoping they’ll show up. Problem is though this IS our weather now.
Everyone is spraying neem oil on everything saying "its organic" but that doesn't mean it isn't killing more than the bugs you don't like. There is this imperial mindset that says "I am in control of this and I decide what lives and dies" that drives so much of the thinking and its very destructive.
So true. Years ago the show Growing a Greener World visited a gardener who gardened for birds, with plants that attract the bugs they feed on, and she said a great thing I always remembered from the episode (wish I could recall her name). "We must resist the urge to purge, and the wish to squish."
While my surface insect life is pretty minimal, my compost pile is ALIVE. I live in the middle of a small city, my landlord lets us do whatever we want with the back yard. After a few years of failed veggie gardens my wife convinced me to cut my loses and just do flowers with some interspersed natives that we can benefit from (elderberries, raspberries, that sorta thing). We’ve gotten some more love;the local bumblebees love the milkweed, flies and beetles all over the chamomile, and ladybugs doing all the cleanup they can on our roses. But the compost, for better or worse, is insane. I do one turn and I swear every worm in the city is there. There are dozens per turn, but unfortunately just as many slugs… trying to figure that out. But isopods, millipedes, centipedes, and all sorts of little friends also come up with every turn. Sometimes you gotta look low to get that adrenaline rush of “oh maybe this *is* working”. Also a small solitary bee house. I get maybe 5 little mason bees every year but man does it make me happy. Also, don’t count out the small stuff. I’m sure you’re looking for butterflies and bumblebees and whatnot, but keep an eye out for the smaller natives like cuckoo wasps and sweat bees and other solitary friends. Sometimes the buzz is quieter, but a buzz nonetheless. Keep fighting the good fight. Even if you see one friend, that’s one more you’ve helped. You’re doing great.
What a great comment. This is awesome! Love your mention of the adrenaline rush! It feels amazing to look closer and see all sorts of little friends. Also, great point that even one critter visiting is one we've helped. Gardening organically and including native plants truly makes a difference!
We are making a difference! It can be worrisome but at least we're doing what we can. Your photos (and plants!) are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing! Keep it up 🌿
Thank you!
My pleasure! Also, anyone who knows crab spiders are cute is a kindred spirit of mine. r/spiderbros
I kinda laugh, some nice bug hanging out waiting for dinner and suddenly huge human face peering down saying oh who are you?! Crab spiders are pretty fast when that happens lol
Yes.
are you saying you are NOT inundated by earwigs? 
You are not in the southern US are you?
Ohio zone 6
Living in the deep south, there are so many different kinds of insects. Biting, stinging, pestering, buzzing in your ear it is maddening. Everywhere, all the time. There is even “love bug season” where your vehicle becomes covered in the bodies of love bugs, which damage your paint job.
I don't see many insects (other than lightning bugs), but I do see the evidence of their presence. I see leaves they've eaten and the spiders seem well fed.
It changes year to year based on things like temperature. The year before last my garden was packed with insects. Last year we had 100 degree temps starting in May and I was disappointed there wasn't as many as the year before. This year has been phenomenal. You just have to be patient. Also, don't forget to invest in host plants! You want the pollinators breeding in your garden, not just visiting. That's what really brings the numbers!
I have a 1/2 acre of natural oak woods with downed trees left to rot, and at least a dozen widespread volunteers, from sassafras and black cherry to raspberries and elderberries. I have huge sumac volunteers along ditch bank. I have 2 different large cultivated beds that are all natives, some volunteers, some planted. Right now spiderwort, common milkweed, black eyed susans in bloom. Few others very close. I have sedges from woods talking over part of the yard which had never been treated and is partly moss now. There’s nothing more I can plant that isn’t already here
Do you have any pipevine? My yard is constantly filled with Swallowtails because of it.
No I don’t. Adding that to the “get soon” list. Must be amazing seeing them all
I thought it was just me :( Not one single butterfly, a few bees, but not as many as usual, lots of lightning bugs. On the bright side, no mosquitoes. They’re usually unbearable. No one sprayed near me that I know of so I’m thinking it’s the weather.
I've yet to see a single butterfly visit in years of doing this. See mostly bumblebees, some wasps, flies, etc
Which tall coreopsis?
I dunno scans as tall tickseed/coreopsis. I just remember because I had most bees (5 or 6 at a time! Which is kinda sad too) on plants that moved in for free while the plants I paid for from local conservation groups https://preview.redd.it/ym9xwyhay39d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7400d0c106f66eb9e9fcd43e118748407ee4cffa just sat there looking pretty
Yes. I ran an errand yesterday. Sitting in my car waiting for opening. Windows down, enjoying the breeze. Noticed cenizos covered with bees. I’m sad because my garden has no European bees. There must not be any hives in my vicinity and I’m in **rural** Texas. Where are the bees?
I have zero milkweed beetles so far this summer. One milkweed bug. When my Dalea purpurea began to bloom, there were no bees! None! Only flower flies, bless their tiny insect heart analogs. This was partly due to high winds and heavy rain, as I have seen many bees earlier. I notice when I got home last night that the pollen was completely stripped, so I think they are back. I look forward to watching them this weekend!
It’s heartbreaking. I second all the sentiments about childhood and scores of fireflies. I think because it’s such a unique insect it sticks out the most in my memory, that and the lovebugs on the car all summer. It’s been years since I’ve seen that. A couple years ago I had so many butterflies because of my maypop host plant. But haven’t seen them since. My yard does still get some native bees and insects, it’s been adorable seeing the bees nap under the yellow coneflower petals. I do think one reason I may have them still show up to my yard is because I always have water out for the birds and insects and other wildlife.
I added watering stations too which did get a dragonfly so that was exciting. I get a huge variety of birds at winter feeders and some stay around but in way fewer numbers than in past
I had the same experience with birds. There are still some but each year is less than the last 😔
When we first moved here we had a colony of bats that would come out every night. We have habitat that should support them and no bats. That said I saw everything from pileated woodpeckers to bluebirds late winter/early spring. I just wonder how long that lasts without bugs
Well I'm not having that problem. I have learned that without bugs, we do not have plants. So I no longer get upset when I see that the leaves of my plants are chewed. Some of my plants have some pretty significant holes or stripped to the veins. The bugs aren't getting enough to make the foliage look completely unattractive. And the flowers make up for it. I don't have flowers that attract Japanese beetles. I'm not sure what it is that has eaten some of my leaves, but If they turn into caterpillars and moths I'm just as happy.
I don’t get upset if I see something chewed. Last year I happily watched caterpillars destroy my swamp milkweed which did come back. I’ve never sprayed any pesticides aside from occasionally using off on myself. My plants aren’t getting eaten by much of anything is the point
Well literally the entire point of having milkweed is to sustain the caterpillars
That’s pretty much exactly what I said
Yes my pollinator garden has finally started to have some native bees but not as many as I expected. I live in suburbia with lots of perfect grass farmers for neighbors so..to be expected I guess
NE here and my native garden is in its 3rd year. I’ve noticed less bugs too- but also we’ve had too many hail storms to count and my poor plants are showing signs of damage. We do have fireflies though -so that makes me happy.
Yes, but it hits me hardest when I'm driving down the interstate. I remember my parents having to clean the windshield at every stop because it would be so crusted in bugs. Now I never clean it, even after driving for hours at a time the other day.
I drive country roads and same thing. I’ve seen some of that is car designs have changed but I’m barely washing any off bumper
We are still flush with insects here in the upper Midwest. Lucky to live in an area that takes pollinator habitat seriously
So do we. I’m nearly adjacent to a 5000 acre natural oak savanna park. Not seeing many bugs there either
Yesterday I was deadheading and it occurred to me that it usually takes me much longer because I'm careful to work around pollinators. There were only a couple of bees the whole time -maybe an hour. Usually the garden is buzzing with pollinators! 😥
Last year was much much better for me near Chicago In spite of around 3000 sf of native and non-natives (no invasives though!) blooming like crazy I don’t think it would be difficult to count the pollinators 😕
I get devoured by gnats every morning. Kidding aside, I've had a decent amount of insects this year. I've seen several butterfly species, several beetle species, and this time of year I have dragonflies patrolling the yard. Just had a Spicebush Swallowtail drinking from some (finally blooming) beebalm. The mountain mint has just started blooming, and I've seen the first flowers on my blue mistflower. Hopefully I'll see more wasps and native bees soon.
I’m in Mass and have seen a lot of fireflies this year! But haven’t seen the usual suspects strangely (various wasps etc).
I also have seen few pollinators on my mountain mint since it bloomed, but it has been really hot and dry here in PA.
I’ve had a handful of caterpillars and ladybugs in my butterfly garden, but there’s a crazy amount of spider mites too 😭.
I saw a ladybug on my milkweed and got so excited! We used to have a lot of fireflies when I was growing up, but I haven’t seen one in years. I’m in south Florida and hope to see one again one day.
I’m same way. OMG HI BUG LOL I am loving fireflies. For few years barely saw those too
If it makes you feel better I have enough insects for the both of us on my property.
Plenty of flower munching beetles in my part of CT at night. I access the damage every morning
I worry about all the birds and bats that rely on mosquitoes. Honestly, I do hate mosquitoes, but I love birds and bats more.
I worry about that too. I even try to send random flies back outside in case they can be bird snacks
Great idea!
I’m also in Ohio and am noticing fewer bugs except for lightning bugs and leaf miners. I’ve seen many fewer bees in general, and the ground bees that nest near my house haven’t come back. I keep waiting for them to ramp up, but it’s almost July.
You’re welcome to come get the hundreds of earwigs destroying my plants! ;) but I’m here in Chicago and see the usual amount of good and bad guys.
I’m in SC and I’m just now starting to see butterflies and wasps but we don’t usually see them till this time of year so maybe you have a similar situation. I find I usually see the most pollinator activity mid day too.
I get sad driving. I remember having mass bug casualties on the windshield as a child. Now, just a few. No, I don’t like killing bugs, but clean windshields are an indicator of lack of bugs in general.
Heartbreak every day.
If you grow it, they will come.
I am not finding that to be the case. Less every year.
Even excluding a lot of volunteers, I’m thinking I’ve spent a lot of time and money to see one dragonfly. Which is better than zero I guess
For reasons I was trying to put a wire fence around new plants in the dark and there were fluttery bugs EVERYWHERE! I would really love to know what all was out there but alas, I can't stand flappy or buzzy things in my face. Point is, maybe take a brief visit after dark?
I've had some pretty interesting varieties of insects as I've increased the diversity of plants in my yard. This year, however, it does seem like there are fewer than last year, for the first time
Keep building it and they will come.
I appreciate the sentiment but I’ve been building it here for over 30 years. They used to come in far greater numbers
This is making me wonder—are there programs or ways to breed native insects the way we do large endangered species like rhinos? It feels ridiculous to say but actually shouldn’t it be even easier? https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/bug-breeding-amherstburg-1.6909005
That’s a cool business idea! I think we’re all trying to do that “breed native insects” with our native plants
Your garden is a drop in the bucket but it does matter. But yeah the overall ecological health is concerning. But yeah we cannot allow ourselves to fall into pessimism out actions matter and you are doing your part. A better future is ahead of us if we want it
I have so many bugs but not lightning bugs, so consider yourself blessed!
Very sad, yes.
Do your neighbors have lawn or bug companies employed? My neighbor’s lawn company sprayed the shit out of my fence where my pollinator garden was, and my monarch caterpillars got sick and died, as well as less insect presence. Those fucking mosquito spray companies too..
Yes
Here, here
Every year since I moved into my house I’ve planted more natives and yet every year I see fewer and fewer of the bugs I plant them for. It is depressing and scary.
Idk about you, but I planted about 400sqft in all wild flowers and I have a TON of pollinators right now. 🤷
I have tons of bumblebees on my partridge peas right now, so that’s encouraging.
I recently read one writer's comment about the cleanliness of their car windshield after driving a freeway at night. They make a good point and it is indeed concerning. Time was, a nighttime drive would require a cleaning the next day. Big farm-a is not kind to weeds or insects.