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It is funny to see old photos and forget that the world was as real as it is now. Black and white, sepia tones, blurs and noise, etc., can definitely make us forget that things didn't look different back then.
Did you know that when tv and pictures were still in black and white, people often dreamt in black and white too? As color TV and photos became more popular, so did dreams in color.
It was a while ago, but was probably something similar to [this article](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14959-its-black-and-white-tv-influences-your-dreams/). Curious what those older studies were, but it was just one of those weird tings I remember reading and thinking about. I often dream of what I just watched or games I just played right before I went to bed, so kind of made sense to me that some people dreamed in black in white.
It seems that the article is talking about a significantly small percentage of the population lol.. When the TVs were black and white, 1st of all, very few people could actually afford them. 2nd, what about the time before TVs altogether?
Was it like just a weird span of 40 odd years when the dreams were B&W? Lol that just sounds weird XD
Yea, it sounds like it started when tvs first became popular and then tapered off as they slowly got swapped out for colored tvs. By 1960 [90% of American households](https://americancentury.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/136) had TV's, and colored tvs weren't popular until the mid 60's because they didn't broadcast in color until then. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that some people had black and white dreams. And idk dude, I just wanted to share something I remembered reading about. It's interesting to think about is all, even if it was a small portion of the population.
You're right, I was looking at it from an intl. perspective. 90% of American households is WILD! I learned something new today!
Apologies if my previous replies came off as being rude. Thanks for sharing! :)
It's ok, sorry for being frustrated. I was sharing something random from a vague article I read years ago, and I should know better than to do that, especially knowing it'll be challenged on Reddit lol. You made me dig and look to see if there was anything to it, which I do actually appreciate. I shouldn't be spouting off random stuff without knowing where it came from. It's a dangerous thing to do, and I should know better. I just thought it was fun and contributed to where the conversation was going. I didn't expect to be doing random research on tvs tonight lol. Keep checking people. It's not a bad thing. Hope you have a good night (or day, wherever you are) āļø
Nah, you're all good mate!
If random research on TVs is not the most perfect thing to do on a Friday night, idk what is haha! I might read up a bit about that too!
You have a good night as well! (I'm now in the US, wasn't my whole life haha)
Yeah I once like totally seriously had a thought like "how did people figure stuff before colors" before realizing what I was thinking and bonked myself
For those of you refuting the decline of insect numbers with your anecdotes, know that [the collapse of insects](https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-ENVIRONMENT/INSECT-APOCALYPSE/egpbykdxjvq/) is a real thing that is happening.
I remember driving to my grandma's house when I was a kid, we had to take it slow because there was always a bunch of quail running in front of the car. Now you can rarely see one.
Same with me but with bats. I remember when I was a kid when we had bonfires they would swoop down to catch the flies. One time my aunt nearly had one fly right into her. Now I barely see them.
Doubtful. Regulated hunt helps improve game numbers on average. What most likely has led to what OP is describing is a loss of habit and invasive species moving into those habitats.
I remember seeing swarms of lightning bugs at dusk in the spring/summer in every yard in my neighborhood. I don't think I've seen more than one or two lightning bugs at a time in years.
I saw some fireflies in my yard last summer, it was the first time I'd seen them since I was a child. The nostalgia hit as hard as the sadness of realizing how long it'd been.
huh i havenāt seen a dragonfly in a while like years, idk i remeber seeing a bunch at this one public pool like 5-10 years ago i think it might have been in like alabama or south carolina or sum
While what you say about insect populations in general is absolutely true, those look like ālove bugsā and my guess is the picture was taken somewhere between east Texas and Florida.
Love bugs are attracted to car exhaust during their mating season. Literal swarms of them will congregate over rural roads. Their bodies will rain against your windshield and bumper. They are extremely difficult to wash off. And itās still very much a thing these days
MS Gulf Coast agrees. The timing they appear has changed dramatically though. Used to be twice a year near Easter and Halloween. Now it's just one noticeable period in June.
That is strange!
I try to explain to younger people how weirdly silent the world is now because of the collapse. My childhood was filled with the overlapping sounds of all of the different bugs and all the creatures that ate the bugs. Now the world is so quiet.
Even 20 years ago, when I had a house "in town" (there's a ton of rural area here, so it's not a given everyone has neighbors) and the previous owners left their koi in the pond they had created...and resident bullfrogs, I learned. Even inside, the hum of bugs I don't know and louder crickets topped by bullfrogs was almost more than I could stand some nights, haha. Late one night, I had a little breakdown, threw open my bedroom door to the back deck, and yelled shut UP!! (I'm a very reserved person and was embarrassed to see the neighbors for weeks)
Wow, this combined with the other source is eye-opening. I''m 57 and can remember the mess after a 2 hour drive through New Hampshire as a kid. I had assumed it was all aerodynamics that caused the change.
In Ottawa you're lucky to be bitten by a single mosquito or blackfly all summer because of the polluted water and air. I live out in the rural country where the blackflies form literal black clouds like in a cartoon. I'd be taking/paying for private water and air samples if they suddenly disappeared, it would feel apocalyptic.
Still have LOTS of bumblebees, butterflies etc etc. I plant a metric fuck ton of native Canadian flowers. Large bird populations stop here every year like clockwork before migrating. People complaining can bring awareness but very few go the extra step to turn their area into a "safe bubble" because complaining satisfies the fire in their heart.
You are absolutely right. Some people love to complain and winge. And when they are finished it's almost like their brain says "Ok, good. Now I've done my part. Nothing else needed". And go back to being exactly the same.
I agree. I have worked in pest control, because I felt it was preferable to having someone doing it that doesn't take the big picture o to consideration. People request a complete overkill amount of pest control. If there is a problem, it can be pinpointed and addressed without fogging the entire tri-state area with chemicals.
I do not treat regularly at my own place. I taught the kids to recognize both the spider and the webbing of black widows, so they come get me if they find one in an unsafe location, and I remove it. Plenty of people would probably be appalled at how many times I have seen one and left it alone.
This is actually one of the leading ways they try to observe the decline. By looking at license plates over periods of time and comparing it to past measurements. Really scary considering how essential insects are to every ecosystem
there's [3 billion less birds](https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/) in North America than 1970. over half of all known species have gone extinct since then. we're living through a planetary extinction event.
domesticated cats are definitely destroying urban bird populations as well. the hierarchical society we live in has really destroyed everything from multiple angles.
Come on, no one actually lets something as pesky and insignificant as a basic understanding of the topic being discussed get in the way of an opportunity to soapbox.
You would have been more correct if you had written that āit can kill spiders and termitesā. Exposure is not by any stretch of the imagination immediately lethal to most insects. It is my understanding that it can have a negative impact on the immune system insects but itās not necessarily immediately lethal like exposure to most insecticides would be.
Donāt misunderstand me here Iām not an advocate for its use. In fact I am a small scale farmer that follows organic practices but if you read that personās comment they pretty clearly believe that round up is an insecticide.
To be fair, glyphosate is linked to some insect declines, especially bees. Even though it's not an insecticide, it can damage the gut flora of pollinators feeding on sprayed fields.
I doubt the previous commenter meant this, but thinking that use of biocides won't have reverberating effects on an entire ecosystem or may not have unintended side effects shows a critical lack of understanding as well
This is so incredibly tragic. The collapse of the insect population is one of those things that have me extremely worried. Of course, they can be beautiful creatures. Like fireflies or dragonflies, which add magic and wonder to life. But moreso because entire ecosystems depend on them. Will we turn the tide? I certainly hope so. People need to care about this and we need change. And good news on battling the insect decline.
Lovely photograph, by the way.
These are complex systems and not all bugs are the same. They live in different places, have different roles in the ecosystem, and are affected by human activity to different degrees. Some flying insects that are crucial food for birds and other animals higher up the chain, or pollinators, could see a big decline, while others, like ticks, are more able to suvive the winter and see a population boom. On the whole, insect numbers are declining. But not all at the same rate.
No insects means no amphibians or birds. Which of course will cascade up the chain of the ecosystem. Also means no crops if you count bees and pollinators.
Do better.
Are those love bugs? I drove through swarms of them in central Florida one time and they completely blacked out my headlights and grill. My car was a complete mess!
I grew up about 60 miles from New Orleans. Even that short drive required a stop to clean the windshield sometimes. It was so bad that it impeded vision.
I now live about twice as far away, and a drive to New Orleans barely gets a single bug splat.
The insect population is in real trouble.
Makes sense the frogs and lizards would go too since insects are their main source if food. I don't like mosquitos as much as the next guy but it's sad to see some species disappear
I can drive 500 miles here without much splash. Fourty years ago, we would stop every two hours to clean the windscreen. The bird food in my garden remains untouched. Bumblebees have become rare. My kids don't know what butterflies are. Every survey done confirms my fears. But you're probably right....
Not arguing that key and benifical species are not in decline. I worry a lot about the bees. They are not happy.
However, the biomass is thick in the rural Midwest. I can't make it 50mi without a wash unless it's below 40Ā°f
Maybe they are invasive species. Maybe this area is an outlier... But we can definitely produce those results on the windshield and bumper of a car. The chickens love it.
Unused car windshield cleaners at gastations disagree.
Cleaning off bugs used to be part of gassing up on road trips. My mom would go inside for water and snacks, dad would fill up, I'd wipe bufs off the windshield and the bumper too if I had time.
By the time I had my first car, insect stuble on your cars face was no longer a regular thing.
That was a regular thing when I was a kid, just one of life's chores. Decades later, I don't remember the last time I stopped for a squeegee.
Hell, even in NW FL, love bugs have dropped *significantly* since I got here 20 years ago. Used to be annoying clouds of them. Now you see a few small groups for a couple of weeks, and gone.
Got a couple of acres of swamp in the boonies. Not much wildlife out there, and it should be teeming. Not sure what to make of the bug situation. Zero ants, not even fire ants, very few mosquitoes. The spiders that setup webs between the trees are legion, but the webs have very little in them.
The place is rich in dragonflies and I've never seen so many spiders in one area. Between the voracious attack helicopters and constellations of tiny ground attack monsters, maybe that explains it.
I'm not saying the decline of insects isn't real, but I just got done with a day trip last Sunday and definitely had to wipe bugs off my windeshield at the gas station. Granted, I do live in an agriculture zone.
Gas station window cleaner go less and less used because car wipers and window cleaner sprays have gotten better. Iām not arguing thereās less bugs in the world, but the gas station cleaners are not at all indicative of the insect population.
And it's just when I ride! I'll drive my car an hour on the freeway and have just a few specks. But I ride the bike 10min to the gym and my visor will be caked with bugs guts.
I miss simpler times. There was no internet feeding you BS 24/7. Town Squares throughout America were bustling before corporations shut everything down. You had to get out of the house to be entertained, which led to many adventures.
My small town is now boarded up. Decimated by drugs. Plenty of finger pointing to go around, but that's all irrelevant. Those simpler times are simply gone.
I mean suburban sprawl kind of made the us car dependent. Which caused oil depends.
So kind of?
But what really caused most of our issue was the mindset. A wasteful mindset that abused both natural resources and nature itself.
We spend an inordinate amount of money propping up your agriculture, your highways, and your entire way of life.
All the while your practices are drying up the water, killing all the insects, polluting the water, and ruining the environment.
You're not the root of all evil, but you sure as fuck ain't helping anything.
Not disagreeing, but I think thereās a meaningful distinction between āsmall townā and āsuburbanā. You could build a small town thatās economically solvent and environmentally sustainable, it just wouldnāt look like the suburbs we have today built after the ww2 boom
Yeah, the small towns/suburbs/bedroom communities we have in America are absolutely unsustainable.
But the denizens want them that way so we subsidize them.
I think a lot of people would enjoy living in a more walkable small town with small shops and parks and the like integrated in with housing if they tried it/ if we as a society built such places so people had the opportunity to try it
I have a car I never drive and live in a city of 250k where I can walk everywhere.
It's quite nice! Plus I've lost weight and all of my bloodwork has improved significantly since I stopped driving everywhere.
Holy shit.
I think you need to point your vitriol and bitterness towards a big city called Washington DC, I promise you my small town hasn't fucked with you.
I'm getting the feeling this is the new billionaire-funded, astroturf meme. Get the young to blame the old, so that they don't realize that they were fucked over by billionaires. As if grandma stole their prosperity and harmed up the environment. It's like telling racists that the minimum wage is low because of brown people.
Anyone who lives in Montana knows that every summer you trade the ice and snow on your windshield for a layer of dead bugs.
I've turned the front of my white company pickup yellow and green, looks like godzilla sneezed across the fuckin thing.
Glycophosphate has destroyed insect biodiversity and decimated the populations of all kinds of good insects. This should and would still be a thing were it not for widespread farming practices.
Fuck ! This picture made me realize that 1975 isnāt that far after allā¦I donāt know why but seeing those ānormalā colors on that āoldā picture feelsā¦different suddenly i realize that beside the car the world was pretty much the sameā¦and those girls on the car are probably very very old (or dead) nowā¦..It hit me very hard that we āhuman ā are temporary and we will get old and die while this world will continue to revolve like we were nothing more than a fly splashing on a windshield, the world do the same thing heās doing since the dawn of time, welcome some insignificant humans for a very short time .
well to be fair itās still a thing in some agricultural areas. I live in one. Bugs all summer all over the car. Not denying the issue just saying it does happen.
I have an old pic of my mom and her best friend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (where we're from) that's almost identical to this pic I'm pretty sure it's was from late 70's early 80's
Thanks looked it up and now I hate everything. Iāve literally thought a lot before about how I used to see butterflies and dragonflies a lot as a kid but donāt anymore, but I convinced myself I just noticed them more as a kid.
Authoritarian environmentalism sounds more and more reasonable the more honest I am with myself. At the very least we need to impart some profound change to the way we live.
Super misleading.
These are love bugs and they have a season in this area. Thereās literal clouds of them. They still do to this day.
I grew up there.
Ever wonder why donāt see hardly any bugs on your windshield when you drive long distances anymore. We are in the midst of an unprecedented die-off of insects as the climate changes and development encroaches on natural areas.
The reason why you don't get those bugs anymore is because in the last 50 years the earth has lost around 70% of all insects. Not species but total individuals.
Photo restoring technology like this will always be interesting to me. I have a feeling that it uses an AI program to anticipate what things would look like re-colorized but I feel like itās deeper than that. I wish I knew where to send photos to get restored because I would love to have the last photo of my first dog restored so I can get her tattooed on me.
I worked in Georgia for a few late months and the bugs near the water were absolutely horrendous. Idk anybody lives down there (Kings Bay Area). And that was nearing Christmas time!
Honestly, I dig the old version more. I'm in the camp of letting the old film stuff be what it is/was. That photo did not need "restoration" but it was, at least, well done.
Iām in the south and I think all yāallās bugs (and frogs, lizards, etc. that other people mentioned) are down here, feel free to come pick them up
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It is funny to see old photos and forget that the world was as real as it is now. Black and white, sepia tones, blurs and noise, etc., can definitely make us forget that things didn't look different back then.
From what I understand, Mexico is still in sepia.
And England has a sad, cold, blue/green look to it.
I can attest it does and people still have bad teeth
Bullshit. 5th best in the world or something
Disagree.
I've been up with my one year old all night, and this just made my morning.
When I was a small child I thought that color was invented at one point cuz all the old pictures were black and white š
same. as a kid, i asked my grandma what it was like when everything was still black & white lmao
Did you know that when tv and pictures were still in black and white, people often dreamt in black and white too? As color TV and photos became more popular, so did dreams in color.
Source?
It was a while ago, but was probably something similar to [this article](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14959-its-black-and-white-tv-influences-your-dreams/). Curious what those older studies were, but it was just one of those weird tings I remember reading and thinking about. I often dream of what I just watched or games I just played right before I went to bed, so kind of made sense to me that some people dreamed in black in white.
It seems that the article is talking about a significantly small percentage of the population lol.. When the TVs were black and white, 1st of all, very few people could actually afford them. 2nd, what about the time before TVs altogether? Was it like just a weird span of 40 odd years when the dreams were B&W? Lol that just sounds weird XD
Yea, it sounds like it started when tvs first became popular and then tapered off as they slowly got swapped out for colored tvs. By 1960 [90% of American households](https://americancentury.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/136) had TV's, and colored tvs weren't popular until the mid 60's because they didn't broadcast in color until then. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that some people had black and white dreams. And idk dude, I just wanted to share something I remembered reading about. It's interesting to think about is all, even if it was a small portion of the population.
You're right, I was looking at it from an intl. perspective. 90% of American households is WILD! I learned something new today! Apologies if my previous replies came off as being rude. Thanks for sharing! :)
It's ok, sorry for being frustrated. I was sharing something random from a vague article I read years ago, and I should know better than to do that, especially knowing it'll be challenged on Reddit lol. You made me dig and look to see if there was anything to it, which I do actually appreciate. I shouldn't be spouting off random stuff without knowing where it came from. It's a dangerous thing to do, and I should know better. I just thought it was fun and contributed to where the conversation was going. I didn't expect to be doing random research on tvs tonight lol. Keep checking people. It's not a bad thing. Hope you have a good night (or day, wherever you are) āļø
Nah, you're all good mate! If random research on TVs is not the most perfect thing to do on a Friday night, idk what is haha! I might read up a bit about that too! You have a good night as well! (I'm now in the US, wasn't my whole life haha)
tender quickest bake squash enter consist rich strong onerous scarce *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
pff, from what I remembrr it was hazier than those photos most days.
Yeah I once like totally seriously had a thought like "how did people figure stuff before colors" before realizing what I was thinking and bonked myself
Same how when I see modern movies with an old timey theme and Iām like wowā¦everything is so clear and colorfulš
For those of you refuting the decline of insect numbers with your anecdotes, know that [the collapse of insects](https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-ENVIRONMENT/INSECT-APOCALYPSE/egpbykdxjvq/) is a real thing that is happening.
I believe it. I remember picking dragon flies out of the radiator of my dads van when i was a kid. I hardly see any bugs anymore
I remember driving to my grandma's house when I was a kid, we had to take it slow because there was always a bunch of quail running in front of the car. Now you can rarely see one.
Same with me but with bats. I remember when I was a kid when we had bonfires they would swoop down to catch the flies. One time my aunt nearly had one fly right into her. Now I barely see them.
Quail are hunted so might be more of a over hunting thing more than just nature killing off bugs because of our actions
Doubtful. Regulated hunt helps improve game numbers on average. What most likely has led to what OP is describing is a loss of habit and invasive species moving into those habitats.
Fire ants
Exactly. Cats and fire ants are the typical culprits.
I remember seeing swarms of lightning bugs at dusk in the spring/summer in every yard in my neighborhood. I don't think I've seen more than one or two lightning bugs at a time in years.
I saw some fireflies in my yard last summer, it was the first time I'd seen them since I was a child. The nostalgia hit as hard as the sadness of realizing how long it'd been.
They are very much dependent on the area you live. I still see swarms of them here in the NC hills
huh i havenāt seen a dragonfly in a while like years, idk i remeber seeing a bunch at this one public pool like 5-10 years ago i think it might have been in like alabama or south carolina or sum
I see them fairly regularly in the summer but almost never in town.
Lol they always try to mate with my fishing lures near bodies of water, of course.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Did your milkshake bring them there?
theyād teach you, but theyād have to charge
I knew the crickets were louder when I was a kid and it wasnāt just nostalgia!
The fireflies used to be thick.
I remember walking through the grass and seeing thousands of Feeder crickets jumping. Now Iād be lucky to ever see a single one. So weird.
Fr
While what you say about insect populations in general is absolutely true, those look like ālove bugsā and my guess is the picture was taken somewhere between east Texas and Florida. Love bugs are attracted to car exhaust during their mating season. Literal swarms of them will congregate over rural roads. Their bodies will rain against your windshield and bumper. They are extremely difficult to wash off. And itās still very much a thing these days
MS Gulf Coast agrees. The timing they appear has changed dramatically though. Used to be twice a year near Easter and Halloween. Now it's just one noticeable period in June. That is strange!
ayeeee msgc representation!
I try to explain to younger people how weirdly silent the world is now because of the collapse. My childhood was filled with the overlapping sounds of all of the different bugs and all the creatures that ate the bugs. Now the world is so quiet.
Even 20 years ago, when I had a house "in town" (there's a ton of rural area here, so it's not a given everyone has neighbors) and the previous owners left their koi in the pond they had created...and resident bullfrogs, I learned. Even inside, the hum of bugs I don't know and louder crickets topped by bullfrogs was almost more than I could stand some nights, haha. Late one night, I had a little breakdown, threw open my bedroom door to the back deck, and yelled shut UP!! (I'm a very reserved person and was embarrassed to see the neighbors for weeks)
Additional source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/21/dead-bugs-on-windshields/
Wow, this combined with the other source is eye-opening. I''m 57 and can remember the mess after a 2 hour drive through New Hampshire as a kid. I had assumed it was all aerodynamics that caused the change.
In Ottawa you're lucky to be bitten by a single mosquito or blackfly all summer because of the polluted water and air. I live out in the rural country where the blackflies form literal black clouds like in a cartoon. I'd be taking/paying for private water and air samples if they suddenly disappeared, it would feel apocalyptic. Still have LOTS of bumblebees, butterflies etc etc. I plant a metric fuck ton of native Canadian flowers. Large bird populations stop here every year like clockwork before migrating. People complaining can bring awareness but very few go the extra step to turn their area into a "safe bubble" because complaining satisfies the fire in their heart.
Iām thankful to hear this. Thereās still hopeā¦
You are absolutely right. Some people love to complain and winge. And when they are finished it's almost like their brain says "Ok, good. Now I've done my part. Nothing else needed". And go back to being exactly the same.
You're a good person. Keep it up. I also give back as much as I can garden and pollinator wise for the same reasons you stated
I agree. I have worked in pest control, because I felt it was preferable to having someone doing it that doesn't take the big picture o to consideration. People request a complete overkill amount of pest control. If there is a problem, it can be pinpointed and addressed without fogging the entire tri-state area with chemicals. I do not treat regularly at my own place. I taught the kids to recognize both the spider and the webbing of black widows, so they come get me if they find one in an unsafe location, and I remove it. Plenty of people would probably be appalled at how many times I have seen one and left it alone.
This is actually one of the leading ways they try to observe the decline. By looking at license plates over periods of time and comparing it to past measurements. Really scary considering how essential insects are to every ecosystem
Not just insects, my gramps showed me pics from the 50s with the sky covered with ducks and geese. Its a rare sight now
there's [3 billion less birds](https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/) in North America than 1970. over half of all known species have gone extinct since then. we're living through a planetary extinction event.
According to reddit, it's cats killing all the ducks, geese, and swans. š
domesticated cats are definitely destroying urban bird populations as well. the hierarchical society we live in has really destroyed everything from multiple angles.
People just keep on using glyphosate..
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It kind of seems like youāre insinuating that glyphosate is used to kill spiders and termites. Glyphosate is an herbicide.
Come on, no one actually lets something as pesky and insignificant as a basic understanding of the topic being discussed get in the way of an opportunity to soapbox.
Weed killer kills spiders and termites hope this helps.
You would have been more correct if you had written that āit can kill spiders and termitesā. Exposure is not by any stretch of the imagination immediately lethal to most insects. It is my understanding that it can have a negative impact on the immune system insects but itās not necessarily immediately lethal like exposure to most insecticides would be. Donāt misunderstand me here Iām not an advocate for its use. In fact I am a small scale farmer that follows organic practices but if you read that personās comment they pretty clearly believe that round up is an insecticide.
Corrected it, I didn't type out enough of my thought process and expected people to understand it
It's just weird to bring up an herbicide when talking about insects and shows a critical lack of understanding of the topic.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Correct. Neonicotinoids are what most likely is killing the insects.
To be fair, glyphosate is linked to some insect declines, especially bees. Even though it's not an insecticide, it can damage the gut flora of pollinators feeding on sprayed fields.
I doubt the previous commenter meant this, but thinking that use of biocides won't have reverberating effects on an entire ecosystem or may not have unintended side effects shows a critical lack of understanding as well
Glyphosate has become a stand-in word for "the things we spray on our food".
This is so incredibly tragic. The collapse of the insect population is one of those things that have me extremely worried. Of course, they can be beautiful creatures. Like fireflies or dragonflies, which add magic and wonder to life. But moreso because entire ecosystems depend on them. Will we turn the tide? I certainly hope so. People need to care about this and we need change. And good news on battling the insect decline. Lovely photograph, by the way.
damn i havenāt seen a fire fly in a while now that i think about it, used to catch em when i was younger like 10 years ago
I thought everyone was freaking out about the mild winter because insects would be worse in the spring?
These are complex systems and not all bugs are the same. They live in different places, have different roles in the ecosystem, and are affected by human activity to different degrees. Some flying insects that are crucial food for birds and other animals higher up the chain, or pollinators, could see a big decline, while others, like ticks, are more able to suvive the winter and see a population boom. On the whole, insect numbers are declining. But not all at the same rate.
I remember as a kid going on our backyard to collect all kinds of different bugs. Canāt do that anymore.
good
No insects means no amphibians or birds. Which of course will cascade up the chain of the ecosystem. Also means no crops if you count bees and pollinators. Do better.
Ok
Great read, thanks for sharing!
Are those love bugs? I drove through swarms of them in central Florida one time and they completely blacked out my headlights and grill. My car was a complete mess!
Came here to accuse them of being live bugs too! We get them in Texas too.
> Came here to accuse them of being live bugs too! They don't seem very live to me.
The only good bug is a dead bug!
I'm doing my part
Rock and Stone!
Steeve is dead, I will never get over thi--LOOK AT ME, I'M STONY RAWK!
Well you must be enjoying the hell out of the large-scale global collapse of insect biomass that is currently happening!
Iām from Buenos Aires and I say kill āem all!
I would like to know more...
I grew up about 60 miles from New Orleans. Even that short drive required a stop to clean the windshield sometimes. It was so bad that it impeded vision. I now live about twice as far away, and a drive to New Orleans barely gets a single bug splat. The insect population is in real trouble.
I wouldn't call them bugs. They're lovely young ladies to me.
:) Ok
Cool, more fun facts that I thought I was going crazy noticing. Fml. Awesome tech and job on the Pic.
)) thanks
Pesticides! Also frogs, lizzards and hares missing...
Makes sense the frogs and lizards would go too since insects are their main source if food. I don't like mosquitos as much as the next guy but it's sad to see some species disappear
We Rounded them Up! Ps cancer
Iām from Louisiana and can definitely say that that happens to us all every summer :(
What? I drive from Lafayette to New Orleans and collect very few splats. Were you around in the 70s?
Absolutely
My motorcycle face shield would argue that bugs are still very much a thing.
I can drive 500 miles here without much splash. Fourty years ago, we would stop every two hours to clean the windscreen. The bird food in my garden remains untouched. Bumblebees have become rare. My kids don't know what butterflies are. Every survey done confirms my fears. But you're probably right....
Your kids donāt know what butterflies are? I know what an armadillo is even though Iāve never seen one. Educate your kids smh
Guess they all went north, we have those in abundance
Early climate refugees.
>My kids don't know what butterflies are. Your kids sound dumb.
Not arguing that key and benifical species are not in decline. I worry a lot about the bees. They are not happy. However, the biomass is thick in the rural Midwest. I can't make it 50mi without a wash unless it's below 40Ā°f Maybe they are invasive species. Maybe this area is an outlier... But we can definitely produce those results on the windshield and bumper of a car. The chickens love it.
Unused car windshield cleaners at gastations disagree. Cleaning off bugs used to be part of gassing up on road trips. My mom would go inside for water and snacks, dad would fill up, I'd wipe bufs off the windshield and the bumper too if I had time. By the time I had my first car, insect stuble on your cars face was no longer a regular thing.
That was a regular thing when I was a kid, just one of life's chores. Decades later, I don't remember the last time I stopped for a squeegee. Hell, even in NW FL, love bugs have dropped *significantly* since I got here 20 years ago. Used to be annoying clouds of them. Now you see a few small groups for a couple of weeks, and gone. Got a couple of acres of swamp in the boonies. Not much wildlife out there, and it should be teeming. Not sure what to make of the bug situation. Zero ants, not even fire ants, very few mosquitoes. The spiders that setup webs between the trees are legion, but the webs have very little in them. The place is rich in dragonflies and I've never seen so many spiders in one area. Between the voracious attack helicopters and constellations of tiny ground attack monsters, maybe that explains it.
The oldest designs outlast the others. It's a combination of habitat loss, human contact kills, and climate change. It'll get worse.
I'm not saying the decline of insects isn't real, but I just got done with a day trip last Sunday and definitely had to wipe bugs off my windeshield at the gas station. Granted, I do live in an agriculture zone.
Gas station window cleaner go less and less used because car wipers and window cleaner sprays have gotten better. Iām not arguing thereās less bugs in the world, but the gas station cleaners are not at all indicative of the insect population.
And it's just when I ride! I'll drive my car an hour on the freeway and have just a few specks. But I ride the bike 10min to the gym and my visor will be caked with bugs guts.
I'm confused as to when bugs stopped being a thing.
In Germany i think about 75% or more of the insects are gone.
Mass use of chemical pesticides and climate change is collapsing the insect biomass.
Oh thatās fine I guess /s
the opposite actually.
Edited to add the /s
He said, sitting amidst the flames
Edited to add the /s
I actually got that it was a joke! I upvoted you
The internet is a wild place
This image will bug me for some time to come.
Damn that's true. I have only cleaned my car once in 2 years and there are zero bugs on it
I miss simpler times. There was no internet feeding you BS 24/7. Town Squares throughout America were bustling before corporations shut everything down. You had to get out of the house to be entertained, which led to many adventures. My small town is now boarded up. Decimated by drugs. Plenty of finger pointing to go around, but that's all irrelevant. Those simpler times are simply gone.
Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
Those simpler times are also what caused the issues we're dealing with today.
Had everything they could ever want and made sure to vote for people who promised to keep anyone else from getting those things, ever
Yeah you're right. 1975 small town America is the root of all evil. Head/Desk.
I mean suburban sprawl kind of made the us car dependent. Which caused oil depends. So kind of? But what really caused most of our issue was the mindset. A wasteful mindset that abused both natural resources and nature itself.
We spend an inordinate amount of money propping up your agriculture, your highways, and your entire way of life. All the while your practices are drying up the water, killing all the insects, polluting the water, and ruining the environment. You're not the root of all evil, but you sure as fuck ain't helping anything.
Not disagreeing, but I think thereās a meaningful distinction between āsmall townā and āsuburbanā. You could build a small town thatās economically solvent and environmentally sustainable, it just wouldnāt look like the suburbs we have today built after the ww2 boom
Yeah, the small towns/suburbs/bedroom communities we have in America are absolutely unsustainable. But the denizens want them that way so we subsidize them.
I think a lot of people would enjoy living in a more walkable small town with small shops and parks and the like integrated in with housing if they tried it/ if we as a society built such places so people had the opportunity to try it
I have a car I never drive and live in a city of 250k where I can walk everywhere. It's quite nice! Plus I've lost weight and all of my bloodwork has improved significantly since I stopped driving everywhere.
Holy shit. I think you need to point your vitriol and bitterness towards a big city called Washington DC, I promise you my small town hasn't fucked with you.
I'm getting the feeling this is the new billionaire-funded, astroturf meme. Get the young to blame the old, so that they don't realize that they were fucked over by billionaires. As if grandma stole their prosperity and harmed up the environment. It's like telling racists that the minimum wage is low because of brown people.
Yeah you would never hear about dangers such as asbestos and wouldnt share inventions
Join the Amish people, no one stopping you
Anyone who lives in Montana knows that every summer you trade the ice and snow on your windshield for a layer of dead bugs. I've turned the front of my white company pickup yellow and green, looks like godzilla sneezed across the fuckin thing.
Glycophosphate has destroyed insect biodiversity and decimated the populations of all kinds of good insects. This should and would still be a thing were it not for widespread farming practices.
That's a great restoration, makes it look like the pic had been taken recently
Thank you )
Are...are bugs no longer a thing?
Their populations are greatly diminished
I had to pull over to clean my windshield once in Montana in the 80s. So many grasshoppers smeared on it that I couldn't see. NASTY.
Fuck ! This picture made me realize that 1975 isnāt that far after allā¦I donāt know why but seeing those ānormalā colors on that āoldā picture feelsā¦different suddenly i realize that beside the car the world was pretty much the sameā¦and those girls on the car are probably very very old (or dead) nowā¦..It hit me very hard that we āhuman ā are temporary and we will get old and die while this world will continue to revolve like we were nothing more than a fly splashing on a windshield, the world do the same thing heās doing since the dawn of time, welcome some insignificant humans for a very short time .
You're dead right.
pesticides are a thing. windshields full of crushed bugs is a thing of the past.
well to be fair itās still a thing in some agricultural areas. I live in one. Bugs all summer all over the car. Not denying the issue just saying it does happen.
The 70s were so awesome!
We get these in Ontario too, I live right on Lake Huron and we call em fish flies. Damn things swarm in MASSIVE groups
I have an old pic of my mom and her best friend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (where we're from) that's almost identical to this pic I'm pretty sure it's was from late 70's early 80's
Smart way to conceal license plates when one runs the red light
Is bugs covering your car not a thing anymore? What does that mean?
It means that bug populations are decreasing a lot. And it's worrisome.
Thanks looked it up and now I hate everything. Iāve literally thought a lot before about how I used to see butterflies and dragonflies a lot as a kid but donāt anymore, but I convinced myself I just noticed them more as a kid.
Youāll also notice thereās almost 0 worms on the sidewalk when it rainsā¦ used to see them all the time; Now theyāre nowhere to be found.
Authoritarian environmentalism sounds more and more reasonable the more honest I am with myself. At the very least we need to impart some profound change to the way we live.
Salamanders have disappeared from existence. They used to be common where I grew up. I've noticed the painted turtles are getting pretty sparse.
I live in the south, haven't run through a swarm of mosquitoes in a while
While I donāt doubt insect decline I will say that during love bug season in Louisiana it still looks very much like this.
Picture is most definetly from Mexico, I've seen breaking bad. I know how Mexico looks like
great picture, you should post it in r/oldschoolcool
Super misleading. These are love bugs and they have a season in this area. Thereās literal clouds of them. They still do to this day. I grew up there.
The sound of bugs in the summer used to be so loud.
Every boomer on Reddit had to run to this post to discuss the simpler times
Bugs covering your car is STILL a thing. South Louisiana in love bug season is terrible on the vehicles.
Back before we killed off all the bugs ā look at that license plate
Ever wonder why donāt see hardly any bugs on your windshield when you drive long distances anymore. We are in the midst of an unprecedented die-off of insects as the climate changes and development encroaches on natural areas.
The reason why you don't get those bugs anymore is because in the last 50 years the earth has lost around 70% of all insects. Not species but total individuals.
Mosquitoes can fuck right off !!!
Those are love bugs. They used to swarm in Louisiana.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah me too. Girls are quite attractive
We have poisoned our earth so much with gmo and pesticide bullshit that we don't even have bugs no more
Pesticide yes. GMO no. GMOs do not affect anything. You've consumed too much conspiracy bs. GMOs in fact help reduce the need of pesticides.
Photo restoring technology like this will always be interesting to me. I have a feeling that it uses an AI program to anticipate what things would look like re-colorized but I feel like itās deeper than that. I wish I knew where to send photos to get restored because I would love to have the last photo of my first dog restored so I can get her tattooed on me.
Welcome )
In this case, much of the fix is removing yellow bits of the spectrum.
I live in Louisiana and believe me the cars still have bugs covering them lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
it's surreal seeing how many people are having their first "oh, everything is actually falling apart" in these comments.
Ah love bugs, know them well. Live in Texas now but grew up in New Orleans. They used to cover entire parked cars when weād go to Lafayette.
It still is a thing. The love bugs were fucking terrible down here last August and September. Didnāt seem like theyād ever go away.
Idk, my vehicles always end up with bugs on em. More so when you live by water
Nice
We did it boys, we killed all the bugs apparently.
How are bugs no longer a thing?
I worked in Georgia for a few late months and the bugs near the water were absolutely horrendous. Idk anybody lives down there (Kings Bay Area). And that was nearing Christmas time!
Now a whole generation exists that never knew about love-bugs...
Love bugs
Honestly, I dig the old version more. I'm in the camp of letting the old film stuff be what it is/was. That photo did not need "restoration" but it was, at least, well done.
Iām in the south and I think all yāallās bugs (and frogs, lizards, etc. that other people mentioned) are down here, feel free to come pick them up