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Where'd the crickets go?

 
steward
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I have zero crickets making noise at night in my area.  Both in town and out in the country by my house.  It's eerily quiet at night.  To be fair, I hadn't really noticed until a friend mentioned it tonight, I'm just not outside after dark much.

I hope it's just my area...
 
steward
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I have not see crickets, either though that might not be unusual for me.

Last night I saw a lot of flickering outside about 11 oclock.

We had a swarm of lightning bugs ...
 
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THey were really loud here last night.
 
Steward of piddlers
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I am glad to report that I have seen my fair share of crickets and grasshoppers this year in the Northeast.

It has been a good year for lightning bugs as well.
 
Mike Haasl
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Good, hopefully it's just my area.  I'll have to talk to a natural resources person and see if they know what's going on.
 
gardener
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I haven't seen much for crickets, but I have seen my fair share of grasshoppers and lightning bugs.
 
pollinator
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Mike Haasl wrote:Good, hopefully it's just my area.  I'll have to talk to a natural resources person and see if they know what's going on.



We typically start seeing and hearing them on the latter side of the summer, so that may be one factor as we are in a similar region.  But for sure, there are odd things happening this year with bugs.  Knocking on wood before I type this, but we've not had a single Colorado potato beetle this year on our potato vines.  Given that we are in a fairly major large agricultural region for potato production, this is rather surprising.  More worrisome is the lack of Monarch butterflies.  Loads of milkweed on the property for them, but no sign of butterfly or caterpillar.  The other less welcomed critters are abundant---mosquitoes, biting and house flies, wood ticks, etc., but the toad and bat populations are having a field day!  The chickens are anxious for grasshopper season to arrive.. ;-)
 
master pollinator
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Here I have been seeing lots of crickets. I can't hear them over the cacophony of cicadas though...
 
Rusticator
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I think they may have all moved to Missouri...
 
pollinator
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Crickets are down this year.  Do crickets have a cycle like rabbits with population explosions and fall offs?  Guessing they do.

Other changes.

We used to have huge quantities of paper wasps.  Those nests have been nearly entire replace with european yellow jackets in the last decade.  I almost never see a paper wasp now.

scorpion numbers are way down.

black ants(grease variety are way up.)

40 years ago nearly all the ant hills were the larger red and black ants.  Today all those same hills are the smaller red ants.  I can only find 2 nests of the red and black ones currently and they are living in different areas than they used too,.

Dragonfly numbers are way down too.

Bat numbers are up.

Here rabbit numbers are almost non existant but we were 3 years past normal collapse point when they poofed late last summer or early last fall so this one was expected.

Sunflower numbers are down.
 
gardener
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Good question.  This is something that has been weighing on my mind, too few bugs (at least the good ones).  Finally saw my first Monarch just the other day and only one Tiger swallowtail about a week before that.
Would like to see more fireflies, though they seem to be doing a bit better than years past.  Plenty of mosquitos, deerflies & ticks (of course), however slugs have been scarce this year.

I've been using the "windshield factor" as my measuring-stick for insects. When I was a kid, we'd have to clean the bugs off the windshield every fill-up.  I rarely have to clean my windshield at all now.
I also remember not being able to sleep at night due to all the cricket chatter. That's not a problem these days.

 
 
gardener
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The only crickets I’ve seen are camel crickets so far, none of the ordinary black crickets and no grasshoppers.

Lots of rabbits, gigantic amounts of fireflies, some dragonflies, only a few monarchs. Plenty of bats too.

Slugs are everywhere and have been for years, at least in my ecosystem.

I am outside at night every night so I would hear and see some of the more night-active beings.

It seems as if the people further north are less likely to be hearing crickets. Maybe the harsh winter killed them off?
 
M Ljin
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I went out and saw some regular black crickets today, this afternoon. Some of them were singing. I think maybe they just weren’t out yet, at least here.
 
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There are too many grasshoppers. I live in a development that used to be a farm. There are no worms in my soil so I know there is a dysbios going on.  I’m trying to remedy that by planting various mustard seeds in dead grass.
 
M Ljin
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Anne Barnsworth wrote:There are too many grasshoppers. I live in a development that used to be a farm. There are no worms in my soil so I know there is a dysbios going on.  I’m trying to remedy that by planting various mustard seeds in dead grass.



Welcome to Permies!

I have noticed that sawdust is very good for the worms. When I add sawdust on top of the soil the worms begin jumping and wriggling through. If you mix it with twigs and leaves then you can sow King Stropharia mushrooms too. Comfrey should also help for encouraging worms.

I wish you luck with your gardening efforts!
 
gardener
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Anne Barnsworth wrote:There are too many grasshoppers. I live in a development that used to be a farm. There are no worms in my soil so I know there is a dysbios going on.  I’m trying to remedy that by planting various mustard seeds in dead grass.



Welcome to permies, Anne!  
 
pollinator
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wherever the crickets are, I suspect the Australian Christmas beetles are with 'em.  Haven't seen one for a couple of years now.
 
Mike Haasl
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I've started seeing and hearing crickets in the last couple weeks so I must just now be learning how nature works.  They probably just had to hatch and grow and that took til August...
 
pollinator
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The crickets were so loud last night when I went outside that I couldn't hear my tinnitus !!!
 
Joylynn Hardesty
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Now that is a healthy population of crickets!
 
gardener
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Moths aren't around my house this year. Usually the cats are on the front porch attacking the night bugs. This year an unusual absence.
 
pollinator
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Plenty of older evidence regarding The “windshield phenomenon”

A. Karim Ahmed, Ph.D.

(National Council for Science and the Environment; University of Connecticut Health Center; Board Member, IREJN)

The “windshield phenomenon” it is called – not seeing the splatter of flying insects on one’s car’s windshield as warm weather returns. And it appears to be a worldwide phenomena. Scientists in several regions of the Europe and North America have noticed an alarming reduction of insect population in their midst. This has major implications for both the biotic world and human society.



https://www.irejn.org/the-windshield-phenomenon-where-have-all-the-insects-gone/
 
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