Mankind's transportation impact on bugs

[Mike Sal]

The other post reminded me of something I've always been curious about. What impact have we humans had on the world's biology since we been mass killing bugs with our transportation devices since the 1850's? Before we figured out how to put a steam engine on wheels, we had nothing that would go fast enough to kill a flying insect. Now, we kill billions every day with our car windshields, trains, airplanes, etc.

If man hadn't invented faster ways to travel (and the resulting splattering of bugs), would we have been taken over by the bugs by now?? What other creatures, who eat bugs, have we pushed into extinction because we kill so many?

loosing sleep over the silliest things,
Mike Sal

[345 DeSoto]

I don't know about where YOU live, but where I do, the starlings have homed in on running up and down the shoulders of the road, and scarfing up dead bugs that cars have hit...

[DEEPNHOCK]

We could not affect the human to bug percentage if we tried.
80% of the living creatures on this planet are bugs.
We are just lucky they let us live here....

https://psep.cce.cornell.edu/Tutoria...e12/index.aspx

[Dick Steinkamp]

We could not affect the human to bug percentage if we tried.

We are trying, and we are succeeding! (not so much with windshields, however)



"Three-quarters of the world’s crops—including fruits, grains and nuts—depend on pollination, and the insects responsible are disappearing"

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...op-crisis-738/

"Between 1989 and 2016, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, the biomass of flying insects captured in these regions decreased by a seasonal average of 76 percent."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.3d4b8307ed98

"A Growing Crisis: Insects are Disappearing — And Fast"

https://www.triplepundit.com/2016/07...ppearing-fast/



Disclaimer...I'm a beekeeper and prejudice.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Yes, we are messing up our food source by screwing up the bee's.
But that means nothing to the bugs (including the bee's).
They will be here long after we have been self exterminated.
Follow the money.. Studies=money. Crisis = Money
Bugs don't read. Bugs are bugs.

We are trying, and we are succeeding! (not so much with windshields, however)



"Three-quarters of the world’s crops—including fruits, grains and nuts—depend on pollination, and the insects responsible are disappearing"

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/could-disappearing-wild-insects-trigger-a-global-crop-crisis-738/

"Between 1989 and 2016, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, the biomass of flying insects captured in these regions decreased by a seasonal average of 76 percent."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/10/18/this-is-very-alarming-flying-insects-vanish-from-nature-preserves/?utm_term=.3d4b8307ed98

"A Growing Crisis: Insects are Disappearing — And Fast"

https://www.triplepundit.com/2016/07/a-growing-crisis-insects-are-disappearing-fast/

Disclaimer...I'm a beekeeper and prejudice.

[Dick Steinkamp]

Follow the money..

I would agree but I would guess (remember I'm prejudice) that there is more money at stake at Monsanto, ADM, Dow, Dupont, Bayer, and corporate agriculture than in bug research. Just a guess.

[sweetolbob]

DowDupont for accuracy. I do believe that most corporations do better at hiring folks and developing new products when they earn a profit for their efforts.

Bob

[Dick Steinkamp]

DowDupont for accuracy. I do believe that most corporations do better at hiring folks and developing new products when they earn a profit for their efforts.

Bob

I would agree with that also. Not much profit in bug research.

[tim333]

Since when do insects bounce off a windshield and end up on the side of the road as bird seed?

[Buzzard]

Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug

Songwriters: Mark Knopfler

[RadioRoy]

Another significant impact we have had on bugs is transporting them out of their native habitats and into other parts of the world that they could not normally reach by themselves. We have also done that with animals and plants - often/usually with dipterous results.