Love’s Labour’s Lost; maybe.

Lovebugs Are Dwindling

Beege Welborn, HotAir:

No, I'm not talking about millennials and their problems with communicating and forming relationships with other human beings.

I am talking about the clouds of insects peculiar to north Florida and the Panhandle in the summertime.

When we first got down here from Norf Cacklelackey in July of '99, my aunt was living over in Destin and able to fill us in on most things regarding Panhandle life. 

The one thing she said that was absolutely foreign to us was when she said how lucky we were to get here before "the lovebugs started their swarming." Having never heard of such things, it didn't sound too awful, and, sincerely, how bad can something with "love" in the name be?

Well, it turns out we had decades to look forward to of big gooey messes on our vehicles from said tiny, amorous insects. You never really see a lovebug - about a half-inch long, skinny, black with a red cape flying beetle sort of critter - until it's attached to another one in...well...that sort of way. 

And it's not one. It's hundreds, if not thousands, all managing tandem mating flights in a huge cloud of insectoid reproductive frenzy.

The swarms invariably are attracted to roadways and wind up splattering your vehicle from stem to stern, sometimes in impressive amounts of displaced bodily bug fluids, as you try to maintain vision through your windshield.

…..

But now it seems Science™ has zeroed in on the lovebugs as a poster child for Global Boiling. I have to admit, until I read this article, I hadn't realized the dearth of lovebugs lately, but, indeed, there...haven't been any.

Welborn:

…. The author explains that the lovebug, a "march fly species called Plecia nearctica," only lives for three or four days and spends up to twelve hours of those precious few days doing what comes naturally.

“The lady being interviewed has noticed that there are far fewer of them now frolicking than there used to be and worries that the little flies have flown into the great "unexplained."

...In a trend scientists say poses risks to all ecosystems, 40% of all insects are declining globally in “the insect apocalypse.” The lovebug, whose loss across Florida remains unexplained, joins them.

Welborn:

Forty percent of all bugs are 'declining,' huh?

I sure hope Science™ and the author will forgive my skepticism as I am fresh off relief that their bee colony apocalypse hysteria turned out to be so much overwrought hyperbole. I'll hold off sweating "40%" of bugs going bye-bye.

...Beekeepers adjusted to colony collapse. They divided remaining colonies to make new hives. Bee numbers increased by millions.

“We’re not in any way facing an apocalypse,” says Science journalist Jon Entine. “Things have never been better in terms of the numbers of bees.”

Entine runs the Genetic Literacy Project, which challenges scientific misinformation.

I remind him that the media continue to run scare stories.

“Bees are dying at an alarming rate,” says NBC.

CNN headlines: “Bee Population is Dying ... the food we eat is at risk.”

It’s so stupid. 

“They could have just Googled bee population and they would’ve seen them going up?” I ask.

“Absolutely,” responds Entine, “it’s farcical.”

The article bangs the climate cult drum...

...Behind the decline of insects lies human harm. Habitat degradation, pollution, pesticides and other stressors have insects facing “death by a thousand cuts.” 

Climate change, which is shifting global temperatures, rainfall patterns and seasons, threatens to deepen these cuts. For insects, which can’t generate body heat and might live out the entirety of their adulthood in the span of a day, even slight environmental fluctuations can disrupt life cycles, ranges and access to host plants. 

.… The lovebug began its love affair with the Southern United States in 1940, flying in from its original home in Central America and reaching Florida in 1949. ….

But now, alas ….

...Lovebugs may find their synchrony disrupted because of the warming climate, which could alter their seasonal peaks and allow them to extend their range north. Because lovebugs hail from the tropics, North and Central Florida will likely become less favorable to them, Leppla said, as the local climate becomes more temperate and less tropical. Changing moisture conditions could also spell trouble for the bugs, which rely on a particular range of soil moisture. Drying grasslands or heavier rains affect their ability to survive.

FWIW: Global warming is causing Florida to be less tropical? My guess is that: (a) most Floridians would welcome a relief from tropical summers — thanks, global warming (?); (b) they won’t miss these invasive beetles mashing against their windshields; and (c) the word of the lovebug’s demise is as exaggerated as that of the humble bee, who refused to listen to “experts”, and stayed right where they were, never leaving.