I camped up on the plateau last night. First time camping in maybe 8 years and haven’t camped up there in closer to 40. It was weird though. No crickets. No tree frogs. That iconic wall of noise at night. Gone.
The only sounds were intermittent motorcycles, trucks, trains, barges and planes. Everything you don’t want to hear and none of the things you do.
It was depressing. It’s been bothering me all day and we had them last year. Is it just my area or is this the new norm?
It’s seasonal. Crickets become most active in warm humid weather. Particularly warm nights above 70F.
And yea, it’s not uncommon to not hear the predator(frog) when you can’t hear any prey.
A few years ago, during the spring and summer I’d wake up at 4:30-6 in the morning to the sound of birds. Now it’s quiet. I don’t think I know anyone else who has noticed or cares.
All I hear are the sounds of motors… I hate motors.
It makes me sad and feeling a bit empty.
I came down from the hill at about 3:15am listening to the American Robins sing their song and the Northern Cardinals calling out their territories. Occasionally, a wood thrush could be heard. It was nice, and I wanted to stay, but I wanted coffee too…
We have a few Eastern Barred Owls that live somewhere on the plateau. I haven’t found their roost yet, but I see them a lot. I did not hear them last night to fix a location.
Don’t despair there are small and real things you can do to get insects back in your own yard. Last year I had fireflies in my urban yard. We haven’t sprayed any herbicides, fertilizer or pesticides in a few years. We have planted a few natives and put clover in our lawn. The insects were quick to come to us. So much so our neighbors commented and planted some wildflowers in their hell strip. We got a grant to plant more this year (198 2" seedlings). So you can do something.
There’s more lawn than national parks by surface area in the USA and they have the largest resource use. Be the change
No clover. Too shady, but I did look into it. Had to go with a shade/drought tolerant grass. I planted shade wildflowers and they just germinated. If the deer don’t eat them, I might just plant them these here two bags of cereal rye in return.
Actually, our house stands apart on our street for the very reasons you describe. We’re those weirdos too. Lotta stone. Lotta stumps. Lotta plant life. Lotta natural. No pesticides. Nice to meet you. Grats on your grant. That would be pretty cool.
Shade flowers are tough because most are up in the spring but we planted a few. I used Prairie Moon to research my selections but bought from elsewhere. I planted 198 seedlings. Luckily the rest of the area is pretty native friendly so it’s been to push back. Lot of happy people asking questions when planting
This native plant finder can help you find native plants that will attract the insects and other life you’re hoping to entice. The associations listed are the research results of Doug Tallamy and other researchers. And as Tallamy says, plant for specialist insects and you’ll attract generalists as well.
Off the top of my head, plants like canadian ginger, serviceberries, purple flowering raspberries (R. odoratus), and members of the worts can do a lot of restoration work in moderate to deep shade. Having a patch of grass that doesn’t get mowed is a huge boon to many insects, as is leaving any mowed grass clippings around other plants as mulch. Lightning bugs in particular require grass debris or patches where it got so long it fell over to complete their life cycle.
Thanks for the plant finder. There were clearly a few things missing from the list, but it was correct in the results that showed as I was familiar with most. Over half are growing up there right now, though not so well. It’s just a rough patch of property.
I went with a lawn grass that is drought and shade resistant. I pick up our 150lb mulch mower and carry it up the hill manually. It’s awful and brutal, but the back can endure it so far. The first patch got mowed last Saturday at it’s 30 day mark, and looks fan-fuggin-tastic. Have to see how it holds when the dry season hits. We got skimped on our rain last week, and everything started drying out. I had to lug 45 gallons of water up the hill manually to water the new patch with a watering can.
Here in Georgia (US), as recently as last summer, there was tons of wildlife noise when I’d open my windows at night. I couldn’t Identify most of it…just your usual call-and-response mating behavior, an owl once in a while. This year, it’s just dead silent. Daytime is almost as striking, but that’s because last year was locusts.
You have crickets this time of year where you are? We don’t see them in my area until July or August (they come after the fireflies, which we’ll get in a couple of weeks).
Still, I agree with you. Fewer insects all around.
I’m just west of Pittsburgh, PA. I sure do hope that’s all it is. I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it until I did not hear it last night. Honestly, I remember having crickets before school would let out for the summer. We’d usually do a camp out before school ended and everyone went on vacation.
Been seeing a lot of birds. Lot of spiders. Tons of ants. and a metric ton of chipmonks. (They ate my catnip, by the way). Insects in general are down, but not gone. Scorpion flies just came out. I did see a male and a female within the last week just chilling out on some American Jumpseed.
The urge to leave began with the idea of cricket song. Dex couldn’t pinpoint where the affinity had come from. Maybe it’d been a movie they watched, or a museum exhibit. Some multimedia art show that sprinkled in nature sounds, perhaps. They’d never lived anywhere with cricket song, yet once they registered its absence in the City’s soundscape, it couldn’t be ignored. They noted it while they tended the Meadow Den Monastery’s rooftop garden, as was their vocation. It’d be nicer here if there were some crickets, they thought as they raked and weeded. Oh, there were plenty of bugs—butterflies and spiders and beetles galore, all happy little synanthropes whose ancestors had decided the City was preferable to the chaotic fields beyond its border walls. But none of these creatures chirped. None of them sang. They were city bugs and therefore, by Dex’s estimation, inadequate.
This is from the first page of A Psalm For The Wild Built by Becky Chambers. Your post reminded me of it, you may enjoy reading it.
I did enjoy it. Thanks for posting it. I’m considering bringing Tool - Aenima up with me tonight just to put on Disgustipated for the 20 minutes of crickets. I know the affinity of a good cricket song.
This is the new norm, those animals are simply gone.
Well, crickets are insects, and tree frogs are amphibians, but you’re saying this is a world-wide thing?
They are all in the kingdom of animalia. And yes, we are in the midst of a mass extinction event.
I didn’t think bugs were considered animals, but I do stand corrected. Bugs are animals.
Sad to hear… The extinction event I mean… Not the taxonomy thing.
It doesnt matter what their class is. The climate is changing rapidly. Everything is dying. The niches will be refilled in a couple hundred thousand years.
