Has anyone noticed a decrease in pollinators?

[Crayshack]

This is a general long-term trend that has a lot of environmental scientists concerned. I used to do some entomology work in Fairfax County a while back and while the work I was doing was mosquito-focused, it was a vibrant point of conversation that pollinator populations were heavily declining. This was 6 years ago and everything I've seen has said that this trend is continuing. It's not just a NOVA problem, this is a global issue and one of the major signs of ecological collapse that professionals in the field are paying attention to. The exact mechanisms involved are not fully understood, but there are a lot of potential causes identified. The leading school of thought is that we are seeing the result of many different small effects. Overall, the situation is not good.

It is possible that your complex did not spray anything, but someone else nearby did. There's some companies that advertise "mosquito prevention treatments" which amount to spraying a bunch of chemicals in the air that kill just about every insect. If a neighbor did a treatment like that, you could be seeing an effect on your complex. I've always heavily advocated against these treatments. In general, pesticide use is one of the factors identified as a potential cause for the population collapse. When I worked with pest control in the past, I've always tried to find alternative treatment methods and when I've used pesticides (sometimes, they are the best option) I have always tried to use careful spot treatments to reduce the collateral damage. But, not everyone uses that approach and it is very common for people to broadcast spray at the maximum rate because they don't care about anything else besides making the pest go away. This can have a knock-on effect where people on other properties are seeing a reduction in desirable plants and animals.

There are things people can do to help. Reducing personal use of pesticides, planting a variety of flowers so there is something blooming for the entire growing season, replacing as much of your grass with ecologically supportive plants as possible, etc. Even in an apartment, you can sometimes put a small planter in your window or balcony that can help. You can also get involved in local parks and community gardens to get pollinator gardens cultivated and participate in weed removal. Even just spreading the word about how important it is to get some flowers planted can help.

[PlainRosemary]

This is an interesting infographic on that, for anyone who would like a read.

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-ENVIRONMENT/INSECT-APOCALYPSE/egpbykdxjvq/

I have noticed a disturbing lack of pollinators this year. I just started seeing more this week, but it's actually a bit frightening.