Losing Bugs

THE BAD NEWS IS, the insect kingdom is disappearing. there is no good news. We've been told for years that frogs and butterflies, both fragile animals, both indicators of overall environmental health by virtue of their sensitivity to subtle changes in their surroundings, are declining in numbers. many non scientists have observed this first hand. I have. I simply don't see the same number and variety of butterflies flitting about any given garden that I did, say, when I was a kid fifty years ago. And now, it seems, there go the insects, all species. this, from the entomologists, who are real scientists, and pay close attention to their insect subjects. The percipient ones have been noticing the decline especially throughout Europe, where there is no wilderness, where every square inch of real estate is spoken for, specifically allocated for purpose, manicured, groomed, assiduously managed. When something, anything about the land changed in Europe, like insect abundance, folks notice. In Europe, insects are disappearing. its also happening in America, and therefore more than likely everywhere, since, as all Americans know that the world follows America. What this means is, we're doomed. The human species cannot survive without insects, which constitute more than ninety nine percent of the planet's bio mass. Everybody knows about the problem with bees. They're disappearing. All over America, Americans, bless them, are doing something about it. They're nurturing beehives, and starting new colonies. Bees still have a chance. Something like seventy five percent of our food supply requires pollination from bees and other insects. We had better begin bringing back insects generally, somehow. Oh, those halcyon nineteen sixties summer evenings of my childhood, when jar in hand we set out catching fireflies and wearing them like burning rings on our fingers. Now I wish I'd let 'em alone. But, you know how kids are. In a word, brutal. Now, I don't see as many lightning bugs in the summer. Recently, in the midst of yet another of our all too frequent droughts, here in our "new normal" climate, I noticed a little toad hopping around in my yard, near my driveway, in and out of my garage. He was cute. I hoped and assumed, perhaps wrongly, that he has a water source, somewhere. Then, one horrible day, I ran over him with my car, barely. He sat there in my driveway. still alive, staring blankly, his guts hanging out. Guilt and grief stricken, I ended his suffering. I'm still trying to end mine.