Kat (00:01)
Hi Tiffany. How you doing?

Tiffany (00:02)
Woo, I'm feeling mighty burnt out, but that's all right.

Kat (00:08)
yeah.

Well, okay, I will say if you're feeling burnt out, the way through is not through. It is down, right? The way through is float, like don't push. So that would be my advice. Like your body is telling you I'm going to shut you down physically if you don't listen to me. And I know that there's no escape. I know that like, you know, when your doctor's like, just reduce stress, you're like, sure. Give me a million dollars.

Tiffany (00:17)
Very true.

Yeah.

Yes.

Kat (00:38)
Or, you know, fix our healthcare system or turn off the news. but yeah,

Tiffany (00:41)
Mm.

No, it's true. That is very good advice. Because, yeah, sometimes my brain's like, I need to push more. It's like so stupid. Yeah.

Kat (00:54)
Don't hustle, nap,

sleep, recharge. Sit in your beautiful garden.

Tiffany (00:58)
Yes.

Yeah, I actually just went out tonight because I needed garden time and it's glorious.

Kat (01:06)
Perfect.

Yeah. That's the best thing for you.

Tiffany (01:10)
Yeah, it's so great. Yes.

Kat (01:13)
Well speaking of gardens,

we're kinda we're gonna talk about that tonight. do you have fireflies?

Tiffany (01:21)
Mm-hmm. We have a bunch.

Kat (01:23)
Do you? We don't in Texas anymore. We used to. We had yes, I I have seen two this summer. ten years ago, twenty years ago, thirty years ago when I was coming to Texas in the summers. You could just see them. You know, and in wooden wooded areas, they're they're more common. But this is another thing you may have noticed. If if you have draw draw driven across the country, any country in the US

Tiffany (01:28)
I think you've mentioned this and that makes me sad.

Wow.

Kat (01:54)
Europe, Africa, anywhere. In the past ten years you may have noticed that you haven't had to stop to clean your windshield very much. I have noticed this 'cause I used to drive back and forth between Austin and Albuquerque, about six hundred miles. When I was growing up and we drove between Albuquerque and Texas, it was about, you know, sixteen hours and definitely the windshield was disgusting. That is no longer the case. So it sounds like a nice problem to have.

Right? Like windshield's clean. But it's actually super, super scary. the implications of insect decline are not great for life on our planet. All life. All life.

Tiffany (02:23)
Mm.

Yeah.

Kat (02:39)
So this week we're gonna talk about what do insects actually do? Why should we be worried about that clean windshield? And what can you do about it? So let's dive in. Welcome to Greening Up My Act.

Awesome. Yeah.

I I think this is this is this is kind of a downer of a topic. but there was a lot of kind of uplifting stuff. I feel like the people who research this stuff are really positive. So

Tiffany (03:28)
that's awesome. I thought about it

today and I felt pretty sad because I was looking at my own windshield and I was thinking like you don't ever really need to like go to the gas station and use those little squeegee things.

Kat (03:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

No. Mm mm. I mean for me it's just dust or like rain. I'd you know, if my car gets rained on, I need to go clean the windshield. But other than that, no no bugs. You know. Yeah. so if you're new here, we should tell you who we are. Tiffany, who are we greening up my act?

Tiffany (03:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Whose act are we greening up? Our own, I think. Yeah, we are two normal people.

Kat (04:07)
Whose act are we grading up? That's a good that's a good question. Yes. Mm.

Tiffany (04:20)
And I saw this really, this is a tangent, I saw this really funny thing about one of the women from Selling Sunset calling, saying like even normal people can do this thing. She's like in an MLM, it's like a whole thing. But it's like she called, she actually said like the normies, like the normal people, it's like oh wow.

Kat (04:33)
Wow.

Did you hear my narcissism?

That's not even covert narcissism. I think I'm better than you. Wow. Okay.

Tiffany (04:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, but we are here. We are the norms. And also we both have marketing backgrounds. So we're not doing it so much this season, but we often like to look at like different products and their marketing and how they're marketing their what we call green who we add us and trying to convince us that they're, that they're. Yeah. And if you didn't hear or see it on Instagram or wherever we posted it.

Kat (04:49)
Yes, the Dorby's.

Fixing saving the planet. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (05:15)
we, we just appeared on an episode of the outdoor minimalist podcast. So go check us out. were on, uh, we talked about Dr. Bronner's. had a whole like deep dive into Dr. Bronner's cause we'd never done that on our show. Really. It kind of was. Yeah. It was so funny. It like, this isn't maybe typical cause we're like not skeptical of this company, but.

Kat (05:28)
Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of fangirling. Yeah. Let's be honest.

I mean I'm I am trying to approach it with a roundabout kinda like, yeah, it's not they're not perfect. They're still selling a product. Right. They're still selling a product. So and they did, you know, they had like some some pride stuff, which I appreciate, but I also kinda like it's it's such a weird thing. If if Target and Walmart can pride wash, you know, during Pride Month, like

Tiffany (05:43)
They're not perfect. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I did see that on their bottles actually they made their bottles like rainbow

Kat (06:05)
Which okay, I cannot speak from out LGBTQ people about how that makes them feel. If that makes them feel supported. I can talk from I am I am bisexual and I'm sorry to out myself on this podcast. I'm not I have a boyfriend. and I don't live like somebody who's out as a bisexual. You know, I haven't dated women in a long time, all those things. But

Tiffany (06:14)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (06:32)
I d I don't feel like it's my place to say that I'm part of the pride community in that sense. Like I I would approach it more from an allyship perspective. And i it's like does putting a rainbow on I mean, I I get like yeah, having a rainbow flag in a neighborhood where you feel

Tiffany (06:37)
Yeah.

Right.

Kat (06:55)
Shunned or dishonored is as a as a I mean that could feel good, but I don't know if like a company trying to sell you pridewashed products and I'm calling it pride washing, like rainbow washed. It feels it feels dishonest, you know?

Tiffany (07:06)
Yeah, it's true. Yeah.

No, I get that. They do have a pretty good history in terms of Pride stuff, and they had like, not that this matters really, but blog posts about the trans movement. So they're pretty openly, I hope, yeah, at least they're good at appearing so.

Kat (07:16)
Yeah.

Yeah. I I yeah. So they're they're legit. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, like we don't know them personally. But I it just feels like this is a weird year where like even one of the companies I work for were like, Do we put up a pride statement? Or is it like I hope you know by how we live our values that we're but again, yeah, do you have to stand up and say it out loud with a sticker on your product? Or you know, it's like what's the line? Where do you anyway, that's it's

Tiffany (07:33)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Kat (08:01)
And I I I think we talked about that in the podcast too to some extent with with Meg and the outdoor minimal minimalist that like

Dr. Bronner's jump ship on their B Corp certification. And it actually makes you kind of question if B Corp is legit. And that, you know, that it the same thing can happen with sustainability. You know, if all of these companies are doing it, does it does that really it's so it's so cynical at that point, right? Like if if Walmart gets a B Corp rating or whoever, you know, a giant corporation that clearly cannot be sustainable.

Tiffany (08:15)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kat (08:40)
You if Exxon Mobil gets a B Corp certification, like what does it mean anymore? You know, so

Tiffany (08:43)
Yeah,

I think it was like Nespresso had one and Unilever. So yeah. So Dr. Bronner's was basically like, peace out. We don't want this anymore.

Kat (08:47)
god. Unilever maybe? Yeah. So it's like okay, so

Which yeah, I

don't wanna be part of that club if the club's name is Solid and so I get that. So we're in we're in an interesting time from declaring your beliefs as a company to w walking the walk to you know, what is what is the line when it stops being real and starts being cynical?

Tiffany (09:04)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, there's also the question like, that should that be a company's job? Or like role in society? Should that be a company or should it be people? Yeah, I don't know. don't know. Apparently, according to

Kat (09:20)
Right.

Right. To make us feel better too. Yeah.

Our our company's people, you know. Uhhuh. I guess that's you know, according to Citizens United, right? Yeah.

So if they can if they can pay the bills of our political leaders, then maybe they should have to declare where they stand on gay rights and you know.

Tiffany (09:47)
Yeah, I don't know. It's really interesting.

Kat (09:49)
Do we hold them? I don't know.

What a weird dystopian time to be alive. So anyway, all the bugs are dying, and we're all gonna die in flames. No, I'm just kidding. Let me let me talk about my sources. Okay. you found me quite a few of them. So I have NPR. the Friends of the Mississippi River had a really good, they're a conservation nonprofit. the Penn State Huck.

Tiffany (09:54)
Seriously, it so is.

Okay.

Kat (10:18)
Institute of Life Sciences. I had two articles from them. and the Oklahoma State Extension had some info about beneficial insects. And then UCIPM, I didn't look up what that means, but the Huck Institute linked to them and it's a list of pesticide ratings for whether or not they're bad for bees, basically. So like bug safe. Not bug safe.

Tiffany (10:38)
Hmm.

interesting.

Only bees though.

Yeah. Mmhmm. Yeah.

Kat (10:46)
I I didn't go too too deep into it, but but they're

like, check check to make sure that this the pesticide you choose only does the targeted bugs. And here's here's Yeah, here's here's the ratings. So

Tiffany (10:57)
right, it's not broad spectrum or whatever it's called. It's

broad spectrum might be like SPF, whatever.

Kat (11:03)
That's SPF.

But we get it's a good metaphor, I think. Yeah, yes. Just speak gibberish and we'll we'll t I'll translate. The burn the burned out gibberish translator. It's fine. It's fine. Okay, so what are we talking about tonight? Like I said, bugs. Namely, why are insects important? What is causing them to disappear? Not gonna bury the lead there, they are disappearing. What does it mean? And what can we do about it?

Tiffany (11:08)
I said I was burnt out so my brain is not working.

you

Yay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (11:35)
As little normies, right? All right, so first off, why are bugs important?

Tiffany (11:36)
Yeah.

Yes.

Kat (11:44)
Bugs are the most successful genre of animal on the planet. So there are nearly one million known species. And they are in every habitat on the earth, including Antarctica. There are bugs in Antarctica. they have very good reproductive skills generally. They they're just ubiquitous. Literally. So most people only think about bugs when they're like

Tiffany (12:00)
Wow.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (12:13)
Bugging us, right? That's why we call them bugs. Or perhaps the word bugging came from the word bug, but mosquitoes bite us and spread disease. Flies annoy us and spread disease. Ants feel gross. Bed bugs are icky, right? I have generally had arachnophobia most of my life until kind of recently. Yeah.

Tiffany (12:16)
Mm-hmm.

that's interesting because I, okay, yeah, we kind of switched these around. I think we're going to talk about the fear of bugs this week, but we switched them. But I want to hear about that for next week. That's really interesting.

Kat (12:39)
Yeah. So it

Okay, I'll yeah

I don't I don't know. I can't you know, but like gnats are annoying. Bugs are bugs, they're bug, they bug us. So it ends up insects play a much more crucial role in the world's ecology than just annoying humans. I think I've brought this up before, have I told you this? I had a dream that I was at the pearly gates and Saint Peter or whoever was questioning the people in front of me to check check off some boxes to make sure they could get into heaven.

Tiffany (12:48)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (13:14)
And he asked, Can you name every ant that you killed?

Tiffany (13:18)
Wait, that was your dream?

Kat (13:19)
That was my dream.

Tiffany (13:21)
Like name them by name. Jeez.

Kat (13:22)
Yeah. Every

ant you ever killed. Anyway, I I I think about that a lot about how we just kinda take bugs for granted, you know? Just if you had to name every insect you killed, how differently would you live your life? To get into heaven. I don't know if the alternative was hell or I don't know what it was, but anyway. So here's what insects do in the world, beyond annoying us. Number one, they're pollinators.

Tiffany (13:26)
Interesting.

Yeah, we totally do, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (13:54)
Bugs other than bees also spread pollen from one plant to another. This is the only way that fruits and vegetables happen from flowers. I mean there's root vegetables and things. But if you want a plant to fruit, pollination must happen. And bugs are really good at it. Some of are so specialized they do it for individual plants based on their species. I mean Yes, the squash bee, there's

Tiffany (13:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we talked about the squash bee.

Kat (14:24)
I and I think I talked about this too. There's a a garden in Santa Barbara that I visited and they have ancient palm trees there that the beetles that pollinate them are dead. So these trees can't reproduce ever again. So the beetles have gone extinct. Like anyway, butterflies pollinate, even just wasps, bugs, any bug that flies can and

Tiffany (14:38)
Well...

Butterflies pollinate.

Wasps can.

Kat (14:53)
Any bug that crawls on plants can too. So not as efficiently, but they all can. So pollination is vitally important to the existence of the human race. And any other animal on the planet. Okay, so some statistics. Insect pollinators account for 85% of wildflowering plants. So I think the other 15% is the wind, perhaps. but eighty-five percent.

Tiffany (14:55)
Hm, yeah.

Wow, okay.

Kat (15:20)
They cover over seventy five percent of agricultural crops. So I don't know what those other twenty five percent of agricultural crops are doing without pollinating a insects, but

Tiffany (15:32)
you

Kat (15:32)
Three quarters

of the food that you eat was pollinated by a bug in the wild, right? Not a trained you know, what is now I have burnt out brain and can't remember the words. What do you call the little tiny robots?

Tiffany (15:50)
nanobots.

Kat (15:50)
No no, they're not nanobots, right? They're and they're not human pollinators, they're bugs. Bugs do this on their own. Three quarters of our food supply. This accounts for an economic value of fifty seven billion US dollars every year that the bugs just do for free. Maybe we should pay bugs.

Tiffany (16:10)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (16:11)
Okay, next thing bugs do is they feed other animals. Like Yes. birds obviously eat bugs. fish also eat bugs. Bats eat flying insects. Cicadas are basically ground food for deer, rabbits, squirrels. Any woodland creature just eats cicadas every time the brood comes out every thirteen years or whatever it is.

Tiffany (16:15)
Yes, that's a big one.

Kat (16:41)
Less bugs equals less birds, bats, fish, and other creatures. That's obviously bad news.

Tiffany (16:45)
Yeah. I don't know if you ran across this, but that was one thing I read in that bringing nature home book that I referenced earlier this season. I don't remember which episode. He basically was like, bugs are excellent. Actually, they're some of the only species, like they're, they're the only living organism that can trans, basically turn plants into

protein. And other animals that can't eat plants can eat the bugs and get protein out of it. Isn't it? So like if we don't have bugs, know, animals that can't eat plants like bats maybe can't, I don't know. can't, anyway, like they're really high in protein. They're actually more protein than like beef. So yeah, it's kind of interesting to think of it that way.

Kat (17:16)
Wow. Yeah. Can't do that.

Right. To to get protein. That's wild. I hadn't thought about that.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Tiffany (17:44)
Because, right. Yeah. They're essential.

Kat (17:45)
What a gift.

Yeah. I mean I've spent some time in Mexico, like Oaxaca, you know, it's very normal in other parts of the world to just eat insects and that's a major source of protein. You know, ants, beetles, scorpions, you know, spiders. I've had the ants, yeah, they're they're just kinda earthy.

Tiffany (17:59)
Yeah.

Have you ever tried them?

Okay.

Kat (18:12)
I've had worms, you know. They're a little crunchy, but they just kinda taste earthy. I mean I'm not gonna like pick up a handful and eat them like a snack. I have issues with legs. It's I'm a I'm a little sissy. I don't know. Yeah, you're like getting stuck in your teeth. You like little ant legs in your teeth? But yeah. okay. So Yeah. Ants are food. bugs are food for so much.

Tiffany (18:14)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

What? Why? It's so great. I'm just being sarcastic.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (18:40)
And that's part of the reason that they produce so prolifically, you know, is to replenish their they're like nature's candy. Sorry, vegans.

Tiffany (18:48)
Yeah.

Yeah. And like, one other thing I was learning was that birds, 95 % of birds don't actually eat birds, use like bird seed or seeds to feed their babies. They use caterpillars or worms. Yeah. So, yeah. So like, even if we have a bird feeder out there, I think I said that maybe on my bird feeder episode, but yeah. Yeah.

Kat (19:03)
Or they have to feed them, yeah. Or moths, yeah.

I don't remember that part, but that okay. Aside, I was gonna save

this for your episode, but we have had quite a wildlife documentary going on at my house. The mimosa tree out back has had two birds' nests in it. A dove, a white-winged dove, and cardinals. the white-winged dove is still just sitting up on her nest. I don't know if she's hatched anything yet, or if she's laid a new round, because I've as far as I could tell, she had abandoned it two weeks ago. The cardinals, on the other hand.

Tiffany (19:32)
Okay.

Kat (19:43)
Have hatched.

Tiffany (19:45)
whoa.

Kat (19:47)
And at least two of them have fallen out of the nest because they have appeared on my patio with Archie spit all over them. And I forced Archie to drop one this afternoon. I was like, drop it and he ran under the table and I was trying to get Ada. And the bird was still alive and then Ada took it away. So Ada they killed a a baby cardinal. But there was a third one on the ground this evening. And all of the wildlife rescues are closed. And I'm like, should I put it back in the nest? I don't think so. I think it's a fledgling, not a nestling.

Tiffany (20:08)
Okay. Whoa.

Kat (20:17)
It's parents were definitely hopping around, so I was trying to keep the dogs away from it. So we decided we looked things up on Google because we're geniuses, and we moved it into the front yard away from where the dogs can get it. So hopefully mom and dad cardinal, who were pissed at me for this, of course, are okay with little Johnny Cardinal baby being in the cactus out front. The other thing we're concerned about is if the neighborhood cats get it. Or the hawk, you know. So we just moved it on the other side of the fence.

Tiffany (20:44)
Right.

Kat (20:47)
And the we think that the reason that they picked two birds picked to nest in this tree is because there's a neighborhood hawk that will sit on the fence across the way and just tear apart doves just as they're alive. It's horrifying. My neighbor sent me a video. And our dogs keep the cats and hawks out of the yard.

Tiffany (21:07)
I see.

Kat (21:09)
But the problem is when your fledgling babies fall to the yard and my dog decides he wants to bring it in the house. So we're like, well, do we just keep the dogs cooped up for the next two weeks? No, can't do that. Archie would have a panic attack. So we moved the fledgling, not nestling, if they're nestlings, apparently, if if they don't have feathers and they can't hop around, you put them back in their nest. If they're fledglings, they have feathers, and they they can they're learning to fly, move it, apparently.

Tiffany (21:20)
Yeah, that's tricky.

Okay.

they're learning to fly.

Okay.

Kat (21:39)
I hope

that's right. I contacted several wildlife rescue organizations and if they call me tomorrow and I just killed the last baby cardinal, I'm gonna be so mad because these cardinals are cool. But they were dive bombing me as I tried to rescue their baby, of course. Or just chirping, you know, they were pissed. So anyway, next week I'll tell you about the possum or the dead squirrel. So we've had quite a week of wildlife at my house. Every day we're like, what's next? What's next?

Tiffany (21:52)
my god.

That is crazy.

Okay, great.

Kat (22:10)
Anyway, okay, so other things insects do, we'll come back to this. They break down detritus waste and feces. Dung beetles, obviously. carpenter ants, carpenter bees, they break down trees that have fallen. maggots from flies eat dead flesh. They won't eat live flesh, which is fascinating. Yes. So you can you could actually if you had an infection well they're okay.

Tiffany (22:11)
Wow.

Mm-hmm.

Which is nice, thank god.

Can you imagine if they did?

Kat (22:40)
The screw worm. Have you heard about the screw worm?

Tiffany (22:43)
is that

the meat thing that's coming here now?

Kat (22:46)
It's yeah, it's it's the New World Screwworm and it has come back to Texas because probably because Doge cancelled other funding for I haven't heard anything about it in the last two weeks, but it is terrifying because they burrow into wounds as small as a mosquito bite in any mammal. They can get into animals' genitals. Any wound. apparently they really love calves, new umbilical cords when cows are born.

Tiffany (22:54)
Yeah.

Kat (23:15)
And they burrow in and they just eat the creature from the inside out, basically. So y now in Texas we're having to like, does the dog have a mosquito bite? Does it have you know, you have to watch out for this shit. So anyway, but maggots from houseflies only eat dead flesh. So you could actually have maggots if you had an infection in the Middle Ages, they would put maggots on your skin and they would only eat the dead part and fall off. And that was actually a really great way to deal with

Tiffany (23:33)
Yeah.

Kat (23:44)
infected wounds. Crazily. Anyway, they do that. They clean up. It's great. The other major thing bugs do is they control other bugs. So when you don't have enough insects to control other populations by either competing for resources or just eating each other, you get booms like mosquitoes, right? Dragonflies eat mosquitoes. If you threaten dragonfly habitat,

Tiffany (23:45)
Yeah, totally.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Who?

Kat (24:13)
You get mosquito over infestation. Lace wings eat aphids and mites. Ladybugs eat aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, and scale insects. Spined soldier bugs eat caterpillars. Praying manises will eat any bug they can catch. Paper wasps eat caterpillars. Spiders not only catch flying insects and webs, but some of them hunt on the ground. They take care of each other, you know, in that sense. Like

Tiffany (24:14)
you told me that.

Okay.

Yeah.

Kat (24:42)
The the tarantula hawk eats tarantulas. mud daubers, which are scary looking wasps that don't harm people, they kill spiders and eat them. There's a whole perfect balance. But when you threaten just one bug species, throws everything out of whack and then you get swarms of mosquitoes in the summer.

Tiffany (24:46)
Right.

Interesting.

Right.

Right. That makes me really want to build a pond, a small pond in my backyard. I've had this craving for like two years for the dragonflies.

Kat (25:11)
For the dragonflies. But they'll it's they'll also attract mosquitoes, you gotta watch out for that. But fish eat mosquitoes too. So you could get koy.

Tiffany (25:17)
Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't

be too worried about that,

Kat (25:22)
We have a huge mosquito.

Tiffany (25:25)
I've never had, I don't know why. Mine's not too bad around my house. There is a lake right down there, so I don't know if that attracts dragonflies. I don't know. I don't know.

Kat (25:36)
We just

any any standing water that's left for more than a day, it could be a tablespoon mosquitoes. 'Cause it's hot here. So they don't die during the winter 'cause it doesn't get cold enough. So

Tiffany (25:43)
Mm-hmm.

Chris.

Kat (25:48)
Anyway, I think now is a really good time to take a break and then we'll come back and talk about what is happening to bugs.

Tiffany (25:55)
Perfect.

Right.

Kat (26:12)
Welcome back. I do wanna say I just looked at my phone during the break and one of the wildlife organizations reached back out to me and said, If it has some feathers and the parents are around, then it's okay where it is. If you need to move it a yard over so it's safe, you can do that. So we did good. Cool. Yeah. Phew. I hope it's fine. All right, so we're talking about bugs, not birds. But so what is happening to bugs? And I already told you this, but

Tiffany (26:25)
Okay. Nice.

Yeah.

Kat (26:39)
In spite of the wide variety of bugs that are out there, and there's still a lot of variety apparently, and their sheer numbers, there are fewer insects every year, even in places where humans aren't actually living. Okay. So this NPR article you sent me quoted a study that they from the the journal Ecology, where they they took a remote meadow in Colorado and measured bug levels every year between two thousand four and twenty twenty four, so two decades. They found that

Year over year, insect populations declined six point six percent. That was a seventy-two point four percent drop over twenty years. This was a remote meadow, no cars, you know, no human buildings, no asphalt.

Tiffany (27:14)
yeah.

my god.

Right.

Kat (27:28)
A 2019 analysis found 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction. 40%. And then a 2020 study from science found there was an average 9% per decade decline in earth insects and 11% decrease in water insects, or increase in water insects, aka mosquitoes, although variability was still good across the over 1600 sites that they monitored. So there's there was a variability, but mosquitoes were up.

Tiffany (27:50)
Mmm.

Kat (27:58)
Ground insects were down. And a Western German study recently showed a 75% decline over 27 years at 63 nature reserves in Germany. I believe in Germany. So why does this decline in insects matter? To put it bluntly, we're all gonna starve to death, basically. National Geographic article, a researcher at the University of

Tiffany (28:00)
Hmm.

Okay.

Right.

Kat (28:26)
Sydney in Australia was quoted as saying, If we don't stop the trend, entire ecosystems will collapse due to starvation.

Not just humans.

Also, bird populations are declining, especially among birds that it eat insects. The reason I brought up that cardinal story from earlier is because I watched the daddy cardinal swoop into the air and grab a bug and feed it to his baby. They are, again, feeding bugs to their babies. If there aren't bugs to feed the babies, the babies starve to death. And there's no new generation of birds. Ta-da. Okay.

Tiffany (28:43)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Right. Ta-da!

God, so sad.

Kat (29:08)
Yeah.

So the the big question is w why are all the bugs going away? Right? It's kinda obvious, I think. It's pretty straightforward. Human intervention.

Causing insect declines across the planet, not just where humans are located. So the list we can say is loss and fragmentation of habitat, usually due to agriculture and farming, pollution, especially light pollution, which you're gonna talk about, microplastics, synthetic pesticides, pathogens and parasites that harm bugs, often due to globalization that are brought from other places.

And the big one, climate change. So that MPR article, the reason they pointed out that this was happening in a remote meadow away from you know, you can't say that it's because humans have taken over and made this into a farm or put roads down or built buildings.

Tiffany (30:08)
Yeah, that is really fascinating.

Kat (30:11)
Warmer summers appear to be the problem around the world. This is why even remote areas are seeing insect declines. It's not a direct impact like water or land, right? It's just that one summer is too warm for the bugs to live through or reproduce and they don't rebound the next hot summer. So they're just not coming back. That's why we don't have fireflies in Texas as much as we used to.

We just had one of the hottest fourth of July's in memory. And they are saying this is the normal you should get used to.

Tiffany (30:48)
God.

Kat (30:50)
So the article from FMR also said that pesticides, especially neonics or ne I can't say this word, neonicotinoid pesticides are likely causing a lot of insect decline. So these pesticides are like a wonder drug for farms, but they are systemic. So they aren't just on top of the plant, they go throughout the whole plant, right? So the entire plant becomes poisonous to bugs.

Tiffany (30:59)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (31:19)
If a bug eats any part of the plant, not just the fruit or the you know leaves, anything, the bug will die. These pesticides can also stay in soil for five years or longer, even if you stop using them, and they can be taken up by plants that weren't initially treated with them, obviously. And then there's runoff, which is always a concern with pesticides. They affect water insects and fish.

Tiffany (31:30)
Ugh.

Yeah.

Kat (31:46)
So all of this is scary stuff and bad news. but as always with conservation websites they have a good list of things you can do. So let's talk about what can you do about declining insects?

We always say don't panic. Don't panic. Panic a little internally and then channel your rage into doing something about it. So first of all, start thinking about insects in your world. Starts at home, right? You don't probably own a multinational corporation that poisons insects, but you can keep bugs in mind in and around your home. Number one, landscape.

Tiffany (32:12)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (32:33)
Landscape for your pollinators. Plant native plants. Mow less or at least set some part of your yard to grow more wild and try your best to keep invasives under control. You do that a lot. You've got pollinators. Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany (32:50)
Yeah, can I tell you something cool?

The other day, to sort of lighten the mood, the other day we saw a butterfly on our screen and I'd never seen it before and Charlie was like, she went and grabbed her little like pamphlet, she's got this big pamphlet thing, yeah, different kinds of butterflies, so she went and grabbed it and was like, which one is it, which one is it? And we think it was the red admiral, which I'd never seen before. I know, they all have really cool names, it's kind of crazy.

Kat (33:05)
Butterfly pamphlet, I love it.

Ooh What a cool name for a butterfly.

Tiffany (33:20)
and it survives or it, yeah, it eats nettles. Isn't that interesting? Cause we were just talking about nettles. Yeah. And I was like, damn, I need to plant some nettles. I don't even know where to get a nettle. If anybody knows where to get a nettle. Are they, do they sell them at nurseries? I don't know. Let me know. Yeah. Contact me.

Kat (33:26)
Which you've you were just talking about how we could eat nettles. Yeah. How cool. Yeah.

They might. Find a good a

local locally based nurse, yeah.

Tiffany (33:42)
Yeah,

because I'm like, I want to feed this thing. Because it was so pretty. Charlie was so excited. It was awesome. Yeah.

Kat (33:45)
That we call.

I love that. See but that you

know, I knew who it maybe it came to your garden because you have

Tiffany (33:53)
Yeah, maybe our neighbors have nettles in their woods, like on top of all or underneath all the honeysuckle. I don't freaking know.

Kat (34:01)
Yeah. But yeah, like we pointed out a couple weeks ago, the reason you want native plants is because native insects only can eat those native plants. They have evolved to only eat those things. They will starve to death if you just have pretty, beautiful English rose garden, you know. So the next

Tiffany (34:01)
Maybe. I don't know.

Right. Yep.

Kat (34:23)
Tip is to introduce foraging and nesting spaces to help reduce habitat loss. So we talked about bee hotels several seasons ago, and you talked about them. That's that's great for wood bees. There's also sandy or open areas for ground nesting bees. And if you live in an apartment, do put potted plants out. It's another reason to have potted plants. Insects need more habitat, especially in cities.

Tiffany (34:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I have, I feel like I keep interrupting, I have this really cool video and I don't remember, did I tell you about this? About the little bees that were in my like stocks of, yeah, and I got the video of it and it was so cool. But it's like even just like, yeah, like stocks, like cut your hearty. Yeah, this was like a kind of hibiscus, but like just, yeah, just cut it.

Kat (34:52)
No, go please. This is great.

Yes, yes. Yeah.

Cattails or whatever, yeah.

Tiffany (35:17)
the bees do their job and that's their house for the winter. It's awesome. That wouldn't take up that much room.

Kat (35:18)
Yeah. Let's

No, that's so cool.

Okay, we talk about this a lot, but d quit using pesticides. Just stop. Use multiple non-chemical methods. So

Tiffany (35:36)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (35:38)
Try cinnamon or cayenne pepper. Try baking soda and vinegar. Try castile soap. So Dr. Bronner's mixed with some baking soda is a great deterrent. Won't kill the plant. Won't kill the bug. Just makes it not tasty for them. They don't want to eat it. If you're growing vegetables or something. Otherwise, you know, kinda maybe let the bugs eat the plant. You know. I know there are invasives that might eat your plants that you don't want, but or invasive bugs. But for the most part, just let

Tiffany (36:06)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (36:09)
But the bugs have their habitat. They'll figure it out, you know.

Tiffany (36:11)
Yeah,

and do like co- what's it called when you plant things next to each other? God, my brain. It's not cohabiting, but you you plant things that are friendly next to each other. But anyway, like my nasturtiums next to my beans, the slugs go after the nasturtiums and they get their food, but they don't so far haven't eaten my beans.

Kat (36:17)
Yes. Co gardening. Co ha.

Dude, I wish mine was any better.

Yes.

Yes.

Right. Exactly.

Right. See, there's solutions. one of the th you know, my best friend just said she's got ants in the house and so she bought those traps where they take it back to the they eat the and take it. Those are so bad for ants. 'Cause it just I know ants are annoying, but

Tiffany (36:54)
yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kat (37:04)
It just kills the whole you know, you you want to deter them from being around. You don't want to destroy them.

Tiffany (37:11)
Yeah. Which is easier said than done when they're taking over your kitchen.

Kat (37:16)
Yeah. Another thing I think w if you kill one ant, just for the record, other ants will come to collect the body. Ants bury their dead or at least stack their dead up in certain places and they emit a pheromone. So if you're just squashing ants in your kitchen, do not be surprised if more ants show up. Just FYI. Yeah.

Tiffany (37:29)
Mm-hmm.

Right, right.

Yeah, we had a little ant farm and they had like a graveyard. Yeah.

Kat (37:41)
Yeah, they do. They have a graveyard.

There was a sorry, I know I keep interrupting. There was a an NPR story several decades ago, probably, about a guy who studies ants, and he would he figured out the pheromone that they emit when they die, and he would paint it on live ants and then watch the other ants collect the ant and take it to the graveyard and the and the ant would like shake its and then go back and they'd keep taking it back to the graveyard. Like it's the smell says you're dead, so you're dead. And the ants like, I'm not dead.

Tiffany (38:00)
Oh yeah, you told me about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Poor ant.

It's like, damn it, leave me alone.

Kat (38:13)
Yeah.

What they're the ants are cool. yeah, they s say crop rotation is another way to reduce pests in your yard. You know, don't always just plant the same thing. Yeah, they'll just come back. Yeah, they'll make nests and they'll yeah. they're like humans. If there's food around they'll move in, right? the other thing is if you've

Tiffany (38:17)
Yes, they really are.

because they kind of learn. this is where we come for the, That makes sense.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (38:41)
If you must use chemical pesticides, really, really understand the safe application process and try to find chemicals that don't affect non-target species. So I included that list of the bee friendly or, you know, pesticides. Look it up. Figure out what brand you have, look it up, make sure it's not just gonna scorch the earth.

Tiffany (39:08)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (39:10)
The other thing to look out for is don't buy plants that have been treated with the neonicotinoid pesticides. So you're gonna have to ask your nursery, you know, what what pesticides have you treated this with? And encourage your local nursery not to carry those plants. Yeah. Be Yep. That's what I'm thinking is like I wonder if H E B or, you know, Lowe's, where we just buy these seedlings, have they treated these plants with these pesticides that are

Tiffany (39:20)
interesting.

Ugh, I didn't even think about that.

Man, I just got a pepper plant.

But that would be so dumb because they're flowering. And they need... we need...

Kat (39:46)
Yeah, but it's to it's to stave off caterpillars and stuff that eat the So yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

Tiffany (39:53)
Ugh.

All right.

Kat (39:58)
limit your outdoor light use. So this is good for birds too. Turn your outdoor lights off at night between 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. And if you have to use LED bulbs apparently, I don't know why those are better, but use LEDs. Yeah. reduce your water pollution. So don't ever pour chemicals or cleaning agents down drains. Reduce your water usage. Weirdly, they re they say recycling.

Tiffany (40:00)
Mm-hmm.

Interesting.

Kat (40:27)
is good for they said it keeps synthetic plastics out of waterways. So okay. composting at home is good because it can help encourage bugs to come to your yard to use compost, right? Natural compost. And then buy local okay. Tell dish. Okay, well the last tip is to buy local mulch compost and manure because invasive pests can travel in commercial compost or potting mix. And

Tiffany (40:32)
Okay.

Mm-hmm. I have another story after. No, I don't. Yeah.

Kat (40:55)
It also reduces the possibility of chemical contamination to get local stuff that hasn't been transported. So Yeah. Yeah. I know. It seems very common sense. Yeah, shit in it. Yeah.

Tiffany (41:00)
Okay. Interesting. That makes sense. Yeah, mulch can have a lot of, yeah, but mulch can have a lot, God,

all sorts of. I planted, well actually this one mulch we got, it was just like 1,000 maple trees popped up. And I'm like, my God, I don't need this many freaking maple trees.

Kat (41:21)
I know. You're like, Great,

cool. I'm in Canada, I guess.

Tiffany (41:24)
It must've been,

I don't know. I guess, I don't know why. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. But yeah, my story. So for my certificate class, I'm doing this permaculture design certificate, I had to do one soil sample. And so.

Kat (41:27)
Like seed parts from like acorn parts or something. That's funny.

Tiffany (41:43)
I wanted at least one and so I did two because I wanted to compare my lawn versus underneath my tree where it's super shaded, lots of mulch, lots of plants, lots of compost, all that stuff and just kind of compare the differences. There were so many more bugs. were zero bugs, almost zero bugs in the lawn version. Ants, that was it. No worms.

Nothing. And then over in the other one, there was like worms, roly polies, pill bugs, I guess they're called.

Kat (42:24)
Rolly I call rolly pulleys. Some people call potato bugs, but yeah, pill bugs, yeah.

Tiffany (42:24)
Okay. Okay.

But yeah, there were just like tons of bugs everywhere. And it was amazing because it was like 10 feet apart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just compost and mulch. And that draws in. Yeah. Organisms and mushrooms and like mycelium I'm learning about.

Kat (42:37)
my god. That's wild. And that that's all it took. That's all it took.

Yeah. Ecosystem,

Tiffany (42:53)
Yeah.

Kat (42:53)
yeah.

Tiffany (42:55)
So, it's crazy. Mm-hmm.

Kat (42:56)
It's just stuff we kinda take for granted.

The other things you know, obviously restore habitat, like join a group that's restoring habitat in your local area. That's another tip. Start advocating, so support legislation to protect rivers and habitats. Write letters, call your legislators, tell your friends. donate to conservation groups. The Huck Institute recommended the Xerxes Society, which I think you've talked about. The Clearwater Conservancy, the Pollinator Stewardship Council, there's a bunch. There's probably really good local ones you can look into.

Tiffany (43:06)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (43:30)
Their last tip was to learn about and appreci appreciate insects. Which I think you and I have just been talking about. Like last night Sean and I were sitting on the porch and there was a giant moth. It was seriously five inches. Brown moth. Like, what is that? It looked like it was bigger than a hummingbird. So, you know, Google Image searched it. It's apparently a waved Sphinx moth.

Tiffany (43:52)
Hello.

Kat (43:59)
And they live off of like ash trees and oak trees. We do have oak trees in the neighborhood. Apparently they lay their eggs in the soil at the base of the tree. And apparently certain scorpions are some of their biggest predators. And they t the scorpions will show up like immediately after the moths have laid their eggs. And so they're called scorpion moths because when that happens, it looks like the moth's eggs have hatched scorpions.

Tiffany (44:14)
Whoa.

Kat (44:28)
So that's kinda cool to learn, yeah. So yeah. And like some of those, you know, the some of the bugs that they were talking about, like I've seen them. The spined soldier bug. When you see a picture of that, you'll be like, yeah. I just thought it was an ugly bug. But like when you learn what it actually does, you know it's cool. It's huge.

Tiffany (44:28)
Interesting.

Yeah, I'm looking up a picture of this wave sphinx. It's huge.

That's awesome. What was the other one you said?

Kat (44:58)
Yeah.

a spined soldier bug.

Tiffany (45:03)
mind soldier.

Kat (45:05)
I know. You when you see it you'll like, Yeah, that's the best name for that bug.

Tiffany (45:10)
Are these invasive? Because they are all over my freaking yard and my house.

Kat (45:13)
I don't think so. Let's let's look.

I don't think so.

Let's see. No. They're native to North America and they're beneficial predators that protect gardens and crops by feeding on harmful pests like caterpillars and beetle larvae.

Tiffany (45:34)
What in the hell? Why did I think my dad told me they were?

Kat (45:38)
They

might look like the brown marmorated stink bug because they're similar in shape and coloration. Do you want to know how you can tell them apart? Spine shoulder bugs have sharp, distinct spines jutting out from the sides of their shoulders. Invasive stink bugs have smooth rounded shoulders. And spine shoulder bugs are active are found actively hunting among your vegetables. Invasive stink bugs usually gather in large swarms on the sides of buildings or feed directly on leaves and fruit.

Tiffany (45:47)
Eww. Yeah.

Aha.

I think I don't know now. I'm pretty sure ours are the gross ones. Yeah. Well, they're all over the place. So I'm just imagining there wouldn't be that many. They're they like come down our chimney. And so they're like in our well, they're in our house everywhere all the time. Yeah. In the specifically in the winter and then they come down our chimney and so they're all in our like fireplace. Yeah.

Kat (46:17)
The invasive ones? Are they like on the building or are they in your vegetable garden? Okay.

I don't know.

Okay, so those might be the invasive kind.

boy.

Tiffany (46:41)
Yeah, I don't think they have the spines on them. I'll check, but I don't think so.

Kat (46:43)
Yeah. They're like pointy shoulders.

Boo.

Tiffany (46:49)
Interesting.

Kat (46:51)
So

that's that. Love your bugs. Learn your bugs. Learn to appreciate bugs.

I wish I had more good news about anybody I didn't look up like do is there hope for the books? but I feel like

Tiffany (47:08)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (47:13)
Something's gotta give, you know. Like this is a big deal. Yeah.

Tiffany (47:15)
Yeah, I mean, if we get our shit together, which to

be honest, I feel like there is a massive movement just sort of like growing, but it's very, it's like under the surface right now. But I think there's like a huge native, like even people, a lot of people know about the lantern fly. And I feel like maybe a decade ago that wouldn't have been the case. but yeah.

Kat (47:27)
Yeah.

No.

Tiffany (47:42)
So, and actually that hasn't been as bad this year. I think the birds are starting to eat it. I haven't looked it up, but I like, I've only seen one, which last year I saw they were everywhere. So.

Kat (47:47)
No you're

Yeah.

Yeah, you know.

Tiffany (47:55)
Maybe it's filling a need, I don't know.

Kat (47:57)
Yeah.

I don't know. I I mean that's the other thing. Nature adapts. So it's might not be suited to us, you know, maybe the great e great mammalian extinction is coming. but the only thing you can count on is that things will change. So who knows? Maybe yeah, new birds will start eating stink bugs and

Tiffany (48:01)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (48:32)
Things will change. We'll see. It might not happen it might it might be a million years in the making. I don't know. But Yeah. I mean, it's obviously two hundred years in the making since

Tiffany (48:34)
Yeah.

the collapse.

Yeah, was like, way sooner than that, but.

Kat (48:48)
Yeah,

but I mean the adaptation might be millions of years in the making. Yeah. Who knows? Anyway, so

Tiffany (48:51)
right, right, right, right, right. Certainly not all lifetimes. Yeah.

Well,

yeah, next week we are going to talk about how to get over a fear of bugs. I'm going to try to make it sort of like short and snappy. So we'll see how it goes.

Kat (49:03)
Okay, good.

Okay.

That's good, 'cause that's what now that you know that bugs are important, let's get over it.

Tiffany (49:12)
Yes,

so if you're afraid of them, which I think sort of is natural human response, I have ideas on how to.

Kat (49:19)
I

Okay. I have read that it might be cultural. I think fear of spiders might be cultural. So that's interesting to think about. Yeah. 'Cause fear of snakes is natural.

Tiffany (49:27)
That is interesting.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (49:34)
I don't know. Yeah, th anything that can kill you, typically we're supposed to be afraid of, but we still cross roads and date date bad guys, so

Tiffany (49:35)
We'll talk about it. Right. Yeah, we'll talk about it. huh.

Yeah. Man or bear? Always the bear.

Kat (49:51)
Well, I mean Armin, but typically bear. Otherwise bear.

Tiffany (49:53)
Well, yeah,

Yeah, otherwise. All right. So yeah, that is next week that we're going to chat about fear of bugs. Let's see. If you haven't yet, please leave us a review. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen, just scroll down. Quick Five Stars would be awesome.

Kat (49:59)
All right.

Please do.

Yeah, we'd

Tiffany (50:20)
Or

Kat (50:20)
be we would love that.

Tiffany (50:20)
like a couple sentences if you've learned anything tell us your favorite freaking bug Like that's yeah, tell us your favorite bug We'll call it out. Okay. Bye

Kat (50:26)
Yeah. That'd be awesome.

Cool. Okay, thank you.