What are the spiders trying to tell us?
Change can be gradual, or it can be sudden.
Either way, we humans are usually prepared for it. We’ve seen it coming. We’ve been warned.
Our technology and mass forms of communication keep us in touch with the progress of a changing planet.
We know when a pandemic is on our doorstep. We know when the weather is changing. We know if an asteroid is hurtling towards us. We know the likelihood of conflict in faraway places. We know when new laws are being introduced and how they will affect us (good or bad).
No matter what it is, someone is always on hand to tell us.
But who tells the animals we share the planet with? My guess, nobody. They work it out themselves.
And then they tell us. But who listens?
What of their world?
Let’s take a look at one part of their world, to them, their only world: my backyard.
This world is a green one: filled with trees, shrubs, bushes, flowers, birds, bees, bugs, lizards, frogs, butterflies, spiders and heaps of creepy-crawlies. It’s a nice world. They’re happy.
Though hot summers can be a frenzy of flying creatures: flies, beetles (including Christmas beetles), moths, mosquitos and other little creatures that sting or bite.
The Christmas beetles were the first to disappear. We haven’t seen them for about three years.
Then the flying bugs – whatever they were.
Two years ago, with the disappearance of those flying beasties, the spiders took action. Food become scarcer, so they built larger webs in order to catch whatever was flying about.
As the food grew scarcer, the webs grew bigger.
No two trees weren’t connected by a web. They stretched also across our paths – from gutter to tree. It was impossible to walk around the house and garden without walking into a web (followed by wild karate chops and strange dances from moi as I tried to shake off unseen spider).
But there was a message. The spiders were telling me they were hungry. They were also telling me that food was scarce.
This year the flying creatures are scarcer. Even the annoying flies are no longer annoying us.
But also this year the spider webs too disappeared.
What are the spiders telling us?
Their world – their environment – is changing. For the worse. So then, is ours.
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Canguro
Return to home page“This world is a green one: filled with trees, shrubs, bushes, flowers, birds, bees, bugs, lizards, frogs, butterflies, spiders and heaps of creepy-crawlies. It’s a nice world. They’re happy.”
Michael, this is heresy. Haven’t you ever heard of “Nature red in tooth and claw” !?
Only kidding. I’ve never gone along with that line of thinking.
Agree with every thing you say.
You will be happy to know that the lovely jewelled spiders are back here , in numbers . Missing for some years , everywhere this summer .Extraordinary variety of webs , many in 3 dimensions .. Web strands have evenly spaced white spots – extra glue?
But the tiny flying insects that cluster round every light a day before it rains have never reappeared .
The silent spring as predicted by Rachel Carson, is almost upon us. As the insects decline, so must insectivores such as many bird, bat, lizard and frog species, as well as the spiders. At my place in Moss Vale, we barely need fly screens any more, there are so few flying insects wanting to come in and dance around the lights. But where I am at the moment near Cowra, there are plenty of small flying insects to be a bother. What is Happening? Is it too dry, or too wet? Are temperatures rising enough to disrupt food chains and breeding cycles? Is it the overuse of poisons in the house, yard and farm?
Or is it the tremendous and ongoing loss of native vegetation, without which many creatures cannot survive?
WOW, this is a very scary RED FLAG WARNING and, indeed, a timely reminder that Mother Nature is NOT prepared to put up with any more BS from humankind! Tragically, history has proven that mankind is not prepared to listen to red flag warnings nor pay attention to clear signs that we are putting the lives of other creatures (as well as our OWN lives) at existential risk due to our total disrespect and/or misunderstanding of our environment and the manner in which so many people are now thriving on a truly malignant rise in hate, intolerance and dysfunction. Every living creature on this planet has a REAL purpose and it is not until such creatures – even the most seemingly innocuous and irritating to our senses (eg rodents, cockroaches, mosquitos, flies et al) – are completely eradicated will we (finally) realise that they did, in fact, provide positive benefits to us IN SPITE OF the fact that so few of us can or are willing to recognise those benefits. As humankind blissfully continues down this path of wanton destruction and annihilation of other living things which – in our woefully limited understanding of such things – we may find irritating, “offensive” or “useless”, the end-result of the eradication of such creatures often becomes evident with the rising increase in less desirable or even worse scenarios after their elimination!
Food for thought! Indeed it does make one think about the future of our only home and what WE (humans) are doing to it. We continue to amble along ignoring all the previous and current warnings nature is throwing at us. We just don’t ever seem to learn frm our mistakes. and boy, have their been plenty of those…
Something real that I have been mentioning for years, no one cares. 24 years in this house, the Christmas beetles were the first to go, then the earwigs. Followed by bogong moths, butterflies, wood lice, ground spiders. Still have the occasional white moth in the vege garden but far fewer than just 5 years ago. I don’t bother with snail traps anymore. The lad, now 14, saw his 1st and only praying mantis in 2022 and grasshopper in 2023. Neither were large than 5cm’s.
It’s a dying world but the politicians will tell you that there are no votes in talking about it.
I haven’t seen any Praying Mantises, Christmas beetles, bogongs and and blue metallic flea beetles around the house for at least four years. Even stick insects are becoming scarce. Kamikaze windscreen insects are non-existent. We’re lucky that spiders, frogs (and, much to my anaphylactic curse, jack jumpers) are pretty plentiful. Butterflies and dragonflies are still around to a lesser extent. Much to the ducks delight slaters are all over the place.
“Even the annoying flies are no longer annoying us.” Now that you mention it, even the flies, particulary the blow flies, have been noticeable by their decreased numbers.
We’ve well and truly screwed the planet and I think it’s too late to prevent the inevitable end of life on the Earth.
Michael
Plenty of Jewelled Christmas Beetles here in Far North Queensland before the rains set in and we have a large Golden Orb spider’s web on our veranda at the moment ; my daughter-in-law got stung by a native Paper Nest Wasp (Vespidae Family) on Thursday, I had to eradicate the nest, too close to the house ……………….and the mozzies have been an absolute pain this summer.
PS : There was a sighting of a male Cassowary with two young up the road from us the other day.
The biggest pest in our area, that kills everything in its path is the RAM Ute – let’s hope they don’t go after the cassowary chicks.
Most winged invertebrates have several metamorphic stages that rely upon bioactive ground humous ,living vegetation or viable aquatic ecosystems.
We humans are incessantly active in cutting down vegetation, disturbing soil and polluting waterways on industrial scales, to say nothing of our wholesale additions of chemical and particulate pollutants to air, land and water.
Many boneless animals in critical stages of development cycles can also be vulnerable to rapid changes in environmental climate.
And now invertebrate life is perceptibly diminishing (and in some cases disappearing), in terms of both biota and diversity, to the point of it being bleeding obvious to even the casual observation.
Go figure, ay.
The decline to collapse of of invertebrate biota could almost be pigeonholed as another sign of a 6th global mass extinction event heralding the onset of the Anthropocene age (the age of human consequences).
Thanks to Michael Taylor for making the effort to address a critically important but all-too often unacknowledged element in the threadbared unravelling of our home planet’s living systems.
PS, on ‘jumping jack’ ants.
A traditional bush remedy for the sting delivered by the butt of a jumper ant is the application of the fleshy inner root pith from the rhyzome of Calochlaena dubia (‘ common ground fern’ or ‘false bracken’) to the afflicted area
Dunno if it’s he chemistry cyatheaic alkalinity counteracting formic acidity or a case placebo by suggestion, but it works for me..
For anyone concerned enough to want to give some form of practical help towards addressing this issue,, Invertebrates Australia always welcome positive communicative/informational inputs.
The aim of Invertebrates Australia is to assist in assembling a clearer picture on the actual quantity and variety of Australia’s existent invertebrate life through the voluntary contributions of credibly informed citizen scientists to enhance the information available to accredited & qualified natural science.
https://invertebratesaustralia.org/
Although invertebrates comprise around 90% of animal species, and probably perform functions more critical to continuation of ecosystemic viabilty (as well as possessing the greatest potential reservior of hitherto undiscovered animal lifeforms), they are all too often overlooked in favour of boned beasts because ‘bugs ain’t glamorous’.
Any and all help genuinely and gratefully appreciated.
Living in Inner Sydney there is not much in the way of birdlife or wildlife. However we make up for it with a massive cockroach population. Do they have any natural enemies or are they going to inherit the earth?
Caz,
Who will inherit?
Well, common cockroaches are undeniably a viable candidate for ‘ultimate survivor.
Possessing a set of rear antennae (cersi) attached to a backup brain in your butt that can send your legs scurrying before your head gets the message is a definite survival advantage, as is an innate ability to complete ovular gestation whilst in a decapitated state.
https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/why-cockroaches-escape.php
Alternatively, tardigrades (‘moss-pigs or ‘water-bears’) can operate in temperature extremes, survive prolonged mummification, and have even withstood experimental exposure to the void of space.
Of course, on a planet mostly covered with saline water of ever increasing temperature and acidity, one shouldn’t discount the simplistic longevity and survivability of jellyfish;
https://www.kpax.com/news/a-wilder-view/a-wilder-view-learn-about-the-oldest-living-creature-on-earth#:~:text=But%20amidst%20this%20cycle%20of,nail%20on%20your%20pinky%20finger.
When was the last time you had to scrape the dead bugs off your windscreen?
Those of us of any significant vintage and experience with travelling long distances through Australian countrysides are all too aware of the massive decline in bugsplat on windscreens and fronts of our vehicles. Having just returned to Sydney after a 1,000+ km round trip to southern NSW, the numbers of dead insects on the car could be counted on the fingers of two hands.
Nonetheless, it was heartening to witness the myriad of moths in the evening air, the praying manti (pl?) flying into the kitchen, black crickets also, along with the hunstman spiders on the walls, and plenty of mossies sabotaging my efforts to fall asleep after each day of hard yakka in the vineyard.
These observations, I recognize, are not definitive evidence of the resilience of insect populations, and those with finer knowledge and attention can all attest to the decline of these invertebrates not only locally but globally.
The following links reference two well publicised studies…
More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas.
Insect populations suffering death by 1,000 cuts, say scientists.
Politicians and mainstream media are so self-consumed and embedded in olde worlde power politics, they mostly report on the argy bargy of the economics of their own power games.
This is called ‘top-down’ politics, and in, say 5,000 years refers to noblese oblige and greed via the fluff of connection to inaudible and invisible gods in the image of man and woman. It has progressively caused the mass murder of people, and the destruction of environments and ecological participants.
It has blown the mind of ordinary folk the world over, such that they remain obsessed by and fearful of survival in that system that entraps ordinary thoughts.
Although by development of science, humanity ought know better than to ignore the importance of all life and earthly cycles, and particularly the minutiea, most greedily incorporated remain stuck and averse to properly considered ‘bottom-up’ politics.
As such, humanity so entrapped hurtles towards its demise via fiduciary farnarkeling with death-cult mind set.
Thank goodness, some mainstream farmers and food providers are starting to see the paradox and change course.
Canguro,
Cheers for the link to the German insect study report.
Of course, the results of such biostudies vary considerably from location to location and landmass to landmass, but the general observed recent trend is a marked to catastrophic decline in overall numbers.
Of course, a drop in headcount is just one concerning factor, variety in species composition is another big issue.
Varied pollinators replaced by swarms of leaf munchers (requiring pesticide control), specialised associations replaced by generic templates.
An alternative name for the Anthropocene is the Homogenocine.
Clakka,
On farnarkeling, I am heartened that Mr John Clarke achieved legacy in the Macquarie dictionary by providing a kiwi-strayan term for faffing around.
Reckon I might drag out the old flukem and brush up on my gonad arkeling skills.
I still have bees (both native and feral), butterflies, hoverflies, ants and spiders galore; part of that is due to deliberately planting to encourage them, although it’s a bit discouraging when the neighbours are constantly cutting things down … but the beetles and native wasps have almost disappeared, the mosquitoes are vastly reduced in number (not really complaining there, although the spiders are) and the mantids are gone.
None of my new trees are big enough for the birds to nest in yet; have to hope they can wait for things to grow.
The black cockatoos hardly ever visiit here now, because all the nearby mature banksias have been removed. The magpies and rosellas have lost their best nesting trees to houses and gravel and concrete.
Ugh … this is too depressing. Time to go out into the garden and refresh.
Having been born into being a bushy, I now live on a tiny block near the township centre. Despite that I’m nurturing as many plants and trees as I can possibly squeeze in, along with many dishes of water on the ground and amongst the veg. – I now have a few frogs and an increase in lizards and bees and other insects. Once I’ve served the insects and animalia, I shall work out how I can serve myself.
But darn it all, I’ve been invaded by a feral cat, which has now gone and left its offspring. Seeing to it is now highest on my agenda.
Re-wilding on a micro scale downtown – a must.
leefe,
We have five huge pine trees (20+ metres tall) near the house so never a day go by without a couple of families of black cockies showing up and cracking the green pine cones. We also, thankfully, still have native bees appearing when the plants are flowering. I agree with you about the mozzies as well.
The other thing I have noticed is that leech numbers appear to have drooped very considerably over the last couple of years.
GL:
I have two very young native pines (Callitris) but they’re a long way from being fodder and there’s nothing else here for the black cockies; might try to find room for some Banksia on the nature strip but it’s pretty crowded already. Leeches have never been an issue – I’m semi-rural south east coast Tasmania, in a dry zone. Still plenty of them out bush, but – gave a few the flick before they could get at my not-at-all-tender old flesh on the last walk.
Clakka:
Resident blue tongue (she was heavily pregnant last time I saw her, so maybe more than one now), small skinks, tiny brown burrowing frogs. Plus enough whatevers underground for the potoroos and bandicoots to visit most nights, along with Fluffy the echidna and magpies, miners, butcherbirds, rosellas, galahs and recently a couple of Bassian thrushes during the day. Two bird baths and three ground level bowls keeps them happy. Still hoping for an Eastern spinebill and some fairy wrens when the cover gets thick enough; they’re in the area, so maybe one of these days …
corvusboreus, I imagine this link will resonate specifically for you…
Geoff Cousins declares war on controversial NSW industry.
Canguro,
Thank you.
Mr Cousins could be a very handy ally. He definitely wields more potentially effective upward leverage than me scuttling around with a tape-measure.
Forestry Corp’s official response to the blatant assault commited on Mr Graham alone warrants some serious scrutiny of current management practices.
And yeah, there are at least 3 large coupes around my local area (Kalang Tarkeeth, Tuckers Nob & Wedding Bells) being hurriedly deforested in preparation for being handed over as part of the great koala park.
I have noted the absence of flies for the last few years. Whats going on I ask myself.
Depends where you are, John. Any rotting mammalian corpse will still be an attractor for thousands of flies, just as any person on a horse behind a mob of sheep or cattle is likely to be a platform for hundreds who ride on their back.
To the broader question though – the global decline in invertebrates – have a look at the two links earlier listed above in this thread, or simply google ‘global decline in insect populations‘. Your self-directed question will be answered.