> If not pesticides...what?

Don't sell pesticides short... everywhere is downstream of someplace else,
so those who think that they are pesticide-free in their areas are likely
fooling themselves, or lack appropriate equipment to sample and test.

But monocultures, all intensely managed, tend to reduce all insect numbers,
even if the un-farmable wasteland adjacent to the pesticide-soaked fields
are declared "pollinator set-asides" so that corporate farms can take
massive tax credits.

Efficiency also kills insects - mosquito larvacides... how much collateral
damage do they do to other insects in the same wetland?  NYC vector control
uses a chopper to fly around and spread larvacide over the entire "Gateway"
area, from Sandy Hook, NJ, up to the JFK area, and quite a ways inland from
all the water.  Non-target insects include far more than bees and
butterflies.

But the loss of wetlands themselves are the most likely root cause of such a
large insect decline, as it would take something pervasive, and
continent-wide to have continent-wide impact.  What is not drying out is
getting salty, and the most scenic areas are being filled in, landscaped,
and sold for "luxury condos".

That said, there are still some big mosquitos out there despite the best
efforts to control their numbers, and reduce the West Nile Virus case
numbers.  Over at the Teterboro NJ airport (where private planes land to
avoid the high fees at the major NYC airports) the FBO ground crew put 50
gallons of av-gas into what they thought was a Piper Comanche last summer,
only to have it fall over dead and thereby prove that it was actually a
mosquito.

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