"In terms of survival, studies I have seen show wild fluctuations from year to year."

And from place to place also.  I saw a interesting example just this year in a non pollinator insect.  This was our year for the 17 year cicada.    The last time in 1999 I had thousands and thousands in my yard and lots of tree damage.  This year I heard very few in my yard, saw none at all and had zero tree damage.  Hard to blame pesticides.  I have lived in this house since 1971 and during that period have used exactly zero ounces of anything, including fertilizer, on my yard.  I do use maybe two ounces of roundup and two ounces of 2,4D a year for weed control on my garden and around my bee hives and to spot kill poison ivy in my woods.  And maybe one ounce every few years of sevin to control the imported Asian lady bugs in the fall when they cover the south side of my house by the tens of thousands.

While I had practically no cicadas only 3/4 mile north from my house there were thousands and thousands and red oaks got about ten % of their leaves killed.  Five miles farther north there were even more and red oaks up there got 50% defoliation.  To the south of my house for at least 15 miles no signs of tree damage at all.  Yet back in 1999 there were lots of them south of my house for miles.

Dick
" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken

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