What bugs/diseases/critters have ya'll seen that weren't around 30-40 years ago?

[Torvy]

Lots of bees here, along with hornets and wasps. But no shortage of honey bees and bumble bees.

The Monarch butterflies are indeed scarce, though. We have them, but not nearly so many as decades ago.

When I was a kid, we were driving in California during a migration of monarchs. Hundreds died on the front of vehicles. Dad stopped at a restaurant area and as 7 year olds will do, I tried to catch some. Some random lady started yelling her head off at me...I'm sorry, but compared to the cars, the 1 or 2 that may have died because I caught them were a drop in the ocean of those on the highway.

Mea culpa. Apparently, it's my fault.

 

[Jstpssng]

Mea culpa. Apparently, it's my fault.

We'll go with that. If every 7 YO kid...

 

[MossRoad]

When I was a kid, we were driving in California during a migration of monarchs. Hundreds died on the front of vehicles. Dad stopped at a restaurant area and as 7 year olds will do, I tried to catch some. Some random lady started yelling her head off at me...I'm sorry, but compared to the cars, the 1 or 2 that may have died because I caught them were a drop in the ocean of those on the highway.

Mea culpa. Apparently, it's my fault.

Several years ago my wife and I went up to Mackinac Island and then drove down the western coast of the lower peninsula. It was fall. At every beach we stopped at, for three days, there was a massive Monarch butterfly migration heading south along the coast. Millions of them. From the tip of the peninsula all the way to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It was impressive. I have movies and pictures somewhere. If I ever find them, I'll post.

 

[MossRoad]

So if you blow this photo up, every single black dot in the sky is a Monarch butterfly.... click on it to enlarge, then zoom it in.

 

[MossRoad]

Down in Indiana, they were stopping in this field...
You can't see it in the wide shot, but it's a LIVE apple image, and if you could activate it, you'd see thousands of butterflies flying around these flowers.

 

[MossRoad]

It was one of the more impressive things we've seen in nature. It was September 8-20th, 2019, so more than the three days I had originally mentioned. Our costal drive was 3 days, but we went to the dunes several times. Anyhow... it was something to see.

 

[ponytug]

I've seen the Monarchs that overwinter near here a couple of times, and it is wild to see an evergreen tree that is red brown and shimmering.

On the butterfly topic, we happened to be in the central Californian Sierras, when the annual painted lady butterfly migration came through. There were butterflies every 1-2' up to about ten feet in altitude, flowing northward all day for the two days we were there. Truly amazing.

What is wild is that the lifespan of the butterfly is 4-28 days, so the migration from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest is several generations, and vice versa.

Painted Lady Migrates Through So Cal - Optics4Birding Nature Blog

Painted Lady blasts So Cal with beautiful color in their huge 2019 spring migration. Learn about this butterfly, its movements, life history and this event.

blog.optics4birding.com

All the best,

Peter

 

[Dftodd]

Lots of bees here, along with hornets and wasps. But no shortage of honey bees and bumble bees.

The Monarch butterflies are indeed scarce, though. We have them, but not nearly so many as decades ago.

Our shop is nuts in the summer with wasps and yellow jackets.

Since we have 7 acres of asphalt yard, we store pipe for our district.

Towards the middle to end of summer, I'll end up having to take the forklift and load some of that pipe.

As soon as you grab a rack of pipe, it looks like Armageddon with nothing but a big solid cloud of wasps or yellow jackets. Sometimes both.

A cabbed forklift is a must.

 

[paulsharvey]

Only made it down to about post 16, but didn't see it, and it's not really a negative.

Bald eagles; when I was a kid, (I'm 42 now, so 80s/90s), if you saw a bald eagle, it was worth mentioning. Now, you'll see half a dozen a day, eating road kill, perched in a tree, or just gliding around.

Coyotes, see them a lot more than 20-30 years ago. They aren't "new", but i think they used to do a better control of them.

On the opposite side; FWC a couple years ago asked people to report skunk sightings; and that made me think; you really dont see them anymore, or not as much. Guessing that's directly linked to the coyotes?

 

[paulsharvey]

Mind you, we live in North east-north central FLa, and wife has lived in NE FLa her entire life; and she still jokingly says she doesn't believe bears actually exist. We certainly have them, but right where I am, they aren't really common. 30 miles south, they are a common nuisance.

Them damn herpes monkeys; dang things have spread beyond just Ocala national forest, and worked north, probably 30 miles. Used to be, you could trap them and sell them to testing labs. Now, you can't trap them, can't shoot them, and they just cause nothing but problems. Ive always thought, #5, 3" magnums, are they way to deal with them. Maybe #4s? Or better yet, #7.5 TSS...