somewhere under the hell dome
nature sighs, there's a time I recall when so many insects thrived
What happened to the insects this year? Years ago I saw armies of ladybug larvae emerging from under the siding and marching on the aphids and sometimes getting lost and marching into our kitchen window. Lacewings and Atteva aurea fluttered in and out of the house, and clouds of fireflies lit the wild tangled spots at dusk. Click beetles, junebugs, stinkbugs, fat little bees, they were busy and numerous, and now they’re gone.
I saw one ladybug this year. Only one. One junebug. The pollinators too, I have yet to see a bee. I see a few butterflies but not as many as in the past, a couple of lacewings, a crab spider, several paper wasps, not as many ants, lots of pillbugs, some grasshoppers, a few fireflies in May, but none lately. Cicadas rattle louder every day, they might outlive everything but roaches and flies. But the rest? What do we do? How do we bring them back? Contact my city council rep, the mayor, our district representatives, our dumbass senators, the President?
I chose flowers specifically to attract beneficial insects. Vines, bushes, and stalks are blooming but nothing is pollinating anything — this is alarming. I haven’t even seen the tomato hornworms or the webworms this year — I don’t miss them but they fill some sort of valuable niche, the moths are major pollinators. There’s just not much happening out there unless you count the OPPRESSIVE RAYS OF THE SUN WAITING TO GET YOU WHEN YOU STEP OUT OF THE SHADE. The garden looks healthy but this summer is harsh, and I am worried.
Adding nightmares about the insect apocalypse to my list of anxieties.1
I’m seeing some writing and social media posts about gardening being a lifeline to other long covid sufferers2, and wondering if there is a way to make it a cooperative or something. Like, what if there’s a Long Covid Horticulture Collective, or a Post Viral Malady Rewilding Group, or something? In the early days of the pandemic, the interest in gardening grew quite a bit worldwide3 — I wonder if it stuck? How many of us with covid complications or other post viral maladies are nurturing a plant, whether on a windowsill or out on a balcony, patio, or yard?
I miss being able to garden, work, cook, read something, make something, hang out with people all in the same day without wiping out so bad my arms and legs just quit, but I try again and again like a spider climbing up the side of a wet kitchen sink4.
It isn’t recommended to do that, don’t push yourselves too hard.
I start and abandon projects depending on whether my brain is working or my body is. We’re clearing out the house and keeping the garden alive, and so far have been able to make some progress by working on a little at a time. Now that the kids have moved we’re spreading out a bit, thinning out two decades of stuff, putting the good stuff in a box to be sorted, the special stuff aside to send to them, the outgrown clothes in a box to be donated. The object is to make more room rather than fill empty space. We will be ready with roll out mattresses, good snacks, places to put things, and things to talk about the next time they come to town.
I joked a little about death cleaning in the past, how it is so popular because everything is so grim and everyone is so worn out that it seems like a good idea to make a habit of getting rid of things to prevent the scary day when we’ll be immobile and surrounded by junk. I want the house to be pared down to the most basic joy-sparks, and for the kids and family and friends to take all the stuff they want simply so there will be less clutter and unused things. Honestly, what am I going to do with a 10 cup ricemaker now that the kids are grown and the old man doesn’t like rice?
Clearing the house is such a relief, and opening space seems to cool things off a little. The cats are happy about it — more sun spills on the floor. I’m excited to free the art supplies from dusty places I can’t easily access anymore. Usually by the time I set up a project, I’m so beat I can’t move my arms without struggling against gravity, so the plan is to have supplies within arm’s reach and set up a few spots where I can leave a project to dry out of the way while working on something else. I can use the sewing machine, set up linocut printing, do oil painting, install an exhaust fan, so many possibilities! I hope I have the energy for it.
Wardill, Joanna, “Gardening 'absolutely central' to Leeds woman's year-long Covid recovery as she shows off her impressive efforts” Yorkshire Evening Post. March 19, 2021
Monika Egerer, Brenda Lin, Jonathan Kingsley, Pauline Marsh, Lucy Diekmann, Alessandro Ossola, “Gardening can relieve human stress and boost nature connection during the COVID-19 pandemic”, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Volume 68, 2022, 127483, ISSN 1618-8667, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127483. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866722000267)
my handy household hint for that is offer a chopstick for it to grab and put the little guy someplace safe for spiders, like a houseplant or behind the refrigerator.
Some people are scared of spiders, and that’s perfectly understandable, I certainly hate walking through a web omg omg omg. A few spiders are really dangerous and some that aren’t jump unpredictably in the wrong direction when they are disturbed, so it’s like they are yellong “BOO!” at you.
If they scare you, just leave the room until they get their shit together or find someone who isn’t terrified of spiders to help. Please don’t kill it with fire. The fire is far more dangerous than most spiders, you really don’t want that mess.
How many cats? Photos! And why are you writing like the inside off.my brain and the beffidled tired world I'm falling through in a horizontal direction. The cats do help. As does nature. Good on you for firehosing the brain fog.for a.moment to write. I'd just been looking for someone to talk to about all this and here you are and I can just read it and it helps.