Sonairte and Pesky Flies- Where Have They Gone?

Do you fancy visiting the Sonairte Ecology Centre in Laytown , County Meath in the near future. Well you can’t. 

The centre, which was established in 1986 by members of the local community and concerned environmentalists to promote environmental awareness and education promotes ecological awareness and sustainable living  posted this message on Facebook:

“For the avoidance of any doubt, Sonairte "in its entirety" will be closed to the Public from 5pm this Friday 25th August. This includes all Tenants, which includes The Sunflower Cafe, who after 5pm on Friday will no longer have access to the Centre. After this point, the Centre will be solely "Private Property" and trespassers will be prosecuted. We appreciate the public’s support at this difficult time. Thank you Sonairte”

Short and to the point, the centre didn’t go into any more details about the sudden closure. It is speculated that spiralling insurance costs have something to do with the decision to close, rising from under €10,000 to over €30,000 in the space of a year. 

The ecology centre was a busy place with training courses, school visits, monthly craft markets selling produce from their 10 acre gardens, nature trail and river walks along with a craft shop were just some of their biggest attraction. The centre will still sell it’s produce but you’ll need to go to the local shops for it as the gates are staying firmly shut for the time being until the matter has been resolved.

Splat

As I am in the mood for a bit of news, have you heard about the “Windscreen Phenomenon? It’s been reported that there are far fewer squashed insects on your car windscreens a compared to life in the 1970’s. Flies, gnats, hoverflies, beetles and wasps all seem to be in fewer numbers. Even driving at night people have commented they see far fewer moths diving into the headlight beams.

Some people are blaming the reduction in insects on insecticide use with intensive farming. Since 2006, beekeepers have lost about a third of their managed bee colonies each year largely due to the loss of flower-rich grassland which has declined by 97 per cent from the 1930’s.

Rothamsted Research has also monitored insect populations using traps for more than 50 years. Chris Shortall, an entomologist from Rothamsted said they had found evidence that the number of flying insects is falling, but said ‘the windscreen phenomenon’ was difficult to prove.

“The loss of insects from our windscreens is a well-noted anecdote, however actually demonstrating it is very tricky, if not impossible”

In 2004 the RSPB asked motorists to attach a ‘splatometer’ to the front of their cars - a piece of PVC film to collect insects, to see if they were declining. They recorded 324,814 ‘splats’, an average of only one squashed insect every five miles.

However the survey was only carried out once so it was impossible to see whether bug numbers had fallen over time. It will become more apparent in the near future if we see the decline in animals that depend on these insects for nutrition in the food chain. It’s estimated we have only identified about one quarter of the insect species on the planet

I doubt it as I think fewer insects hit the windscreens now than in the past.  Cars have changed shape over time, and are now far more aerodynamic with steeper angled glass, meaning fewer insects are hit. They just get caught in the updraft and fly over the top of the roof.  

Just to add, I think I have done my fair share of ‘bug cleaning’ from the car windscreen. As the summer draws to a close and the sleepy, drunk wasps come out to pester us I’m sure a few people will still think there are just a few to many insects around still to annoy us.

Ident Groups

There are a couple of insect identification groups in Ireland. The National Biodiversity Data Centre currently runs two insect monitoring schemes: the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, established in 2007 and the all-Ireland Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme, established in 2011. 

The Irish Butterfly ‘Red List’ found that, of the 35 resident and regular migrant species of Irish butterfly, one species is now extinct, six species are threatened with extinction and five species are of ‘Near Threatened’ status. Therefore, 18% of our butterfly species are now under threat, with another 15% heading in the same direction.

The Centre provides support and training for anyone wishing to begin to identifying and monitoring these wonderful insects. They will be expanding the monitoring schemes to cover more insect groups in the near future as they see the importance of monitoring this vital part of the food chain in a diverse world.