Not enough bees. All of my neighbors are freaked out about any bees, so they poison them at every opportunity. Seems everyone's kids and grandkids will "die" if stung by a bee.
VACCINES destroyed the kids (made them hyper allergic) so now everyone is trying to make sure there are no bees to pollinate our FOOD that we grow.
I live in a rainforest on East Maui. We are overrun with feral chickens and feral cats. Perhaps this is their new vacation destination! I will say that one third of my banana trees have died. My favorite plumeria tree is dying. The skies are filled with the telltale unusual “clouds”. We haven’t had a perfectly clear day in six months, always hazy.
My chickens are in decline because they are coming up on 5 years of age and because the drought has meant the coyotes are hard pressed to get game from the wild landscape. THey have reduced my flock by about 1/2, from 24 to 12 in the past year.
A feral cat had 5 kittens in my barn some months back and was feeding them mice, gophers and rats she hunted from my farm for the first 3 weeks before I discovered them. They are now nearly full grown and mama cat is pregnant again by a feral Tom. With a total of 7 cats here now and at least 3 rattlesnakes that I've seen so far this year, the rodent and lizard population is in decline. That's good news for me.
At 3 weeks old those kittens were still nursing. They don't begin trying solid food until 4- 5 weeks old, and even then only very liquified solid food.
Strongly suggest you get mama cat spayed after this litter, and the kittens as well, once they're 6 months old. If you don't, mama cat will be doomed to a life of churning out 4 litters of kittens each year which will take a toll on her. Getting overrun with inbred and consequently, sick kittens and cats, will take a toll on you. Cats are great, but no one wants their own feline population explosion. Spaying/neutering them in exchange for the excellent rodent and lizard control only seems fair. They will be healthier and able to do their job for you for many years. And of course, it's the responsible, kind thing to do.
3 weeks was a guess. I just know the day I found them there was a rat laid out with several kittens feeding from it. There is no way I can catch them. They are all wild. I would shoot the Tom if I had the chance because he harasses my older cat who has long been spayed.
"If you don't, mama cat will be doomed to a life of churning out 4 litters of kittens each year which will take a toll on her."
That's the narrative we've all heard, but I have seen absolutely nothing here that supports it. Out of four unaltered female cats (eg queens) at the height I have: one who seems absolutely infertile (Feisty), one who is currently pregnant which if she has kittens will be her first litter since 18 months ago (and on that litter only one lived as a roaming tom mauled the other two when they were only a few days old), one who had two litters over the course of two years but seemed to have a problem nursing so only one kitten lived, and one who recently disappeared before having kittens at all. Sue is correct that 3 weeks is too young for kittens to eat solid food 5 or 6 weeks would be a better guess. Feral cats do provide a great service in killing rats, lizards and other pests when we first moved into our area we had such a big rat and bat problem that we were near begging for a cat. We've barely seen any rats or bats in years now!
Amy, your individual experience with your particular cats is not the same for everyone.
The "narrative" of multiple litters per year is all too real for many cats. Kittens as young as 6 months old can become pregnant. Cats, in general, are prolific breeders. Many shelters across the US are inundated with pregnant cats and litters all year round.
Even if your cats are not having 3-4 litters per year, 1 or 2 litters per year or 18 months is plenty, considering the worldwide overpopulation of cats.
I'm not judging you, because I don't know anything about your circumstances, but I wonder why you allow 4 females to roam and produce kittens. What will happen to the kittens of your currently pregnant cat? Can you find them homes? Kittens being mauled by a tom and dying of starvation because the mom cat can't nurse doesn't seem like something you'd want to see continue.
We had given away four kittens two years ago, but none have been born lately, the last litter being in May of 2022. I tried to nurse those ones but Random was very feral and moved them. She has since disappeared.
Feisty is our friendly house cat. Being that she is three years old, has never once gone into estrus and thus has also not become pregnant, I consider her a case study. At this point I'd be more curious at what changed if she did become pregnant.
I am sure there is great variation and many places overpopulated with cats, but from the ones I'm tracking here I'm not seeing it. If Mama should have kittens, which in no way is a guarantee, I would welcome them. They would be the first born around the area in over a year, while meanwhile two adult feral cats have gone missing this year (random and Spooky 2, both females) and one, old One Eyed Tom, disappeared in early 2022. I've gone from feeding six feral cats to feeding three plus our two friendly sleep on the bed housecats (Sprout and Feisty).
Of course I am not an animal shelter so I do not see some excess on every corner. Soi Dog has likewise claimed they are at all time highs of dogs in their shelter, which I've mused may be because of excess numbers of dying and disabled people who can no longer care for their pets...lockdowns also closed most animal charity services of this sort. Best with it...the variation is fascinating...
I've taken care of feral cat colonies for over 25 years. Yes, you can catch them with a humane trap. You can borrow one (or two) from your local shelter or rescue group. They'll be more than happy to lend them as well as show you how to use them, which is very simple. You use food as bait, the smellier the better (think tuna, sardines, etc.). Tons of videos online showing how it's done. There's probably a low cost, or even free S/N program in your area. The shelter/rescue groups will know.
Neutering the Tom will be kinder than killing him. Feral cats are the result of irresponsible people who didn't S/N (spay/neuter) their domestic cats but let them roam. The offspring of those cats were often born outdoors and had no contact with people. That's why they're fearful of humans. In many cases, they have good reason to be.
These cats have no choice but to adapt, if they can, to living in whatever environment they find themselves in. That cycle continues, although now there's increased awareness about how to humanely control their numbers. It's called TNR - Trap, Neuter, Return. In most parts of the US it's also much easier and inexpensive to get pet cats S/N too.
The Tom is a victim of his circumstances and hormones. Intact male cats often behave as he does.
I see feral cats as a natural result of what has been occurring to the disruption of natural eco-systems around the world. Because of human interference in healthy, natural cycles of native ecosystems (the destruction of predatory species that typically keep rodent populations in check) rodent populations are exploding everywhere and I see the explosion of cat populations as a natural solution to the rodent problem. If there were no rodents, there would be no fewer cat problems. I'm not saying humans should never interfere with cat populations, but I am saying that in a wilderness setting like my place, the parameters are very different than the typical city parameters you are referring to. I once had 4 cats and I'm down to one because I've lost 3 to coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, ocelots, jaguarundi and bobcats. Along with about 50 chickens and several goats over the past 25 years. This is not your typical domesticated environment where cats can run rampant.
My money's on the 5G towers. One was erected in 2020 near where I live (I can see it from my living room). I will be leaving soon, but in my new place I will be installing electromagnetic barriers.
It's not a sudden overwhelming thing that you can pinpoint and go "that's it", but I will notice stuff, like "where are the birds"? You just look up and see no birds in the area. And I've had 3 goldfish just become ill and die within 48 hours, for no apparent reason, over the past couple of years.
I noticed lesser smaller birds. I have nesting boxes they were not used this year. I think the smaller birds are mostly affected. Larger ones like eagles we saw nesting but where are the songbirds?
I have read and heard similar - that feed in general, including for livestock, has been cheapened and/or adulterated so much that the animals cannot thrive properly.
I had to look that stuff up.... it is organophosphate insecticide.... interesting coincidence that Dr Ana is finding fibrin strings forming in people's blood and the chemical analysis suggests that they are composed of mainly phosphorous.
I am hoping that Dr Ana will respond to a query I left about this on her latest Substack post.
After watching Dr Ana Maria Mihalcea's Substack I wonder if cheap chicken food from some big monopoly company, combined with power lines, could be an awful idea...
Hard to say - I would guess less squirrels than I've seen in the past, and probably insects too (except for flies). Plenty of people in town selling eggs...
We had a bumper crop of cherries this year so that means the flowers got pollinated by enough bees.
Surprising fewer spotted wing drospohilas in numbers this year which can make a cherry crop worthless. We use an organic spray to control them. We don't chickens or feral cats in our neighborhood. Don't know about birds. Curious if the western scrub jay numbers are not what they have been in the past.
Thanks for this. My area has been unusually wet this year, so we have an abundance of insects, which is very strange, and fantastic. And so, bats and birds. And species of bees I've never seen before. Car bumpers all around are plastered in bug guts, which I haven't seen in a long time. A memory I will never forget: in the weeks following lockdown, when the cars more or less stopped, cautious animals came out of the hills, slowly at first, and then in droves. For a few months they were everywhere. It felt like that scene in Ace Ventura. Then the cars slowly started back up again, and the animals apparently crossed the sea, back to the Undying Lands, along with the elves.
Where I am at in Phuket I would call the weather pattern normal. It was unusually dry in the dry season, but the rains did come, and now that it is the rainy season if I had to guess it is a little dryer than a normal rainy season, but nothing devastating is going on either way. The insect population here seems okay there's been lots of butterflies...
It could be. Both feral cats and chickens have been disappearing. If it hadn't been for the baby chicks chirping very loudly I would not have likely found the hen quickly or hence known the cause: if a chicken just quietly dies in some thicket of brush, I don't notice they are gone for 2-3 days usually. So what they died of could have been a snake, a dog, a hawk, or a sudden bout of the flu. Some time ago I read about differences between Marek's disease and avian influenza and thought the symptoms better matched Marek's (loss of coordination and crusting around the eyes and beak) but I didn't exactly run a test...
And what about the butterflies? A few years ago Cha Am was full of them. Now they are a rarity, as green fields and woodland is bulldozed and drowned in concrete, bricks and mortar in the name of progress. The only painted ladies wafting around these days are the bar girls in bus station soi. . . or so I'm told!
Ah, ladyboys. . . do they still actually exist.? Or have they, I wonder, succumbed to the transgender biomedical behemoth and magically morphed into ladygirls? Funny, but in the two decades of living here, I've never ever met one daft enough to think he could actually change his sex, even by going under the knife, never mind taking hormones..
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the gender identity madness currently infesting education systems across the West won't reach these fair shores - at least not until my teenage daughter has passed through the school gates for the last time.
I've known some ladyboys and I always thought it was correctly assessed here in Thailand: they were not treated as women (i.e. one would not go into a woman's bathroom), but somewhat given their own special category as kathooeys. The transgender experience is in no way biologically equivalent to my experience of being a person with two XX chromosomes my whole life who never had a thought to try to change. What do I know of peeing standing up, or neovaginas, or puberty blockers or hormones or any of that stuff? About as much as they know about tracking periods or what morning sickness feels like. Oddly a lot of ladyboys probably know more about makeup and wigs and fake eyelashes than I ever will. I'm glad my girls both seem contentedly female...let's hope they stay that way!
Not enough bees. All of my neighbors are freaked out about any bees, so they poison them at every opportunity. Seems everyone's kids and grandkids will "die" if stung by a bee.
VACCINES destroyed the kids (made them hyper allergic) so now everyone is trying to make sure there are no bees to pollinate our FOOD that we grow.
I live in a rainforest on East Maui. We are overrun with feral chickens and feral cats. Perhaps this is their new vacation destination! I will say that one third of my banana trees have died. My favorite plumeria tree is dying. The skies are filled with the telltale unusual “clouds”. We haven’t had a perfectly clear day in six months, always hazy.
My chickens are in decline because they are coming up on 5 years of age and because the drought has meant the coyotes are hard pressed to get game from the wild landscape. THey have reduced my flock by about 1/2, from 24 to 12 in the past year.
A feral cat had 5 kittens in my barn some months back and was feeding them mice, gophers and rats she hunted from my farm for the first 3 weeks before I discovered them. They are now nearly full grown and mama cat is pregnant again by a feral Tom. With a total of 7 cats here now and at least 3 rattlesnakes that I've seen so far this year, the rodent and lizard population is in decline. That's good news for me.
We need to keep an eye on the smaller birds, they are missing actually.
Not here. I'm surrounded by several million acres of wilderness and that eco-system is quite intact.
At 3 weeks old those kittens were still nursing. They don't begin trying solid food until 4- 5 weeks old, and even then only very liquified solid food.
Strongly suggest you get mama cat spayed after this litter, and the kittens as well, once they're 6 months old. If you don't, mama cat will be doomed to a life of churning out 4 litters of kittens each year which will take a toll on her. Getting overrun with inbred and consequently, sick kittens and cats, will take a toll on you. Cats are great, but no one wants their own feline population explosion. Spaying/neutering them in exchange for the excellent rodent and lizard control only seems fair. They will be healthier and able to do their job for you for many years. And of course, it's the responsible, kind thing to do.
3 weeks was a guess. I just know the day I found them there was a rat laid out with several kittens feeding from it. There is no way I can catch them. They are all wild. I would shoot the Tom if I had the chance because he harasses my older cat who has long been spayed.
"If you don't, mama cat will be doomed to a life of churning out 4 litters of kittens each year which will take a toll on her."
That's the narrative we've all heard, but I have seen absolutely nothing here that supports it. Out of four unaltered female cats (eg queens) at the height I have: one who seems absolutely infertile (Feisty), one who is currently pregnant which if she has kittens will be her first litter since 18 months ago (and on that litter only one lived as a roaming tom mauled the other two when they were only a few days old), one who had two litters over the course of two years but seemed to have a problem nursing so only one kitten lived, and one who recently disappeared before having kittens at all. Sue is correct that 3 weeks is too young for kittens to eat solid food 5 or 6 weeks would be a better guess. Feral cats do provide a great service in killing rats, lizards and other pests when we first moved into our area we had such a big rat and bat problem that we were near begging for a cat. We've barely seen any rats or bats in years now!
Amy, your individual experience with your particular cats is not the same for everyone.
The "narrative" of multiple litters per year is all too real for many cats. Kittens as young as 6 months old can become pregnant. Cats, in general, are prolific breeders. Many shelters across the US are inundated with pregnant cats and litters all year round.
Even if your cats are not having 3-4 litters per year, 1 or 2 litters per year or 18 months is plenty, considering the worldwide overpopulation of cats.
I'm not judging you, because I don't know anything about your circumstances, but I wonder why you allow 4 females to roam and produce kittens. What will happen to the kittens of your currently pregnant cat? Can you find them homes? Kittens being mauled by a tom and dying of starvation because the mom cat can't nurse doesn't seem like something you'd want to see continue.
We had given away four kittens two years ago, but none have been born lately, the last litter being in May of 2022. I tried to nurse those ones but Random was very feral and moved them. She has since disappeared.
Feisty is our friendly house cat. Being that she is three years old, has never once gone into estrus and thus has also not become pregnant, I consider her a case study. At this point I'd be more curious at what changed if she did become pregnant.
I am sure there is great variation and many places overpopulated with cats, but from the ones I'm tracking here I'm not seeing it. If Mama should have kittens, which in no way is a guarantee, I would welcome them. They would be the first born around the area in over a year, while meanwhile two adult feral cats have gone missing this year (random and Spooky 2, both females) and one, old One Eyed Tom, disappeared in early 2022. I've gone from feeding six feral cats to feeding three plus our two friendly sleep on the bed housecats (Sprout and Feisty).
Of course I am not an animal shelter so I do not see some excess on every corner. Soi Dog has likewise claimed they are at all time highs of dogs in their shelter, which I've mused may be because of excess numbers of dying and disabled people who can no longer care for their pets...lockdowns also closed most animal charity services of this sort. Best with it...the variation is fascinating...
I've taken care of feral cat colonies for over 25 years. Yes, you can catch them with a humane trap. You can borrow one (or two) from your local shelter or rescue group. They'll be more than happy to lend them as well as show you how to use them, which is very simple. You use food as bait, the smellier the better (think tuna, sardines, etc.). Tons of videos online showing how it's done. There's probably a low cost, or even free S/N program in your area. The shelter/rescue groups will know.
Neutering the Tom will be kinder than killing him. Feral cats are the result of irresponsible people who didn't S/N (spay/neuter) their domestic cats but let them roam. The offspring of those cats were often born outdoors and had no contact with people. That's why they're fearful of humans. In many cases, they have good reason to be.
These cats have no choice but to adapt, if they can, to living in whatever environment they find themselves in. That cycle continues, although now there's increased awareness about how to humanely control their numbers. It's called TNR - Trap, Neuter, Return. In most parts of the US it's also much easier and inexpensive to get pet cats S/N too.
The Tom is a victim of his circumstances and hormones. Intact male cats often behave as he does.
I see feral cats as a natural result of what has been occurring to the disruption of natural eco-systems around the world. Because of human interference in healthy, natural cycles of native ecosystems (the destruction of predatory species that typically keep rodent populations in check) rodent populations are exploding everywhere and I see the explosion of cat populations as a natural solution to the rodent problem. If there were no rodents, there would be no fewer cat problems. I'm not saying humans should never interfere with cat populations, but I am saying that in a wilderness setting like my place, the parameters are very different than the typical city parameters you are referring to. I once had 4 cats and I'm down to one because I've lost 3 to coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, ocelots, jaguarundi and bobcats. Along with about 50 chickens and several goats over the past 25 years. This is not your typical domesticated environment where cats can run rampant.
My money's on the 5G towers. One was erected in 2020 near where I live (I can see it from my living room). I will be leaving soon, but in my new place I will be installing electromagnetic barriers.
It's not a sudden overwhelming thing that you can pinpoint and go "that's it", but I will notice stuff, like "where are the birds"? You just look up and see no birds in the area. And I've had 3 goldfish just become ill and die within 48 hours, for no apparent reason, over the past couple of years.
I noticed lesser smaller birds. I have nesting boxes they were not used this year. I think the smaller birds are mostly affected. Larger ones like eagles we saw nesting but where are the songbirds?
Im in Florida...
I have read and heard similar - that feed in general, including for livestock, has been cheapened and/or adulterated so much that the animals cannot thrive properly.
The bird life around Dorset UK is decreasing but so are the insects.
It's odd because usually these things maintain a type of balance. Less birds equaly more insects which equals more birds and then less insects...
same in nyc.
and they're still spraying the streets with malathion, ostensibly for mosquitoes. in the black neighborhoods you can smell it.
I had to look that stuff up.... it is organophosphate insecticide.... interesting coincidence that Dr Ana is finding fibrin strings forming in people's blood and the chemical analysis suggests that they are composed of mainly phosphorous.
I am hoping that Dr Ana will respond to a query I left about this on her latest Substack post.
Here, the homeless eat the chickens too fast for us to count them.
Really? The homeless in Las Vegas I suppose don't have that large of a chicken population to draw off of! Now I'm curious...
Decline. Chickens, cats, insects, humans, trees, vegetation, etc.
And the culprit ain't climate change...
Decline in humans too...
After watching Dr Ana Maria Mihalcea's Substack I wonder if cheap chicken food from some big monopoly company, combined with power lines, could be an awful idea...
I've heard the chicken feed theory before. With our chickens specifically that would not be the culprit...
Hard to say - I would guess less squirrels than I've seen in the past, and probably insects too (except for flies). Plenty of people in town selling eggs...
There's still plenty of eggs to buy around here but we haven't seen many by our chickens! I wonder what they are doing there...
No idea. Pretty much nothing is as it seems...
We had a bumper crop of cherries this year so that means the flowers got pollinated by enough bees.
Surprising fewer spotted wing drospohilas in numbers this year which can make a cherry crop worthless. We use an organic spray to control them. We don't chickens or feral cats in our neighborhood. Don't know about birds. Curious if the western scrub jay numbers are not what they have been in the past.
yes, had almost forgotten about the scrub jays… their distinctive chirp, especially in fall… it’s been years, if not a decade since i’ve seen any
I noticed lesser songbirds too so its more quiet no chirping...
Thanks for this. My area has been unusually wet this year, so we have an abundance of insects, which is very strange, and fantastic. And so, bats and birds. And species of bees I've never seen before. Car bumpers all around are plastered in bug guts, which I haven't seen in a long time. A memory I will never forget: in the weeks following lockdown, when the cars more or less stopped, cautious animals came out of the hills, slowly at first, and then in droves. For a few months they were everywhere. It felt like that scene in Ace Ventura. Then the cars slowly started back up again, and the animals apparently crossed the sea, back to the Undying Lands, along with the elves.
Where I am at in Phuket I would call the weather pattern normal. It was unusually dry in the dry season, but the rains did come, and now that it is the rainy season if I had to guess it is a little dryer than a normal rainy season, but nothing devastating is going on either way. The insect population here seems okay there's been lots of butterflies...
Very curious, I wonder what others have seen.
PS Amy do you think it was avian influenza??? the Chicken I mean?
It could be. Both feral cats and chickens have been disappearing. If it hadn't been for the baby chicks chirping very loudly I would not have likely found the hen quickly or hence known the cause: if a chicken just quietly dies in some thicket of brush, I don't notice they are gone for 2-3 days usually. So what they died of could have been a snake, a dog, a hawk, or a sudden bout of the flu. Some time ago I read about differences between Marek's disease and avian influenza and thought the symptoms better matched Marek's (loss of coordination and crusting around the eyes and beak) but I didn't exactly run a test...
Amy, this is so strange...and a little chilling.
And what about the butterflies? A few years ago Cha Am was full of them. Now they are a rarity, as green fields and woodland is bulldozed and drowned in concrete, bricks and mortar in the name of progress. The only painted ladies wafting around these days are the bar girls in bus station soi. . . or so I'm told!
LOL they might be ladyboys! In my rural area there are plenty of butterflies still. I haven't noticed bees around lately though...
Ah, ladyboys. . . do they still actually exist.? Or have they, I wonder, succumbed to the transgender biomedical behemoth and magically morphed into ladygirls? Funny, but in the two decades of living here, I've never ever met one daft enough to think he could actually change his sex, even by going under the knife, never mind taking hormones..
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the gender identity madness currently infesting education systems across the West won't reach these fair shores - at least not until my teenage daughter has passed through the school gates for the last time.
I've known some ladyboys and I always thought it was correctly assessed here in Thailand: they were not treated as women (i.e. one would not go into a woman's bathroom), but somewhat given their own special category as kathooeys. The transgender experience is in no way biologically equivalent to my experience of being a person with two XX chromosomes my whole life who never had a thought to try to change. What do I know of peeing standing up, or neovaginas, or puberty blockers or hormones or any of that stuff? About as much as they know about tracking periods or what morning sickness feels like. Oddly a lot of ladyboys probably know more about makeup and wigs and fake eyelashes than I ever will. I'm glad my girls both seem contentedly female...let's hope they stay that way!
Amen to that.