It started when we cut the trees. Bigger animals, i.e. bears, deer, squirrels, snakes, bats, rabbits, birds, mice, and such up and left. We never noticed before how much trees’ leaves shaded us from Sol, who seems to burn hotter every year. Their cooling umbrella now gone, and because electricity is rationed, we bake in our wooden boxes.
We didn’t realize that the insects would stay. They’ve become immune to our poisons and multiply exponentially with no predators. In daylight their chirps, hums, and buzzes saturate the air. At night, their deafening swarms blot out the moon.
[97 words]
This summer has been relentlessly hot. The insects are the worst I’ve ever seen, but curiously no mosquitoes! I’m battling tent caterpillars on one of my young oaks and they are voracious and vicious – one bit my leg and drew blood! Right now I hate bugs.
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is the affirming host of Friday Fictioneers.
Tao Talk 
We are reaping what we sowed.
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Yes, Sadje 😦
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😱
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Yep, the bugs seem to stay alright!
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Bugs are all that will be left if we continue! Excellent take, Lisa.
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Thanks, Dale.
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You said you saw the prophetic potential in my story, but yours seems much more plausible. Our destruction is destined to come back and bite us in the leg and draw blood. It seems to have started already.
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I wish I could disagree 😦
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I so always most certainly enjoy the heat, but its dark side can be quite nasty~
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BUGS is a 4-letter word.
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I think the bugs have their part to play as well. Like pollination and recycling
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When the food chain is balanced things work well. When all but a few links are left, balance is gone.
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When entire ecosystems collapse thanks to humanity’s thoughtless actions, that’s all that will remain. Good luck with the tent caterpillars. I didn’t know that they will bite (and draw blood in the process too!) I hope that you’re alright.
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I agree, Shweta. I didn’t know either. Just a nip that has healed but my hamstring or muscles around the hamstring seized up when I tried to get it off me and it’s been slow walking for a few days. 😦
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Oh. Sorry to hear that! I wish you a speedy recovery
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Thank you!
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The insects are terrible this year. With our poisons now part of their diet they are probably a super race of insects.
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Max, I think you’re right. Between the viruses and the insects, we are in a bad place!
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A worrying look into the near future.
You have a different breed of caterpillars where you are. They sound vicious!
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When I see the way they chomped through the oak leaves, it didn’t surprise me. I really think at least some insects have a hive mind, and this one may have sensed what I was doing? Either that or wanted some variation in its diet?!
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How terrible! Hope you are better now. Bugs and the heat can be killing!
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Thanks, Punam. It rained again last night, twice this week, which has cooled things down.
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So glad it rained there. Here, rains continue to elude us.
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So sorry to hear it, Punam. Hoping it comes soon for you.
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Keeping fingers crossed.
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We fell trees without giving a thought to the changes that might occur as a consequence. When will we learn?
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We won’t.
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That sounds like some caterpillar, drawing blood! Good story.
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They are hideous and I hate them!
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Dear LIsa,
Bugs give me the creeps, definitely not a fan. Sorry that you’re plagued by them. Well told cautionary tale.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Rochelle, thank you, this year has been the worst ever for them yet am really perplexed by no mosquitoes. Strange ecosystem times we are living in.
Shalom,
Lisa
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I’m flabbergasted that everyone can’t see what’s happening. Trees are what holds it all together. I fear you are right–the future will be left to insects, viruses, and bacteria. (K)
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I know what you mean! Every tree is precious and I look at them as our external 2nd set of lungs.
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There are several organizations in the city that are making an effort to make sure every street has trees. It makes a huge difference.
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Yikes! Hopefully a new ecosystem will be established over time. We have interesting rabbit-fox population swings in the bush around here; right now, the bunnies are reigning.
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I hope that new ecosystem includes humans, or maybe not. I’ve seen the rabbits fluctuate here also but usually range from not many to none. There are a lot of hawks around here which may be why… Hoping you can keep the bunnies from your produce!
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Humans, yes, we have a way to sneak in every time 😉. There is a resident bunny family under the bushes in the front, but they mostly eat weeds when they come to the back; hey, be my guests any time, hehe! The biggest one has a great time taunting my dog, Bugs Bunny style.
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LOL!
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Yup nothing good comes of murdering the trees.
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it bugs me that this will happen in the foreseeable future. 😦
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It bugs me too, Plaridel 😦
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It’s HOT! Unmercifully humid… AND we have skeeters, and locusts. and those nasty red ants. ouch! Annnnnd, it’s raining AGAIN! ARGH!!!!!
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YIPES x 1000 + 1!
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Have you heard of Hate Bugs Trauma Groups. No? Well I haven’t either but perhaps we should start one. 😀
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LMAO. I’m in!
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Nicely written story, a metaphor for what we are doing to the planet – and what will happen to us as a result.
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Thanks much, Penny.
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We don’t seem to be having unusual heat. It’s hot, but it IS July! Our neighborhood still has lots of trees, and people do seem to plant new ones on a regular basis. Maybe that’s why we aren’t inundated with the bugs you describe!
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Excellent story. The sad thing is, where I live there are far too few insects, which means less birds and other small animals that eat them. And in other places, some species take over, have no enemies and spread exponentially. If we ever get our act together and manage to live with nature, not trying to rule it, it will take a long while until that natural balance will be restored.
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Exactly so!
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It would be a sad place if the wildlife left, but who would blame them. We do tend to create our own problems, don’t we? You built the tension so well, and, oh no, not bugs!!
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Brenda thank you for reading and your thoughtful comment. It is appreciated 🙂
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Ugh, why did it have to be bugs?
Well done!
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Thank you, Laurie 🙂
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I have lived long enough to have known many beautiful trees lost. Humanity is always worse off for that.
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You would think we would have learned by now 😦
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Seems a likely scenario. It will be ugly at the end when we are done with this planet. But either way in about a billion years, most life on Earth will eventually die anyway due to a lack of oxygen.
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Thanks for reading and your comment, Subroto.
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The tent caterpillars sound nasty! You story sounds scarily realistic.
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Oh they are and it is. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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It wasn’t so long ago that locusts filled the sky…Disturbing predictions for the (hopefully fictional) future Sandra. My particular fear is that bugs grow bigger as it warms up, to the size they were eons ago. They are already much too big, in my opinion,in my neck of the woods!
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Thank you for your interesting comment, Andy. I agree on bug size!
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So sorry for getting your name wrong, msjdeli! I must have been looking at the picture!
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