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French villagers bugged out by beetle invasion

Freaked out villagers in a French hamlet have asked authorities to come to the aid after seeing their homes invaded by swarms of beetles each night.

French villagers bugged out by beetle invasion
Beetles invade a French village. Photo: Screengrab Le Parisien
“It’s horrific. It’s like a remake of the Hitchcock film The Birds, except with insects,” was how one besieged inhabitant of the village of Saint-Maurice-Montcouronne described the beetle invasion.

Ever since July 10th the village, located in the Essonne département to the south of Paris, has been invaded by beetles on a nightly basis, Le Parisien newspaper reported.

Hundreds of thousands come out of the ground once night falls and swarm the village, finding their way into homes and leaving residents bugged out (see video below).

“It’s disgusting and exhausting, when there are thousands in your home” one resident told Le Parisien. “You crush tens of them just getting out of bed.”

The invasion is believed to stem from a field next to the village and it’s the second time in a year the villagers have had to cope with the freaky phenomenon.

“We had no problem until 2014 because the farmer used to treat the field, but since then the field has changed ownership,” said one resident.

The mayor of the village Danielle Dillman backed up the theory saying the beetles seem to come out when the soil in the field is turned over.

 

(The village of Saint-Maurice-Montcouronne with no beetles in sight. Photo: Google street view)

The mayor has asked specialists to come to the village, but was told that this kind of phenomenon would be much more frequent in the future.

A member of staff at France’s Office for insects and their environment(OPIE) said the bugs were not harmful and the only inconvenience is the smell when they are crushed.

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ENVIRONMENT

‘No food, no future’: German farmers protest against insect protection plans

The German government on Wednesday proposed legislation to halt a dramatic decline in insect populations, but drew immediate fire from farmers who said the new measures threatened their livelihoods.

'No food, no future': German farmers protest against insect protection plans
Tractors protested on the streets of Berlin on Tuesday. Photo: DPA

The “insect protection” law, which aims to restrict the use of pesticides, is the result of two years of wrangling within Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government.

Hundreds of farmers drove their tractors into central Berlin on Tuesday, braving snow and frosty temperatures, to protest against the government's “insect protection” draft law.

“No farmers, no food, no future” read a sign fixed to one tractor near the city's famed Brandenburg Gate. “We are here, talk to us” read another.

The policy package's flagship measure is the phasing out of the
controversial weedkiller glyphosate by the end of 2023.

It also bans the use of herbicides and insecticides in national parks and includes rules for reducing light pollution at night.

“People can't live without insects,” said Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, calling the law “good news for insects and the future of our ecosystems”.

The legislation also limits the use of pesticides near major bodies of water, but the final version of the text leaves it up to Germany's individual states to set out detailed requirements.

READ ALSO: On heels of Bavaria victory, Germany plans insect protection law

“We're not against insect protection, but it needs to be adapted to modern agricultural practices,” 28-year-old farmer Wilke Luers said from behind the wheel of his tractor at the Berlin protest.

The government has argued that urgent action is needed because insects “play an important role in the ecosystem”.

Biologists have long warned that plummeting insect populations impact species diversity and damage the ecosystem by disrupting natural food chains and plant pollination.

'Taken far too long'

The German Farmers' Association (DBV) said in a letter addressed to Merkel that the planned legislation could reduce available agricultural land by seven percent.

It called for “cooperation” between farmers and environmentalists, and measures built around incentives instead of bans.

But Tomas Brückmann, from the Grüne Liga environmental organisation, dismissed the suggestion.

“We've been trying to cooperate with them for 20 years, it doesn't work,” he told AFP.

Archive photo shows a summer bee spotted in Friedberg in Hesse. Photo: DPA

His campaign group has urged the government not to water down the plans in the face of pressure from agricultural firms.

“The government must finally anchor into law the package of measures to protect insects that it committed to two years ago,” the group said in a statement. “It has taken far too long.”

German Environmental Minister Svenja Schulze, from the centre-left Social Democrats, first unveiled the insect protection proposals in 2019.

But the government's sign-off was repeatedly delayed by objections from conservative Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, who pushed for exceptions to some of the rules.

The final compromise thrashed out between the ministers will be revealed on Wednesday.

Green shift

The gulf between farmers and environmental activists has deepened in Germany in recent years as concerns about climate change have grown, partly because of the youth-led Fridays for Future protests.

The opposition Green party now regularly comes second in opinion polls after Merkel's conservative bloc, and it could well end up in a coalition government following September's general election.

READ ALSO: German bug watchers sound alarm to insect apocalypse

The shift in the public mood has spurred Merkel's government to act on animal welfare, leading to recent pledges to stop the mass culling of male chicks and ending the practice of castrating piglets without anaesthetic.

But farmers complain that they are carrying the cost for the new measures, and that the tougher regulations won't allow them to compete with cheaper agricultural products from abroad.

A large-scale study in Germany in 2017 was one of the first to raise global alarm bells about the plunge in insect populations, triggering warnings of an “ecological apocalypse”.

The study found that, measured by weight, flying insect populations across German nature reserves had declined by more than 75 percent in 27 years.

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