LNP's Herr Potato cancels Woolworths, so much for free markets, page-291

no xmas beetles, even moths and flies are very few, but plenty of mozzies. yes I've noticed the reduced numbers over at least 2 years and this year seems less than last. even though the fires were seeming everywhere there was still plenty of bush that was untouched. we had no fires within 10km (good rural town with no tolerance of fire starters) and little smoke... we were very lucky, so I wouldn't expect the fires to have damaged our local insect numbers.

but then the preceding drought damaged large area of our ecosystem. split iron bark. I don't know what it did to the insects but I think that may have been a contributor to the decline.

on the up side our cicada numbers are up this year from the previous 2. and we've been hearing at least one koala at night.
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all very worrying.