The following should be bourne in mind:

• First we should take into account that no directly comparable data exist for Ireland or the UK so this study should be taken as a best guess for the Irish situation. It is unlikely that the situation in Germany is so much worse that elsewhere in Europe - simply they have bothered to collect the data!
• We have indirect evidence for a similar pattern in the form of a decline in the numbers of insectivores.
• Similar changes in agricultural practices have taken place here.

One nightmare scenario...

We are aleady seeing a corresponding decrease in numbers of insectivorous birds, bats etc.. If the trend of these sharp declines in both flying insects and their predators continues beyond a critical point, it will be flying insects that return before their predators. Those that do return will certainly be of low species-diversity and adapted to conditions we have created and which are unfavourable most other species. And, in the abscence of sufficient natural predators, they are also likely to be a major public nuiscance so we will inevitably hear calls for yet further use of insecticides.