Every branch of every tree seemed to host its own small metropolis of creatures hunting, flying, crawling, eating.
Out of the forest darkness, a tornado of insects would flock to its glow, spinning and dancing before the light.
Lit up, the side of the house would be “absolutely plastered with moths – tens of thousands of them”, Janzen says.
The hum of wild bees has faded, and leaves that should be chewed to the stem hang whole and un-nibbled.
They are more like a pristine greenhouse than a living ecosystem: a wilderness that has been fumigated and left sterile.
“In the parts of Costa Rica that are heavily hit by pesticides, the insects are completely wiped out,” Hallwachs says.
Run that forward four decades, that’s nearly half the tree of life disappearing in a lifetime … catastrophic David Wagner. »