“Another job evaporating,” I think, as I rush to the terrace on the 1st floor to take a picture. I’ve figured out what that sound was, which I’ve been hearing for half an hour but can’t see. One reason for not seeing anything being the morning mist – it’ll be another warm bright & shiny day.
The neighbor uses a drone to spray his fields
I have to admit: it’s better than a small plane or a tractor. What we have here is a monoculture, so you have to put the substances back into the soil that the plants extract every year. That’s no problem. You can have your soil analyzed at the Cooperativa, and they’ll tell you exactly what to put in it.
Currently, that still involves a tractor. Those ingredients are too heavy for a drone. A drone can only spray the insecticide needed for such a monoculture. One of the consequences of the loss of diversity is that the plants become more susceptible to diseases, and the insects that eat them end up in paradise—they think.
Too much of the same is unnatural
That invites disaster. Diversity ensures that plants can help each other, that different insects are attracted, which in turn are eaten by various bird-, small creatures- and frog species, which in turn are eaten by birds of prey and storks.
Now, I’m no biologist, but it seems to me that birds of prey and storks die of old age because no one can or wants to catch and eat them.
Nature has everything perfectly in order, as long as we humans don’t interfere. Of course, we’ve been doing that for as long as we’ve existed, so now that perpetuum mobile is disrupted, and we have to clean up the mess ourselves. For example: there are far too many crayfish right now. That’s not so bad, because a few Spaniards have settled in the neighboring village and are emptying the entire valley, and sell them to fashionable restaurants back home.
The rest are too small to catch. You can’t even see them, let alone catch them. Or you can keep on going for ever. Years ago, we had a fly infestation here. No one knew what caused it, but the fact was that I could easily spend half an hour swatting them, and then it would be full of those paw-rubbing black creeps again in no time.
That’s why they’re using a drone in the fields
Charged with chemical warfare, mind you, because that’s still permissible in the eternal battle between humans and insects. Out in the fields, it’s a completely different story than inside, of course. In our kitchen, we manage to keep everything insect-free with screens and fly strips (just like a spider web – a slow, sticky death).
Fortunately, there are better ways to catch insects. Below, you’ll find the concept of a brilliant mosquito trap. Try it at home. And if it doesn’t work, just drink the rest of the bait yourself.
Then it won’t bother you anymore too.
(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the hassle with keywords and the dictatorship of Google. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I won’t have to force myself to use the correct terms in the title and headings. #unknowndrone #insects #monoculture #agricultor)
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We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa. You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.
Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.