== Insects ==
Bronwyn Watson’s post about having to clean her windshield for the first time in a long time reminded me of an article i had read about that same sort of observation.[1] I found it in my notes quickly. Entomologists have noted the “windshield phenomenon” — people realizing the level of decline of insects not because they notice a particular insect is less, like the Monarch, but the aggregate impact is missing. And the phenomenon is not due to the design of cars, but due to the incredible decline in insect biomass.
“[A] German study found that, measured simply by weight, the overall abundance of flying insects in German nature reserves had decreased by 75 percent over just 27 years. If you looked at midsummer population peaks, the drop was 82 percent.” Another study was done to compare the weight of bugs that could be caught in a trap in Puerto Rico. In the 1970s an average trap caught 473 milligrams of bugs; replicated recently they only caught eight milligrams.
Kira Dirlik mentions black flies — not clear if she meant house flies. I had my first knowing experience of drain flies recently — they look so much like fruit flies, maybe i’ve been bothered by them before. This time, knowing the tiny flying annoyances weren’t associated with the kitchen, i found “green gobbler”, an enzyme drain cleaner. By cleaning off the sides of the pipes with the enzyme cleaner, i apparently got rid of whatever habitat had formed in the drains.
I think i can deny drain flies habitat in my drains and still mourn that they’re not in numbers outside. Although i start thinking of insects whose presence can be devastating in various ways — mosquitoes as disease vector, Japanese beetles and Emerald Ash Borers as nonnative devourers of gardens and beautiful trees…. (Ticks are arachnids so they aren’t on this list.) It’s possible we need to take some more losses, like the two pines i lost to Ips beetles and be more clever in our ways of discouraging insects from causing other losses. I found cabbage white butterfly decoys to be useful but fiddly to make. I wish i could get some assembled for a long term use like
theseedcollection.com.au/Cabbage-Moth-Decoys.
[1] Jarvis, Brooke. “The Insect Apocalypse Is Here.” The New York Times, November 27, 2018, sec. Magazine. nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html.
== Property valuation ==
And while people are complaining of increases, i’ll admit to having a property value decrease. I didn’t see any change in the property description. Looking at the tax history available at ustaxdata.com/nc/chatham/TaxSearch.cfm and using the appraisal we had in 2016 I produced the following chart. (Looks better with a fixed width font.) The 2013 assessment is what the house had when we purchased, so that’s my personal baseline date.
| Year | Assmt | ? prior | ? 2013 | Comp | Cost |
|——|———|———|——–|———|———|
| 2004 | 195,740 | | -8160 | | |
| 2009 | 188,502 | -7,238 | 922 | | |
| 2013 | 187,580 | -922 | | | |
| 2016 | | | | 216,000 | 258,700 |
| 2017 | 211,838 | 24,258 | 24,258 | | |
| 2021 | 209,707 | -2,131 | 22,127 | | |
Essentially, when we bought it, the assessment went to the price we paid for it, causing a large jump. All other years the house declined over the previous year. When i went to the county GIS and looked at the very small circle drawn around our house, there had been no sales in that small area. The appraiser noted in their comparison calculation they had to look outside the standard mile.
I wonder if the folks with the crazy increases will find a property sold within in a mile of their home and, while not reasonably comparable, it’s all the software had to go on when generating values?
Good luck all!
judith
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2021 08:51:36 -0400
From: “J. E. Bush”
Subject: Decreases and increases mentioned in Chatlist #6962