'The windscreen phenomenon' - why your car is no longer covered in dead insects.
(https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/ESTz8wcchClo4XJ9iFSPQA--/YXBwaWQ9eW15O3c9NjQwO3E9NzU7c209MQ--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-GB/homerun/the_telegraph_818/cc3dc49185e37582ddc6622975e0909f)
Why your car is no longer covered in dead insects
Drivers have been noticing 'The windscreen phenomenon' recently and while it's a relief not to have to constantly battle bugs, it's actually a very worrying sign.'40% fall in insects' »
If this is truth, I imagine this is Extremely Serious ! ...
Another issue down to Chemtrails, I suspect !...
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Motorists no longer find insects on their windscreens
Wildlife experts have been warning about the alarming decline in insects for decades.
But the fall in numbers of bugs in Britain has now reached such a troubling extent that even motorists are noticing that their windscreens are clear of squashed flies, gnats, moths and wasps.
Where a trip in high summer would once have necessitated taking a squeegee to the front window, now the glass is largely clear, drivers are reporting.
Writing in The Telegraph letters page earlier this week, Michael Groom of Teffont Evias, Wiltshire asked: "Where have all the insects gone? My windscreen remains clear whatever the speed."
Reader Richard Acland, of Chepstow, in Monmouthshire, also noticed the vanishing bugs, and said he believed insecticides on crops were wiping out insect life, adding: "This is why cars are not bug-splattered anymore."
Insects have suffered worrying declines in Britain
And they are not alone in noting the change. Entomologists actually call it 'the windscreen phenomenon,' and it is has been noticed across Europe.
An amateur German group called the Krefeld Entomological Society has been monitoring insect numbers at 100 nature reserves in Western Europe since the 1980s. Although there were the annual fluctuations they discovered that by 2013 numbers began to plummet by nearly 80 per cent.
Experts mostly blame intensive agriculture and the use of pesticides over the past 50 years.
Since 2006, beekeepers in Britain have lost about a third of their managed bee colonies each year largely due to the loss of flower-rich grassland which has declined by 97 per cent from the 1930s, and the increased use of insecticides on crops.
Speaking about the lack of insects on windscreens, Matt Shadlow, Chief Executive of British insect conservation charity Buglife said: "Yes, indeed this is a well recognised phenomenon.
"Just today we had a member of the public phone up and say, unprompted, that 'the front of my car is now devoid of insects, and there are virtually no moths in the headlights'.
"This is part of the wholesale loss of small animals in recent decades. The public know about bees and butterflies, but these are just the tips of the iceberg. Moths, hoverflies, wasps, beetles and many other groups are now sparse where once they were abundant."
Beetles may be being killed by cars
Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, has also monitored insect populations using traps across the country for more than 50 years. Chris Shortall, an entomologist from Rothamsted said they had found evidence that the number of flying insects is falling, but said 'the windscreen phenomenon' was difficult to prove.
"The loss of insects from our windscreens is a well-noted anecdote, however actually demonstrating it is very tricky, if not impossible," said Mr Shortall.
A Rothamsted study showed that in the West of England, around Hereford, the amount of 'aerial biomass' - or flying insects - has fallen significantly since the 1970s. Other sites around Britain failed to capture declines, although the experts believe recording may have started too late to capture the impact of increased agricultural intensification.
A second report into the State of Britain's Larger Moths, published in collaboration with the charity Butterfly Conservation, showed a fall of insects by 40 per cent in the South of England over the past 40 years.
The most recent RSPB State of Nature report, which brings together findings from 50 organisations, suggests there has been a 59 per cent decline in insects in the UK since 1970.
In 2004 the RSPB asked motorists to attach a 'splatometer' to the front of their cars - a piece of PVC film to collect insects, to see if they were declining. They recorded 324,814 'splats', an average of only one squashed insect every five miles.
However the survey was only carried out once so it was impossible to see whether bug numbers had fallen over time.
It has also been suggested that cars have changed shape over time, and are now far more aerodynamic, meaning fewer insects are hit.
And a recent paper by Canadian scientists suggests the upsurge in traffic could itself be responsible for the fall in insect numbers. After extrapolating data from a mile of highway in Ontario, researcher from Laurentian University calculated that hundreds of billions of pollinating insects were probably being killed by vehicles each year in North America.
Colin Lawes, from Royal Holloway University of London, found that a large number of stag beetles are killed by road traffic each year in Britain, with three times as many females killed as males.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/windscreen-phenomenon-why-car-no-131014787.html
Humans are a funny animal...
We HATE bugs the bug us that is why we call then BUGS :P They destroy crops
So we spend decades trying to wipe them out...
then complain when we succeed :P
Very valid point "Z" ...
I was aware of the Bees population reduction, but not really considered general overall bugs and insects..
Have we maybe just managed to reduce and control their populations as maybe the Scientists believe is required...
Or maybe in the past they were just well over populated..
Or is it likely to become a Major problem if they were to be reduced too far ?
Its to hope that they have not gone too far where it continues to decline too far... that they struggle to reverse it.
So many documentaries in the past I thought used to claim they are essential to the ecology balance on the planet..
but past plaugues have often become an issue..
Not sure what the answer should be !
Quote from: zorgon on August 29, 2017, 12:06:38 AM
Humans are a funny animal...
We HATE bugs the bug us that is why we call then BUGS :P They destroy crops
So we spend decades trying to wipe them out...
then complain when we succeed :P
I don't know where they get their info from :o I have plenty of bug bombs on my vehicles so it just doesn't seem to fly down here in the peach state :P
or should I say there are plenty flying :P
If bugs have had such a drastic reduction we should also see the same (or similar) reduction in the numbers of animals (like birds) that eat them. Where's that reduction?
Maybe bugs learned how to cross the road. :P
I think this comports with strange stories about recent mass animal deaths. What it means, I don't know.
The article may appear to mainly relate to the U.K..so it probably does vary in other Countries as well as various types of landscapes ,Locations.. be it Mountain, Countryside , or built up City areas.
Its hard to envision how the Road areas of say the U.K would compare to the Countryside..in terms of actual area... but I would think overall.. its not more than 15 % at a guess and maybe lower than 10 or even as low as 5%..
This article may suggest that its less than 2%...
QuoteIn practice, only 6.8% of the UK can be classed as urban, and of that, 72% is actually green space (parks, gardens, sports fields etc). Therefore only 2% of the UK is actually built upon – and that figure has been reached only after several centuries of urban expansion.
This is one eg in Northern Ireland...Part of the UK only in nearby Ireland / Eire....but its a seperate Island from acual England...
QuoteHow about the road network in Northern Ireland? If you took a satellite picture of Northern Ireland and threw a dart at it, you would have to throw it 43 times before you would even have a 50% chance of hitting a road. That's because the road network only takes up 1.6% of the land area of Northern Ireland. By contrast, agriculture, hedgerows, watercourses, natural land and woodland occupy 92.6% of the land area of the province. If you don't believe me, just fire up Google Earth and scroll across County Down or County Tyrone and you will see just how vast the rural area is compared to urban areas like Belfast.
https://wesleyjohnston.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/how-much-land-do-roads-take-up/
QuoteHow much space do roads take up?
If you could chop up all the roads in the UK and lay the pieces out next to each other, about how big would the total area of tarmac be? Or in other words, what percentage of Britain is covered in road?
QuoteAccording to Wikipedia there are 46632 km main roads, 3477 km Motorways and 342000 km other roads. Assuming avarage width of 25 meters for main roads, 35 m for motorways and 15 meters for other roads (these widths are guesstimates) the total comes to 6417 square kilometers. That's about 2.5% of Britain.
I may be off with my widths but I would say it's something between 2% and 4%.
https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A9mSs3Hn1KRZ7UoAWBBLBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTEybjljdmk0BGNvbG8DaXIyBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjMxMzZfMQRzZWMDc2M-?qid=20070424062412AAG1r8D
With so much Insecticides fertilisers and Chemicals being used in the Fields or on crops.. over the years no doubt that will account for a fair decline in the species of insects..
Maybe also the Contrails / Chemtrials...
Then the human and Car populations has grown severe over the last 20 years..at least in some Counties.. but maybe only by no more than 15 to 20% in the UK..
I think that there may well be a reduction in other animal species..and birds...
The only ones that I see in my area are mainly Magpies... most of the other species I used to see are very rare within my local area.. Sparrows seem to have totally disappeared...where as 20 to 30 years ago there were plenty..
It would be a very complex thing to survey I would think..and how to try to compare to previous decades say over the last 50 to 100 years....
one eg I think that I seem to consider is comparing it to when we had more industry polluting the Country.. which was very severe in some parts... but the Populations were lower and we had much less cars..
Also no doubt.. climate change does occur and vary to some degree even if not to the extent that some suggest being down to purely Human pollution..or no doubt some climate changes are down to changes in the Solar activity or the position of the Earth relative to the Sun..where temperatures will change..
But Id say in the U.K we rarely have had any really Cold Winters over the last 20 years...and at one time it was suggested that helped kill off many insects from the Summer into the winter months... but milder winters allowed Insects to live longer thru out the year, I would have thought... and maybe new eggs would hatch in winter months.. But has that resulted in more Insect populations... maybe so some 10 to 15 years ago...but maybe not this last few years.
I'm in Wisconsin. There were no junebugs this year and I had one bug hit on my windshield all summer.
The only thing in abundance were lightning bugs.
That would seem hard to believe !
Your in the North USA near the Great lakes and Canada !
I imagine thats a more less built up area..and maybe an area where you do get a lot of flies at certain times of the Summer months.. but few in Winter..
Would you say that your in a Built up or more open area Irene ? and are they many Roads..
I assume maybe thats the less June Bug you have ever known ! :)
but not sure how the others may compare to other years..
Quote from: Irene on August 29, 2017, 03:56:47 AM
I'm in Wisconsin. There were no junebugs this year and I had one bug hit on my windshield all summer.
The only thing in abundance were lightning bugs.
Quote from: astr0144 on August 29, 2017, 04:07:59 AM
That would seem hard to believe !
Your in the North USA near the Great lakes and Canada !
I imagine thats a more less built up area..and maybe an area where you do get a lot of flies at certain times of the Summer months.. but few in Winter..
Would you say that your in a Built up or more open area Irene ? and are they many Roads..
I assume maybe thats the less June Bug you have ever known ! :)
but not sure how the others may compare to other years..
I'm in a suburb of Milwaukee.
There are definitely fewer insects and this summer I saw very few birds and they were mostly sparrows. I did get lucky though. I saw a Baltimore Oriole, which is very rare for my area now.
Right on Lake Michigen ! near Chicago..
Milwaukee looks a fair sized City in comparison...and to that state..
So thats where the Sparrows from my area may have gone.
send a few back !... :)
QuoteI'm in a suburb of Milwaukee.
There are definitely fewer insects and this summer I saw very few birds and they were mostly sparrows. I did get lucky though. I saw a Baltimore Oriole, which is very rare for my area now.
Quote from: astr0144 on August 29, 2017, 03:14:47 AM
The only ones that I see in my area are mainly Magpies... most of the other species I used to see are very rare within my local area.. Sparrows seem to have totally disappeared...where as 20 to 30 years ago there were plenty..
If I'm not mistaken, magpies are omnivorous and sparrows eat seeds and berries, so none of those eat mainly insects.
Have you noticed any change in swallows, for example?
I just got back from a 2 week vacation visiting family
I drove 700ish miles from northern Virginia to mid Alabama
I had a few big bugs splatter across my windshield along with the smaller ones
I had to clean my windshield more than once during the drive so from my perspective not much to this, they were all over my windshield
I have not really studied much about such Birds since I was young when I was quite keen on learning about them..
But cannot recall if I would have known about what they would eat.. be it Insects, or berrys... but I recall Preditors eat other birds or small mammals.
I only recal Sparrows seeming to eat what ever they coud find that would not had been many berries where I lived..as there were few trees in the local close by area. They were more flying onto walls , roofs and the ground.. and sometimes we put out bread which they certainly liked..
Maybe when in the Country they rely more on berries than Insects...
I used to see Swallows on my nearby canal in the warmer months...skimming over the water.. and there were many insects buzzing around for them to catch.
Then you got the odd thrush and Blackbird.. or pigeons..
I do not go out as much now in such areas to have really took notice...compared to upto my teens / 20s / 30s when I did walk more often in such areas.
So its hard to say if I have noted much about other birdlife in my local area...
Some weeks ago I visited a Large Park that had not visited for many years that had a large lake and that had loads of Lake type birdlife on it....Ducks and Canada Geese...More than I exxpected to see..
But I very rarely see any Birds anymore on Roofs on the Houses across from me...Often I see only Magpies come early Morning.. and many a time they are impressive to watch.. and sem very intellegent at some of the tricks that they get upto to what I think is searching for insects either in the roof gutters.. or maybe looking for spiders on walls or windows..
ArMaP
QuoteIf I'm not mistaken, magpies are omnivorous and sparrows eat seeds and berries, so none of those eat mainly insects.
Have you noticed any change in swallows, for example?
That seemed a Good test Payton, if you did such a huge journey...
If you think you had similar ammount of splats that you would normally have expected..
I suspect driving thru the Country areas .. that you would expect more insect life overall.
But Most Long Roads in the UK go thru a big % of countryside...and the article seemed to suggest that the splatts being much lower than norm.
It may also be due to the poor weather we have had in the Uk this year... The Summer has been often dull and few sunny says for the last 3 months..
Hopefully other Countries like the USA do not appear over all affected...Only a survey from varied parts may tell..
Quote from: Payton on August 29, 2017, 02:39:18 PM
I just got back from a 2 week vacation visiting family
I drove 700ish miles from northern Virginia to mid Alabama
I had a few big bugs splatter across my windshield along with the smaller ones
I had to clean my windshield more than once during the drive so from my perspective not much to this, they were all over my windshield