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Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#111

Post by tejohnso »

Maybe because we're in the midst of an anthropogenic mass extinction?

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1704949114

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

"The contemporary rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than the background extinction rate"

"the current rate of extinction is 10 to 100 times higher than in any of the previous mass extinctions in the history of Earth."

"There is widespread consensus among scientists that human activity is accelerating the extinction of many animal species through the destruction of habitats, the consumption of animals as resources, and the elimination of species that humans view as threats or competitors."

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#112

Post by kapsi »

lettergram wrote: post #95
fleddr wrote: post #74

Here in the ultra-dense Netherlands, threats to insects are magnified. As such, it's easier to point to specific causes. Butterflies: 50% reduction in 50 years. Beetles: 75% decline since 1985. Ladybugs: 50% reduction in 20 years. Across the border in Germany: a 75% decline in flying insects since 1989. It doesn't take much of a scientist to see the trend. I've been hiking the forests here multiple times per week for…

While I don’t disagree with those two points I don’t know if they’re the primary cause. I also think it’s important to put it into context. 1. These insects weren’t really robust to begin with. Take the monarch butterfly in the North America. They actually needed primarily milkweed to survive. A single point of failure (milkweed) can cause the population to collapse. When we put up houses and converted land to farms,…

What's gonna happen in 100 years? Are the insects waiting for something?

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#113

Post by RamblingCTO »

iancmceachern wrote: post #77
RamblingCTO wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you from the US? Never thought anyone would drive them over there because they tend to need repairs quite often and not every shop wants to work on them. And also the thing with the spare parts. I got a TD5 though, so a bit more modern ;)

Yeah. I bought mine because it was half the price of a similar year 4runner or similar. I ended up getting rid of it for the reasons you state, but had a blast with it while I had it.

haha, had to be the reason. I would also love a 4Runner, love the look. But the mileage and the eletronics, apart from the fact that they aren't sold in Germany make it nearly impossible.

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#114

Post by b112 »

chickenimprint wrote: post #91
newsclues wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a push to move to smaller regenerative farms occurring?

How would that work? We don't have enough land as it is. And we can't pay for the additional labor small farms need, or food inflation will explode. Making agriculture unproductive will just push the demand outwards like a beaker of toxic reactants boiling over. We can't impose more trade restrictions on foreign agricultural goods either, for fear of a trade war. This hopeless romanticism of small organic mom-and-pop…

We don't have enough land as it is.

Only discussing the land statement here, but we have loads and loads and loads of unused farmland.

At least, that is true in Canada, and I suspect the US, and I know in the EU some are paid not to farm.

In Canada, we have quotas on some things, to prevent over production.

There are two real issues:

* drought, or summers with few sunny days, reducing yields

* random new diseases

So we need that fallow land, just in case, which is why people are given inventives to have farm land, but not use it.

Yet we still have so much farm land, that we sell the best of it to developers, who then create housing.

We have loads of unused farmland.

One last thing. China's population is going to almost halve, over the next 15 years, Russia will have a major population decline, and the most industrialized nations are the same.

Canada has solved this top heavy, old age die off, with immigration. More than 30% of Canadian citizens, for example, we not born in Canada.

But for those with lower immigration numbers, and low birth rates (basically the entire industrialized world), populations will plummet by 30% to 50% in the next 25 years.

China had the one child program, and the birth rate in Canada is less than 1 for every 2 adults, for Canadians boen here. The rest of the West is the same.

So worldwide, our population will plummet very soon.

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#115

Post by RamblingCTO »

Pephers wrote: post #80
RamblingCTO wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can attest that. I drive a Land Rover Defender which, you know, has the aerodynamics of a wall. It's full of bugs after driving on the highway for more than 30 minutes.

Sadly, also in Denmark as the article mentions, I’ve only had to clean my windshield once this summer (by clean I mean scrubbing, I do use the windshield washer more often). 1995 Defender. I only have to look outside at my neighbors winter wheat field to find one of the reasons. It’s been sprayed 3 times already this fall after sowing.

Yeah, it's a pitty. But you do have to scrub it more than a normal care. I gave up having a clean wind shield.

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#116

Post by fleddr »

lettergram wrote: post #95
fleddr wrote: post #74

Here in the ultra-dense Netherlands, threats to insects are magnified. As such, it's easier to point to specific causes. Butterflies: 50% reduction in 50 years. Beetles: 75% decline since 1985. Ladybugs: 50% reduction in 20 years. Across the border in Germany: a 75% decline in flying insects since 1989. It doesn't take much of a scientist to see the trend. I've been hiking the forests here multiple times per week for…

While I don’t disagree with those two points I don’t know if they’re the primary cause. I also think it’s important to put it into context. 1. These insects weren’t really robust to begin with. Take the monarch butterfly in the North America. They actually needed primarily milkweed to survive. A single point of failure (milkweed) can cause the population to collapse. When we put up houses and converted land to farms,…

I strongly object to the framing where a species is considered logical to go extinct for it was not "robust" enough.

The words "specialist" and "niche" are incredibly misplaced as it comes to insects. Consider butterflies, many depending on specific host plants. The host plant is in decline hence the butterfly disappears.

Weak species. Not "robust". The point that is being missed here is that the host plant is supposed to be widely available in any half-decent ecosystem. It isn't rare, would normally be widespread, and it has very low needs. Just a tiny bit of space and healthy soil.

We're not wiping out specialists, we're wiping out the underlying habitat and ecosystem altogether.

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#117

Post by sarchertech »

devmor wrote: post #81
alangibson wrote: post #56

I recently went back to my hometown in the USA after a couple of decades away. I was struck by how there we're almost none of the fireflies, grasshoppers and assorted other bugs I'd chased as a kid. I chalked it up to being a nostalgic old man, but I've never shaken that feeling that something is definitely not right.

I saw Fireflies for the first time two years ago after moving to the Southeast US. I saw very few last year. I saw zero this year. I'm glad I got to experience them before they were all gone, I guess.

Fireflies (we call them lightning bugs in the south) fluctuate yearly. Some years there are very few of them. It’s always been like that from talking to relatives.

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#118

Post by nobodyandproud »

Aside from pesticides and land development, yet another cause of decline is our over obsession with landscaping and municipal lights (at least here in the Northeast US).

I have mixed feelings about this: Night lights do add a bit of security, but insects such as moths rely on natural darkness and moonlight to navigate.

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#119

Post by luch »

Beltalowda wrote: post #105
unglaublich wrote: post #100

Pesticides and crop mono-cultures. There is no place for insects to live. When 0.1% of humans dies of a virus, we call it a disaster. When 50% of insects dies, we don't give a damn.

I actually don't care at all if an insect lives or dies. Insects do not have emotions; no other insects mourn if one dies. This makes them markedly different from humans and other animals; insects are little more than machines and from a moral perspective much closer to bacteria than, say, mice. The only reason I care is because of the broader ecological effects. I don't care whether my gut microbes live or die eithe…

fascinating answer from someone who chose the nickname "beltalowda"

Re: Why are there so few dead bugs on windshields these days?

#120

Post by kapsi »

jorvi wrote: post #109
WJW wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the farmers are (obviously) not in favor and have been protesting heavily.

I would replace 'protesting' with 'terrorizing'. They've been visiting politicians their homes with torches, threatening them and explicitly their kids, blockading highways with burning rubble, blocking highways with asbestos , using their tractors to rip out doors out of government buildings. What is most aggrieving to me is that the police is pseudo on the side of the farmers. The head of the police said that he 'f…

If there were that many of organized climate protesters they would be heard as well, it always comes down to numbers and potential for violence.
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