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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?

#171

Post by mealkh »

marcyb5st wrote: post #32
lynguist wrote: post #22

I’ve noticed the same with snails. When I was a child in the 90s, the sidewalks were full of snails, and during a 10 minute stroll, I’d often find tens of small snails. Today I find 1 or 2 snails after rainfall, if at all.

Fireflies for me. I live in Italy and between the vineyards it was full of them. Now I occasionally see one or two. It's a pity not only because it is a concrete sign of habitat degradation, but it was also mesmerizing to walk and have them filing around you. Something my kids won't experience.

For quite some time I thought fireflies were made up, as I have never in my life (and I do live in a rural region) seen one.

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

#172

Post by donkeyd »

jvm___ wrote: post #75
lm28469 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Same goes for the argument that bugs have evolved to migrate away from the roads There are many studies in all kind of environments, even in the middle of the woods, in natural reserves; insects are going down both in term of diversity and numbers everywhere They're being evolved away by pollution

NY state has a long running study where on July 15th every year they would put up a super bright lighthouse bulb in the middle of the woods and put it over a tarp. After they night they'd weigh the physical mass of insect life that had come to the light, and died, overnight. I forget the exact %, but they'd seen a 50 or 60 percent reduction in mass since the 70's, some depressingly high number.

I don't think this would stop anyone from using the evolution argument, since in their mind this would just show that they evolved to not fly towards the deadly light.

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

#173

Post by hiidrew »

This is terrible and makes me think of the unknown consequences that may occur from the death of an insect species, who knows.

Side note: recently moved to the northeast and it has been fascinating seeing the city collectively come together to kill an invasive bug species. You will witness an adult randomly stomping on the corner of the street. I wish we had the same energy when it came to protecting existing bugs.

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

#174

Post by ClumsyPilot »

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…

> How would that work? We don't have enough land as it is.

With capitalism there can never be enough of any natural resource. When there is enough, it will be put to more extravagant and wastefull purposes.

The original purpose of a lawn was to show that you are so rich and have so much land that you can dedicate some of it to just grass.

The purpose of a tough guy wearing a massive golden chain in a bad neighbourhood is to show that noone dares touch him

And the purpose of a yaht is to show off - the yahts dont even cross the ocean, billionaires hire special ships to lift the whole yaht and move it across atlantic.

So whether its yahts or aingle use plastic cups, or bitcoin mining, there is never enough.

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

#175

Post by fleddr »

ryan93 wrote: post #121
jorvi wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I mean placing the blame for climate change on the backs of Dutch farmers was absurd. They should have started with severe controls on importing goods from countries with high levels of pollution

They were blamed not for climate change, instead for nitrogen disposition.

This is a uniquely Dutch problem, largely unrelated to CO2. In larger countries, there's clear zoning and distance between protected nature and intensive agriculture. Not in the Netherlands, where these two things are directly bordering each other. Hence, the agriculture very directly destroys its surrounding nature. Not by CO2, by nitrogen.

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

#176

Post by snwt »

Neonicotinoids (pesticide coated seeds) started becoming popular around the same time that bees started mass dying (early 2000s).

AFAIK, the effect of these pesticides on humans is limited, but it's been absolutely devastating for insects.

There is not much profit to be made on insects (aside from bees), so research and bills are getting lobbied into limbo by the big four neonicotinoid companies and agriculture organizations.

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

#177

Post by thereddaikon »

jgraham wrote: post #92
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…

It's good to see a comment that recognises that this "bug splatter on the windshield" data is mostly just an easily observed hook to connect the measured declines to people's everyday life experiences. The topic seems to come up here ever few months, and there's always a significant percentage of the discussion devoted to aerodynamic effects, or changes in insect distribution specific to roadside habitats. Those conv…

insecticides kill insects?

Big if true. Sounds like it working as designed.

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

#178

Post by donkeyd »

fleddr wrote: post #163
donkeyd wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, it's refreshing to see a Dutch person write down the impact of nitrogen as facts. Around me, its seems like slowly everyone is starting to doubt/deny the impact of nitrogen and whether it's something we need to care about. I'm starting to feel less at home in this country by the day because of it (and all the upside down flags consequently).

It's a worldwide thing. An urbanized population does not care about nature. At all. Modern life is almost fully abstracted away from it, and it seems fine to destroy it for as long as our delicate lifestyle remains intact. Every once in a while, we watch a documentary like Planet Earth. It inspires even the most cynical stoic. And we feel terrible about our negative role. But the next day we go on as usual. And as so…

> as soon as a tiny thing is asked of us to better the course

Well, I also see a lot of people who do the tiny thing but not the big thing. Plenty of people around me are reducing their meat intake (and are vocal about it), because climate change, but still fly on airplanes, some multiple times a year. It's so incredibly frustrating that many people are just green washing their lives, but are oblivious to the fact they're not really doing much at all.

I do have massive respect for the people I do know that have quit eating meat and are now doing all their travels by train.

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

#180

Post by fleddr »

geysersam wrote: post #166
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…

I'm surprised you didn't mention pesticide usage as one of the reasons. Or is that not an important factor?

It most definitely is. But even without pesticides, insects cannot survive without plant diversity. At least most groups can't.
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