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Comment by JulianMorrison | Hacker News Reader

Ask someone over 50 who drives, do you remember bugs on your windshield? Having to run the wipers because it was that bad?

Ask them when they last remember that being an issue. I'm guessing some time in the 1980s.

There are kids who drive these days and never had bugs on their windshield. They don't realize it's not normal.

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Windshield aerodynamic have also improved a lot over the years.

I used to have an 1988 Volvo 240 that was a magnet for bugs just a few years ago.

Went to south Florida about three weeks ago... my windshield was almost completely covered in dead lovebugs.

You used to be able to see them in the headlights as you were driving, now you don't. Love bugs have a breeding season in Florida, that's not a normal volume of love bugs and is only one very different data point that doesn't speak the the macro trend of bugs disappearing globally.

Aerodynamic of cars has changed, but I noticed almost the same reduction in number of insects on myself during my motorbike trips. 30 years ago after some hundred kilometers you had to wash the jacket, now there are just a couple bugs. To be honest, in the last year or two I've seen a bit more bugs (Italy here, may be the EU rules on bugskiller help). (yes, I'm over 50)

Aerodynamic of cars has changed

Not on my '81 VW camper, it hasn't. Still the barn door with wheels it was thirty-seven years ago (we have not owned it the entire time). I clean the windshield to get the dirt off, not bugs. Similar vehicles ('77 Chevy full-sized van) I've owned in the past were bug magnets back in the day.

I have the same experience as you here in the U. S. on the motorcycle. The same areas of Oregon I'd ride through twenty years ago at the same time of year would leave me covered in bugs, and I'd carry a can of spray cleaner for the face shield, because waiting to clean it at gas stops wasn't soon enough.

Now the big can of spray cleaner stays on the workbench in the garage. I still carry a small can in the tankbag, but I think I've had the same can for a couple of years now. I still get bugs going through Oregon, but it can wait until I stop for gas now.

To play devils advocate, could this partially be that cars now have aerodynamics optimized partially for keeping things from hitting the window? Windows are more sloped now than the were 30 years ago, and the curvature of the hood leads into it more.

Drove from MA to FL this summer with a very un-aerodynamic truck. Plenty of bugs.

I own a Jeep Wrangler. It is still very much the case that my windshield is covered in bug guts. It has the rake of a mid 80s american sedan.

Try riding a motorcycle and tell me your visor, jacket, and bike don't get full of bugs on any out-of-the-city trips.

> Ask them when they last remember that being an issue. I'm guessing some time in the 1980s.

Or May/September in Florida when the love bugs are out. Or anytime the big mayflies (hexagenia limbata) are hatching in the midwest.

I still get plenty of bugs on my cars... those kids that you are talking about probably only drive in the city (lower speed) or are strictly using Uber. In fact, they are still spraying poison in the streets at night to kill mosquitoes and I still have bees on the flowers in my yard.

I don't know about that, my car is covered with bugs on any trip along New York's interstate.

I drove across the country a couple years ago. Driving across South Dakota in May was awful for bugs. I had to stop multiple times at gas stations to clean them off. But otherwise, yeah, there aren't too many bugs on my windshield normally.

I remember driving 6 hours from home back to college during August in the midwest and having to stop every couple hours at a gas station just to clean the windshield. Now its rare to hit an insect on the road.

For you, when in retrospect do you remember it changing?

What car were you driving then? What car or cars have you driven recently?

I've noticed the same thing when driving

What? When did it stop being an issue? Here in Ohio you most definitely still end up with bugs on your windshield.

When was the last time you cleaned your windshield with the squeegee at the pump? It used to be something you'd do every fillup in the summer.

A few weeks ago?

I drive a small SUV (Mazda CX-5), maybe the angle of the windshield in relation to the hood increases the chances of catching bugs?

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