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Comment by olivermuty | Hacker News Reader

The squashed bug studies along highways worries me almost even more. Where are all the insects going?

I have been driving for exactly 21 years now. My first car I remember the drudge of cold soaking it through the summer to get off the layers of bugs.

I don’t see more than the odd bug on my current car through the summer.

It is anecdotal, but it tracks the science and feels very real when it is so observeable personally too.

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It's the pesticides. Consider the world from the POV of an insect. Even if you're a bee, your metabolism is similar to other insect pests. There are huge fields of dense crops with plenty of pollen but if you partake, you die.

I've read much of this is improved aerodynamics of cars that prevents the collisions.

You may be partially right, but IIRC one of the studies which found a significant decrease was specifically taking bug samples from number plates rather than windscreens because number plates have been the same shape and in the same orientation for years.

Studies using the number plates, or old cars, have shown this is not the cause.

Not to mention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windshield_phenomenon

"The research also found that modern cars, with a more aerodynamic body shape, killed more insects than boxier vintage cars"

It's still an anecdote, but I've been driving the same truck for 15 years now. It definitely feels like I don't have to clean my windshield nearly as often as I used to in the summers.

The methods they use to trap and count insects ( https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Malaise_trap ) have been held constant for the last several decades, yet the decline continues ( https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... ).

I think it's to do with the predators that used to keep the grazers in check. They are fewer because we shot them in protection of or livestock. This lead to a swath of plant extinctions...

Looking at the massive front grill of a modern truck or SUV I very much doubt this.

what does aerodynamics of cars have to do with modern truck or SUV?

And actually those grills are deceptively well tuned. https://www.motortrend.com/news/2015-ford-f-150-is-most-aero...

Non aerodynamic vehicles would have bugs squashed in them if aerodynamics was the main reason for lack of bugs

I would also suspect that as people get older they are less adventurous in their driving habits. Your to/from work commute and grocery trips expose the ol’ jalopy to a very different ecosystem than the road-trips you would do as a younger person looking for trouble/adventure/memories.

I remember it from my parents driving, mostly. I haven't cleaned my windshield at a gas station since something like 2006 or 2007, though it used to be needed constantly. I remember air so thick with insects that the space illuminated by the headlights was alive—and that wasn't unusual. I haven't seen that since the 90s.

For me it is actually the opposite, I drive much more cross country now since I moved to other side of Norway and both me and my wifes family lives a 400km drive away.

Couldn't evolution partially explain this? Bugs that avoid roads, cars, etc. would have an advantage. They'd be able to live longer, and be more likely to reproduce. Over time the bugs that get hit by cars would be replaced by the bugs who've adapted to not get hit by cars.

Bugs reproduce pretty quickly, so this trait could have propagated pretty quickly.

Was driving in Denmark on vacation and actually catched quite a few bugs, first time for me

It's cars. You killed them all!

Maybe so, but can you please not post unsubstantive comments to HN?

Sorry, just exasperated. It's like a plains settler throwing more buffalo skulls on the pile, then thoughtfully pontificating about why the piles have been getting smaller over the years.

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