21 ms·

Years ago, my family used to drive to our grandparents' village in hot, summer Friday nights. The windshield ended so pestered with dead bugs that the first ta

Years ago, my family used to drive to our grandparents' village in hot, summer Friday nights. The windshield ended so pestered with dead bugs that the first task on Saturday morning was to drive the car to the river to clean it. I remember it vividly because it was so fun to wash the car with the cold river water. Last August I went stargazing with my wife. We chose a secluded area because it was far away from light pollution, a few hours away from the capital. We watched the Perseids for a couple of hours in the middle of a field. We had no lights on, but being CO2-emitting mammals, no flying insect bothered us. We had anti-mosquito spray ready but we didn't need to use it. There were a few ants but that's it. Afterwards, I drove an hour and a half at 2am and only a few bugs died on my windshield. I didn't even need to use the wipers the next morning. I hate mosquitoes as much as everybody else, but something has been happening to insects in the last 20 years. As a human it's comfortable but I'm honestly a bit afraid for the environment. And studies like this don't paint a positive picture.

powvans 8y ago
I have similar memories from my childhood in the 80's. We lived in Savannah and would make the trek to North Georgia several times a year to visit my mom's family. I can remember the headlights illuminating a sea of bugs like a light snow and the bigger ones popping loudly on the windshield from time to time. Having a full reservoir of wiper fluid was crucial and my dad would let me scrub the windshield whenever we stopped for gas. I drive down to the Georgia coast or down to the gulf through Lower Alabama a least a couple times every year and it's rare to have anything of real size burst on the windshield.
- jacobush 8y ago
  Same thing in Sweden, summer nights, 80s. Today, I never have that problem, not even during this humid, record hot summer.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
akiselev 8y ago
It's such a minor thing when it comes to our day to day but becomes truly terrifying when you put it all together and look at the big picture. I've noticed the same thing about wild-life in general whenever I visit my favorite places from childhood - whether it's the reefs around Australia, the tide pools in Baja, or the inland empire desert I grew up in. Looking at actual research just makes it worse: a third of microorganisms in the upper marine layer have died off from pollution, almost all species considered keystone predators are gone or going extinct, and the climate is jumping off a cliff. At first I thought it was an effect of aging (changes in nostalgia and awareness) but after moving back to one of the cities I lived in and talking to the local bird watching society, it seems to be happening everywhere on massive scales. And so, slowly, we boil.
- ethbro 8y ago
  > And so, slowly, we boil. Climate changing power, without the wisdom to wield it, is as plausible a Great Filter as anything. Hard to develop a space program when you're spending all your production fighting over scarce resources, plugging leaks, and attempting to feed a planet with decreasing yields. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
  - moosey 8y ago
    I had two daughters before I came to the conclusion that this is the most likely path for humanity at this point. There is a possibility of a global awakening that might prevent this tragic loss of megafauna. But I'm already a vegan and don't drive much; can't think of more to do, and while I'm not too bad at dealing with this, it can be quite depressing.
    - erikpukinskis 8y ago
      I think we can do it... you can email me at my username at gmail if you want to chat but we can talk it out a bit here too. Is there any aspect to culture that you’re personally drawn to? Food? Walkable communities? Forests? Wildlife? Durable goods? I really respect that you grasp the magnitude of the problem and you empathize with those who will live with the consequences. That says a lot of you. But you can't stay in a framework where you are feeling depressed about it. That's probably not a good framework to work from.
YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
>> I hate mosquitoes as much as everybody else, but something has been happening to insects in the last 20 years. Whatever it is, it's not happening to mosquitoes. This entire summer I had at least 5 of them buzzing around my head every night- and I did swat at least half of them each evening.
- anonytrary 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking
  - saana 8y ago
    So your GP's anecdata is cool but your parent's anecdata is not. :)
    - anonytrary 8y ago
      Parent's comment is "Actually X can't be happening because Y happened to me". GP's comment is "Z is happening, which might explain why I've noticed W". Parent's comment is textbook cherry-picking, GP's is closer to a regular anecdote.
      - monktastic1 8y ago
        GP's comment says "has been happening" and parent's says "is not happening." I don't see any "might." Both are anecdotal; GP's is likely more upvoted due to being more poetic as well as supported by the accompanying article.
      - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
        I certainly agree that my anecdote doesn't prove anything, but I'm not sure it's imperative to immediately attack it as faulty reasoning. For one thing, I meant it in a more whimsical manner than perhaps comes across in my comment. As in a "bloody mosquitoes" kind of way. In any case, some background might be useful: this happened in Corfu, an island in the Ionian Sea (to the west of Greece). Corfu, like the rest of Greece, used to have a big problem with mosquitoes spreading malaria, so in the 1950s the whole island was sprayed repeatedly from the air with DDT, to eliminate them. I believe the same was done in other parts of Greece. Possibly as a result of that, the incidence of malaria in Greece is either 0 or negligible, nowadays. Which, despite the ecological catastrophy wrought by spraying bloody DDT on the entire countryside, is a big success- Greeks are among the Mediterrannean populations with a high prevalence of Thalassemia, a genetic modification that helps resist malaria (and which can lead to a sickle-cell anemia, a serious blood disorder): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassemia Which means that there was a really significant problem there in the past. So, when I say that there are many mosquitoes, I mean that I'm surprised there's still so many of the little blighters in Corfu, even given the protracted past campaign to eliminate them- and also given whatever else is happening in the rest of the world that's affecting insects, even though there's no reason that thing is also affecting Corfu, in particular. But, OK, that doesn't come across in my original comment :)
anonytrary 8y ago
That the environment could slowly transition its chemistry into a state which is not suitable for life is one of my biggest fears. It would be a silent killer.
- sitkack 8y ago
  I am not convinced that life on the planet will survive. We could very well turn into Venus. Maybe we did already. In previous cataclysmic events, life was spread en masse to low earth orbit, to return after the fires died down and the earth cooled off. We have no such seed bank in orbit now.
  - tremon 8y ago
    We do not know for a fact that life does not exist on Venus, though.
    - anonytrary 8y ago
      "Life" means humans in this context. If the environment changes so much that it leaves microbes around but not mammals, that's what is scary. We're mammals. We're not as resilient as microbes are.
- adrianN 8y ago
  Life is pretty resilient. I'm sure some bacteria would manage to survive pretty much anything. Life survived a number of extinction events where >90% of all species were lost, so the chances are good that life will go on.
  - macintux 8y ago
    Life will definitely go on, but this would seem to be our sole chance at getting off the planet. Any future reboot wouldn't have the cheap energy resources we've exploited to this point.
  - anonytrary 8y ago
heurist 8y ago
I went camping in west Texas last summer and any lights we had on attracted enormous swarms of flying critters. I do not say that to discount you or OP but rather to console with the fact that there are still times and places where this occurs.
- steve_adams_86 8y ago
  I find I tend to see a lot of bugs during hatches. You only see one kind, it lasts a few days, and then it's back to normal. Maybe that's what you saw.
- randcraw 8y ago
  Bug swarms have always been seasonal. Maine famously has a painful period in spring when the black flies hatch. https://bangordailynews.com/2017/05/19/uncategorized/surviving-black-fly-season-in-maine/ https://bangordailynews.com/2017/05/19/uncategorized/survivi...
bsdetector 8y ago
> and only a few bugs died on my windshield. Smoother airflow around the windshield means fewer bugs smashing into it and more glancing hits that don't leave a mess. Traditional hard edged cars like Jeep Wrangler seem to get a lot of bugs on the windshield (based on brief Googling), so while there may be fewer insects I'd wager to guess aerodynamics is large factor.
- lostapathy 8y ago
  Can confirm aerodynamics are part of it. I drive a 2013 Jeep Wrangler. Wife has a brand new, aerodynamic vehicle. Jeep definitely collects bugs, bird poop, and even rocks at a MUCH higher rate.
- paganel 8y ago
  > Smoother airflow around the windshield means fewer bugs smashing into it and more glancing hits that don't leave a mess. Not necessarily, I've noticed the same thing as the OP driving the same car, a small hatchback I bought 4 and a half years ago. One or two years after I had bought it I could still see lots of dead bugs on my windshield whenever I was driving to my parents, who live in the countryside, but during the last year or so the windshield has started to be more and more clean after each such trip. The same thing has been independently confirmed/noticed by my dad, as he likes to wash my car whenever I get to them, he told me that there used to be more dead bugs on the car. What's scary for me is the speed with which things have changed for the worse as I remember a comment I made on this website about 2 years ago saying that I could still see lots of dead insects on my car after a highway trip, in response to a couple of HN-ers who lived in Western Europe saying they didn't (I live in Eastern Europe).
- randcraw 8y ago
  If you think aero styling is the reason your windshield is cleaner, then take a look at the largely vertical surfaces of your headlights and grille. No dead bugs there either.
- Baeocystin 8y ago
  If I look at pictures of my Westie camper van back in the mid-90's, the amount of bug splatter across the front from a few hours' drive is huge. It practically looks like a different shade of tan at a distance. Same route, same drive 20 years on, and the grille is virtually clean. Anecdata, I know, but it absolutely is something I've noticed, and the aero didn't change.
rstuart4133 8y ago
Just another data point to add: exactly the same thing has happened here in Australia. The family used to regularly drive 2000km on holidays. Dead bugs covered the windshield and radiator at the end of each leg. Today with cheap plane fares we don't drive so much, but I still do a one 1000km drive every 5 years or so. I don't recall washing a single bug off whereas when I was a kid scraping dried bug guts was a major chore. 76% sounds almost too low, but I suspect the the biggest bugs are the hardest hit and they caused the mess on the car. I don't remember when I last saw a locust. They used to be a major problem. We used to have surfaces carpeted in beetles during their breeding season, and yet this Christmas I was actually surprised when I saw a Christmas beetle.
malandrew 8y ago
I wonder if part of the effect can be explained by the improved aerodynamics of cars. I used to drive a 1966 FJ40 Landcruiser about 10 years ago and remember having to clean bugs off the car. I don't have as much to compare it to as you since I've only been driving since 1996, but I didn't notice any major difference in that time period.
tomc1985 8y ago
I recently went camping in mountains that I hadn't camped in for 15-20 years or so, and I remember constantly dealing with yellowjackets and bees all sorts of other fauna. I think I saw one yellowjacket the entire trip, and we had food out like crazy. Plus, whereas I was used to waking up to the sounds of birds and animals, our campsite was completely silent. There was one hawk in the distance all morning. It was strange.
detritus 8y ago
I've read lots of anecdotes like this over recent years, with an increasing knot in my stomach. I don't drive much these days, renting as per requirement, so my own experience in the matter is limited. That said, I had to drive to the south coast one Sunday this past summer and know for a fact that for one day a year at least, England needn't panic too much about catastrophic impending insect implosion. I know this because I discovered half-way through the journey that there was no liquid in the window washers, so by the time we reached our destination, the windscreen was caked in obliterated insect matter and we had to spend a good 15 minutes with a bottle of inappropriately-carbonated water trying to clean it off for the return journey! My hope is that a reduction here is indeed more to do with improved vehicle aerodynamics. Certainly, my sense of dread through springtime, seeing very few insects dissipated quite quickly after a few evenings being irritated by a multitude of flying critters. A welcome irritation though, one which I hope to always be able to appreciate...
kamaal 8y ago
If we are talking of Anecdotes. Mosquitoes in India have only increased. In fact one of the things I enjoyed during my stay in the US was absence of mosquitoes. Just that one single data point felt like ridiculous upgrade in the quality of life department.
speeder 8y ago
I live in a ruralish area in Brazil... And while talking to someone on webcam I noticed a couple hugs wandering around the person room and the person in question not caring at all... Then we I was wondering about it, I realized that been some years that my house despite being near some woods and rivers, is not plagued anymore by insects. I think last time we bothered with anti mosquito candles was 3 years ago...
roryisok 8y ago
I've been in this same thread a few months back. Insect loss is definitely happening, but bear in mind your lack of splatter probably also has a lot to do with better aerodynamics of cars these days. Bugs blow over the windshield on modern cars, they don't tend to splat as often. I live in an area with swarms of insects and i never have to clean anything off these days. EDIT: Out walking my kids while i write this and i just swallowed a bug :(

powvans 8y ago

I have similar memories from my childhood in the 80's. We lived in Savannah and would make the trek to North Georgia several times a year to visit my mom's family. I can remember the headlights illuminating a sea of bugs like a light snow and the bigger ones popping loudly on the windshield from time to time. Having a full reservoir of wiper fluid was crucial and my dad would let me scrub the windshield whenever we stopped for gas. I drive down to the Georgia coast or down to the gulf through Lower Alabama a least a couple times every year and it's rare to have anything of real size burst on the windshield.

jacobush 8y ago
Same thing in Sweden, summer nights, 80s. Today, I never have that problem, not even during this humid, record hot summer.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

akiselev 8y ago

It's such a minor thing when it comes to our day to day but becomes truly terrifying when you put it all together and look at the big picture. I've noticed the same thing about wild-life in general whenever I visit my favorite places from childhood - whether it's the reefs around Australia, the tide pools in Baja, or the inland empire desert I grew up in. Looking at actual research just makes it worse: a third of microorganisms in the upper marine layer have died off from pollution, almost all species considered keystone predators are gone or going extinct, and the climate is jumping off a cliff. At first I thought it was an effect of aging (changes in nostalgia and awareness) but after moving back to one of the cities I lived in and talking to the local bird watching society, it seems to be happening everywhere on massive scales. And so, slowly, we boil.

ethbro 8y ago
> And so, slowly, we boil. Climate changing power, without the wisdom to wield it, is as plausible a Great Filter as anything. Hard to develop a space program when you're spending all your production fighting over scarce resources, plugging leaks, and attempting to feed a planet with decreasing yields. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
- moosey 8y ago
  I had two daughters before I came to the conclusion that this is the most likely path for humanity at this point. There is a possibility of a global awakening that might prevent this tragic loss of megafauna. But I'm already a vegan and don't drive much; can't think of more to do, and while I'm not too bad at dealing with this, it can be quite depressing.
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    I think we can do it... you can email me at my username at gmail if you want to chat but we can talk it out a bit here too. Is there any aspect to culture that you’re personally drawn to? Food? Walkable communities? Forests? Wildlife? Durable goods? I really respect that you grasp the magnitude of the problem and you empathize with those who will live with the consequences. That says a lot of you. But you can't stay in a framework where you are feeling depressed about it. That's probably not a good framework to work from.

YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago

>> I hate mosquitoes as much as everybody else, but something has been happening to insects in the last 20 years. Whatever it is, it's not happening to mosquitoes. This entire summer I had at least 5 of them buzzing around my head every night- and I did swat at least half of them each evening.

anonytrary 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking
- saana 8y ago
  So your GP's anecdata is cool but your parent's anecdata is not. :)
  - anonytrary 8y ago
    Parent's comment is "Actually X can't be happening because Y happened to me". GP's comment is "Z is happening, which might explain why I've noticed W". Parent's comment is textbook cherry-picking, GP's is closer to a regular anecdote.
    - monktastic1 8y ago
      GP's comment says "has been happening" and parent's says "is not happening." I don't see any "might." Both are anecdotal; GP's is likely more upvoted due to being more poetic as well as supported by the accompanying article.
    - YeGoblynQueenne 8y ago
      I certainly agree that my anecdote doesn't prove anything, but I'm not sure it's imperative to immediately attack it as faulty reasoning. For one thing, I meant it in a more whimsical manner than perhaps comes across in my comment. As in a "bloody mosquitoes" kind of way. In any case, some background might be useful: this happened in Corfu, an island in the Ionian Sea (to the west of Greece). Corfu, like the rest of Greece, used to have a big problem with mosquitoes spreading malaria, so in the 1950s the whole island was sprayed repeatedly from the air with DDT, to eliminate them. I believe the same was done in other parts of Greece. Possibly as a result of that, the incidence of malaria in Greece is either 0 or negligible, nowadays. Which, despite the ecological catastrophy wrought by spraying bloody DDT on the entire countryside, is a big success- Greeks are among the Mediterrannean populations with a high prevalence of Thalassemia, a genetic modification that helps resist malaria (and which can lead to a sickle-cell anemia, a serious blood disorder): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassemia Which means that there was a really significant problem there in the past. So, when I say that there are many mosquitoes, I mean that I'm surprised there's still so many of the little blighters in Corfu, even given the protracted past campaign to eliminate them- and also given whatever else is happening in the rest of the world that's affecting insects, even though there's no reason that thing is also affecting Corfu, in particular. But, OK, that doesn't come across in my original comment :)

anonytrary 8y ago

That the environment could slowly transition its chemistry into a state which is not suitable for life is one of my biggest fears. It would be a silent killer.

sitkack 8y ago
I am not convinced that life on the planet will survive. We could very well turn into Venus. Maybe we did already. In previous cataclysmic events, life was spread en masse to low earth orbit, to return after the fires died down and the earth cooled off. We have no such seed bank in orbit now.
- tremon 8y ago
  We do not know for a fact that life does not exist on Venus, though.
  - anonytrary 8y ago
    "Life" means humans in this context. If the environment changes so much that it leaves microbes around but not mammals, that's what is scary. We're mammals. We're not as resilient as microbes are.
adrianN 8y ago
Life is pretty resilient. I'm sure some bacteria would manage to survive pretty much anything. Life survived a number of extinction events where >90% of all species were lost, so the chances are good that life will go on.
- macintux 8y ago
  Life will definitely go on, but this would seem to be our sole chance at getting off the planet. Any future reboot wouldn't have the cheap energy resources we've exploited to this point.
- anonytrary 8y ago

heurist 8y ago

I went camping in west Texas last summer and any lights we had on attracted enormous swarms of flying critters. I do not say that to discount you or OP but rather to console with the fact that there are still times and places where this occurs.

steve_adams_86 8y ago
I find I tend to see a lot of bugs during hatches. You only see one kind, it lasts a few days, and then it's back to normal. Maybe that's what you saw.
randcraw 8y ago
Bug swarms have always been seasonal. Maine famously has a painful period in spring when the black flies hatch. https://bangordailynews.com/2017/05/19/uncategorized/surviving-black-fly-season-in-maine/ https://bangordailynews.com/2017/05/19/uncategorized/survivi...

bsdetector 8y ago

> and only a few bugs died on my windshield. Smoother airflow around the windshield means fewer bugs smashing into it and more glancing hits that don't leave a mess. Traditional hard edged cars like Jeep Wrangler seem to get a lot of bugs on the windshield (based on brief Googling), so while there may be fewer insects I'd wager to guess aerodynamics is large factor.

lostapathy 8y ago
Can confirm aerodynamics are part of it. I drive a 2013 Jeep Wrangler. Wife has a brand new, aerodynamic vehicle. Jeep definitely collects bugs, bird poop, and even rocks at a MUCH higher rate.
paganel 8y ago
> Smoother airflow around the windshield means fewer bugs smashing into it and more glancing hits that don't leave a mess. Not necessarily, I've noticed the same thing as the OP driving the same car, a small hatchback I bought 4 and a half years ago. One or two years after I had bought it I could still see lots of dead bugs on my windshield whenever I was driving to my parents, who live in the countryside, but during the last year or so the windshield has started to be more and more clean after each such trip. The same thing has been independently confirmed/noticed by my dad, as he likes to wash my car whenever I get to them, he told me that there used to be more dead bugs on the car. What's scary for me is the speed with which things have changed for the worse as I remember a comment I made on this website about 2 years ago saying that I could still see lots of dead insects on my car after a highway trip, in response to a couple of HN-ers who lived in Western Europe saying they didn't (I live in Eastern Europe).
randcraw 8y ago
If you think aero styling is the reason your windshield is cleaner, then take a look at the largely vertical surfaces of your headlights and grille. No dead bugs there either.
Baeocystin 8y ago
If I look at pictures of my Westie camper van back in the mid-90's, the amount of bug splatter across the front from a few hours' drive is huge. It practically looks like a different shade of tan at a distance. Same route, same drive 20 years on, and the grille is virtually clean. Anecdata, I know, but it absolutely is something I've noticed, and the aero didn't change.

rstuart4133 8y ago

Just another data point to add: exactly the same thing has happened here in Australia. The family used to regularly drive 2000km on holidays. Dead bugs covered the windshield and radiator at the end of each leg. Today with cheap plane fares we don't drive so much, but I still do a one 1000km drive every 5 years or so. I don't recall washing a single bug off whereas when I was a kid scraping dried bug guts was a major chore. 76% sounds almost too low, but I suspect the the biggest bugs are the hardest hit and they caused the mess on the car. I don't remember when I last saw a locust. They used to be a major problem. We used to have surfaces carpeted in beetles during their breeding season, and yet this Christmas I was actually surprised when I saw a Christmas beetle.

malandrew 8y ago

I wonder if part of the effect can be explained by the improved aerodynamics of cars. I used to drive a 1966 FJ40 Landcruiser about 10 years ago and remember having to clean bugs off the car. I don't have as much to compare it to as you since I've only been driving since 1996, but I didn't notice any major difference in that time period.

tomc1985 8y ago

I recently went camping in mountains that I hadn't camped in for 15-20 years or so, and I remember constantly dealing with yellowjackets and bees all sorts of other fauna. I think I saw one yellowjacket the entire trip, and we had food out like crazy. Plus, whereas I was used to waking up to the sounds of birds and animals, our campsite was completely silent. There was one hawk in the distance all morning. It was strange.

detritus 8y ago

I've read lots of anecdotes like this over recent years, with an increasing knot in my stomach. I don't drive much these days, renting as per requirement, so my own experience in the matter is limited. That said, I had to drive to the south coast one Sunday this past summer and know for a fact that for one day a year at least, England needn't panic too much about catastrophic impending insect implosion. I know this because I discovered half-way through the journey that there was no liquid in the window washers, so by the time we reached our destination, the windscreen was caked in obliterated insect matter and we had to spend a good 15 minutes with a bottle of inappropriately-carbonated water trying to clean it off for the return journey! My hope is that a reduction here is indeed more to do with improved vehicle aerodynamics. Certainly, my sense of dread through springtime, seeing very few insects dissipated quite quickly after a few evenings being irritated by a multitude of flying critters. A welcome irritation though, one which I hope to always be able to appreciate...

kamaal 8y ago

If we are talking of Anecdotes. Mosquitoes in India have only increased. In fact one of the things I enjoyed during my stay in the US was absence of mosquitoes. Just that one single data point felt like ridiculous upgrade in the quality of life department.

speeder 8y ago

I live in a ruralish area in Brazil... And while talking to someone on webcam I noticed a couple hugs wandering around the person room and the person in question not caring at all... Then we I was wondering about it, I realized that been some years that my house despite being near some woods and rivers, is not plagued anymore by insects. I think last time we bothered with anti mosquito candles was 3 years ago...

roryisok 8y ago

I've been in this same thread a few months back. Insect loss is definitely happening, but bear in mind your lack of splatter probably also has a lot to do with better aerodynamics of cars these days. Bugs blow over the windshield on modern cars, they don't tend to splat as often. I live in an area with swarms of insects and i never have to clean anything off these days. EDIT: Out walking my kids while i write this and i just swallowed a bug :(