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I do not doubt this at all, but I also have to imagine that vehicles are more aerodynamic than they were a decade ago. I also remember keeping a squeegee in th

I do not doubt this at all, but I also have to imagine that vehicles are more aerodynamic than they were a decade ago. I also remember keeping a squeegee in the car to remove "bug paste" from the windshield after the wipers couldn't handle any more bug guts.

boringg 4y ago
> I do not doubt this at all, but I also have to imagine that vehicles are more aerodynamic than they were a decade ago. They also mentioned their license plate. It's something I have observed as well - the great bug decline or die off. It speaks to food web being insecure.
- fullstop 4y ago
  Also, according to the Wiki article that cainxinth mentioned, more aerodynamic vehicles are apparently worse for flying insects. It seems somewhat counter-intuitive, but perhaps the more boxy vehicles push the insects away before they can be crushed.
  - boringg 4y ago
    I can see that from a physics perspective -- there is a larger pocket of air in front of a boxy vehicle.
dontbenebby 4y ago
>I also remember keeping a squeegee in the car to remove "bug paste" from the windshield after the wipers couldn't handle any more bug guts. Keep the keycard from a motel around, not only can you use them to open many poorly designed doors without breaking your actual credit card[0], they're great for scraping crap like that off windshields. Just heat up water in the microwave (being sure to poke the thing with a wooden chopstick or something in case it explodes, though 30-60s should just make it extremely warm[1]) then dump it right on there, then scrape that crap off and use napkins from McDonald's or whatever to get the mess off. [0] I won't detail how - I taught someone how to do this to avoid lockout fees freshmen year, he allegedly broke into some woman's room to "prank" her who he was NOT friends with, then I had to sit through a dressing down by res life as the RAs continued to do pretty much the same thing, repeatedly, but to look for liquor rather than invent a cute reason to only "prank" the hotties from the soccer team. (Even autistic hackers notice when your invasions of privacy only involve people you want to... "date".) [1] https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/home-business-and-entertainment-products/risk-burns-eruptions-hot-water-overheated-microwave-ovens https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/home-busines...
BoiledCabbage 4y ago
> I do not doubt this at all, but I also have to imagine that vehicles are more aerodynamic than they were a decade ago. Which the article calls out as meaning more bugs should be hitting the windshield, not fewer. That said, I'm not sure I follow why that would cause more. I could see a stronger argument for it causing fewer.
- throwawaymaths 4y ago
  I can't attest to their results but the producers of the super-aerodynamic aptera claim that almost no bugs wind up on the aptera as compared to their chase car, because the bugs wind up unharmed through the slipstream. Though I believe that there is likely an broad insect decline, for the bug splat anecdotes (remembering that the plural of anecdote is data) we also can't rule out that bugs are evolving based on selective pressure to avoid thoroughfares.
Tagbert 4y ago
The UK study looked at impacts to license plates which are not aerodynamic and found a 60% reduction in impacts.

boringg 4y ago

> I do not doubt this at all, but I also have to imagine that vehicles are more aerodynamic than they were a decade ago. They also mentioned their license plate. It's something I have observed as well - the great bug decline or die off. It speaks to food web being insecure.

fullstop 4y ago
Also, according to the Wiki article that cainxinth mentioned, more aerodynamic vehicles are apparently worse for flying insects. It seems somewhat counter-intuitive, but perhaps the more boxy vehicles push the insects away before they can be crushed.
- boringg 4y ago
  I can see that from a physics perspective -- there is a larger pocket of air in front of a boxy vehicle.

dontbenebby 4y ago

>I also remember keeping a squeegee in the car to remove "bug paste" from the windshield after the wipers couldn't handle any more bug guts. Keep the keycard from a motel around, not only can you use them to open many poorly designed doors without breaking your actual credit card[0], they're great for scraping crap like that off windshields. Just heat up water in the microwave (being sure to poke the thing with a wooden chopstick or something in case it explodes, though 30-60s should just make it extremely warm[1]) then dump it right on there, then scrape that crap off and use napkins from McDonald's or whatever to get the mess off. [0] I won't detail how - I taught someone how to do this to avoid lockout fees freshmen year, he allegedly broke into some woman's room to "prank" her who he was NOT friends with, then I had to sit through a dressing down by res life as the RAs continued to do pretty much the same thing, repeatedly, but to look for liquor rather than invent a cute reason to only "prank" the hotties from the soccer team. (Even autistic hackers notice when your invasions of privacy only involve people you want to... "date".) [1] https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/home-business-and-entertainment-products/risk-burns-eruptions-hot-water-overheated-microwave-ovens https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/home-busines...

BoiledCabbage 4y ago

> I do not doubt this at all, but I also have to imagine that vehicles are more aerodynamic than they were a decade ago. Which the article calls out as meaning more bugs should be hitting the windshield, not fewer. That said, I'm not sure I follow why that would cause more. I could see a stronger argument for it causing fewer.

throwawaymaths 4y ago
I can't attest to their results but the producers of the super-aerodynamic aptera claim that almost no bugs wind up on the aptera as compared to their chase car, because the bugs wind up unharmed through the slipstream. Though I believe that there is likely an broad insect decline, for the bug splat anecdotes (remembering that the plural of anecdote is data) we also can't rule out that bugs are evolving based on selective pressure to avoid thoroughfares.

Tagbert 4y ago

The UK study looked at impacts to license plates which are not aerodynamic and found a 60% reduction in impacts.