Thank you for articulating so well the catastrophic nature of insect decline and it's relation to human health and the ecosystem at large. The case can't be overstated. I recently took a trip through rural Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico and noticed (alarmingly) how few insects there were on my windshield! That's why your title to this video caught my attention. My childhood memories are much like yours of having to clean the bug off your windshield...very alarming and sad. Thanks for raising awareness of this.
Thank you for bringing up insect decline. I remember traveling across the US as a child during the 70s and my dad stopping often to clean the sticky yellow green insect innards from the windshield. Also travelled the same route in 2000 and 2019, and noticed the lack of bugs increasing over time. Since 90% of insect species are specialists (meaning they can only eat or reproduce on one plant species), and because we as humans have introduced mainly non-native plants wherever we’ve gone, which often displace native plant communities, this helps explain the crashing insect populations. They simply don’t have the plants they need. Most of the land in the US is privately owned, so we need to restore native plants and the biodiversity they support on these lands. I’d recommend everyone read Doug Tallamy’s “The Nature of Oaks” and “Nature’s Best Hope.” Also EO Wilson’s “Half Earth.” They both explain this so well, and give a path forward for individuals that can inspire some hope in the face of all this terrible news.
I've noticed exactly the same in the UK. Nowadays I can drive for many miles and not see a single squashed bug. The lack of bugs this year has been particularly noticeable, there's even been low numbers of pests like cabbage whites and blackfly. Everywhere just seems dead. I've also noticed a number of dead birds just lying on paths and other areas with no obvious injuries.
I live in rural Japan and we have the same issue with insect population collapse. Also very few birds in the sky and I live in a forest. I think about the loss of biodiversity everyday. I am working on building soil health and have just finished filling my second Johnson-Su bioreactor. I'm hoping that restoring soil biology will bring the bugs back.
Thanks for the answer! I’m looking into soil testing for my region. Keep up the great work! And yeah, I remember the bugs too. I remember when I was younger not wanting to drive a motorcycle because the bugs would hurt my face.
 5:57 i’m only 25 years old and I definitely remember having to pull over multiple times traveling to just the next state over to clean the windshields even just driving to the next town there was quite a few bugs. I brought this point up to my significant other multiple times recently about the decrease of bugs, another thing to mention that’s part of the issue is here locally at least they spray the entire town for bugs as well. As well as the farms.
I am from Indiana, now live in North Carolina and there are hardly any insects anywhere. Yes those memories are accurate. Let’s stop pesticides and maybe they can recover
I have driven back and forth across Washington state for 30 years, grew up in Texas. I can drive across Washington now and get nearly no bugs on my windshield. It used to be so bad it was a big chore cleaning them off after the trip.
I used to carry a squeegee and gallon of window cleaner, but I haven't had any need for that in years. I can't remember the last time I had to scrape bugs off my windshield. I don't miss the bugs, but I do miss having a healthier environment!
I've been living in the Southeast for over 20 yrs now. When we first moved here, I used to be SO annoyed by how many lovebugs there were in the summer. They were EVERYWHERE! I don't think I've seen a single lovebug in at least 5 years now. It's scary. 😟
I'm in North Georgia and I currently have thousands of ladybugs in and around our barn. It's kind of cool outside and I think the warmth of the sun on the walls and door of the barn attracts them and somehow they get into a semi-sealed building and, of course they die in there. It's not just the red and black ladybugs but different colored ones including some that are black with red dots and some that are yellowish. Not sure what all those are. I don't know how to keep them from getting in the barn and I tried opening the windows and the door but that doesn't help. It's like this virtually every year. Lots of other people around here have the problem in their houses. So no shortage of ladybugs.
I have seen 1 ladybug in the last 5+ years. Plenty of the orange/yellowish ones. I understand those are the invasive ones. I don't think I have ever heard of black with red spots! Now I'm curious... @stefanr570
When I was a kid, I always remember the drive back and forth from Reno, NV to Los Angeles to visit family. We'd take the 395 most of the way and the windshield would be covered in bug splats by the time we got to our destination. Definitely not the case now. You'd be lucky to have one or two end up on there.
Yes! Windshields were covered with bugs as a kid in Maine- Never thought i would be scared/ sad/ miss not having to scrub them off- in striking contrast, an evening vespa ride through the farms in Umbria was thick with insects, sometimes painful when we caught a big one in the neck, so many bats feasting! And they were in drought
Im only 32 and I remember cleaning bugs off of my grandma's car Everytime she crossed fl to visit or we took a several hour trip. I think it's also to do with population and building in there environment ❤❤
I remember stopping to clean bugs off the windshield, thanks for highlighting the decline in the insect population. I too have struggled with carrots out here in hot dry California. I’ll try your advice😃
Driving through Oregon just a decade ago we had to pull over to clean windshields because they were COVERED. Now I do the same drive and there are like 5 to 10 big bugs to clean, tops. Bring the bugs back.
I have a large cattle ranch north of Death NV. There are plenty of bug on everything. However. If I drive out to SLC there are zero bugs. If is a rainy year we have trillions of bugs. Love your channel!!
California kid from the 50s and 60s. Couldn’t travel anywhere without major bug splat on the windshield. Northern Nevada and Wyoming through late 70s on. Trips to Denver were a bug slaughter until the later 90s . Can travel now in the northern Rockies for a couple hundred miles and not have to bother cleaning the windshield. The change is glaringly obvious. We gardeners and farmers need to plant keystone plant species where possible to provide insect habitat and a food source for birds, especially the neo-tropical migrants.
This season for me was pretty bleak. I saw so many butterflies, bees and insects last year. This year however there seemed to be a stark decline. No butterflies and just a few lone honeybees. I planted more native perennials too….The collapse of insect populations and the loss of biodiversity is so terrifying to me. Were gonna be living in a bladerunner/do androids dream of electric sheep future- no wild life left, just a decaying world covered in dust
Interesting. I planted a huge amount of sunflowers, zinnias, and some wildflowers and got tons of butterflies, bees, and some insects I've never seen before
back in the day, if you turned a porch light on, there were many that came in the house when the door was opened. birds and bats are decreasing as well.
I was just thinking about this the other day, I'm about your age and all my childhood going up north we always had to stop half way to clean off the bugs, it's not even an issue anymore and hasn't been for at least 10-15 years. This is in Wisconsin. The wild fields used to be almost deafening now it's silence. The only good thing is the 1000s of dragon flies that take care of flies and mosquitos. I've been working on restoring these habitats for a few years now and it's helping. I find walking sticks again
I live in sw Tn. I've noticed that if I cross the Ms line after dark, the bugs are crazy. I rarely get them on my windshield close to home. But 30 minutes away, they cover the window.
Absolutely I have noticed the decline in bugs on my windshield. I drove from the Atlanta metro area to Long Island, NY and I don't think there was a single bug on my windshield. I drove up I81 through the Smokies, a mostly rural area, not I95.
I remember as well about the bugs on the windshield, but the one thing you did not consider is that cars are more aerodynamic now than they were 30 4050 years ago. I am a truck driver, and I see a lot more bugs on my truck then I do want any civilian vehicle. Look at any truckstop, and look at the trucks that are lined up. Their entire front grills are covered in bugs. Cars are just more aerodynamic than they were years ago, and they're far more aerodynamic than trucks today.
I am new to Southern TN, and we have had a ton of pests, but it's seemed quite difficult to get pollinators in my garden... Though I can't say it's very different as it's my first year gardening here, but it was rather shocking how pests outnumbered pollinators so drastically.
Experiment idea... This year, I scattered Carrot seeds. Then covered with a light layer of perlite. I watered then, but didn't get back to water again. Got good germination without much attention and we had no rain for a month. I have trouble germinating carrots normally. I'd like to know if this could be a fairly dependable trick. Did the perlite keep it just moist enough? The perlite didn't all stay where I put it, and the germination was mostly where the perlite stayed. So I sprinkled more out. Waiting to see if more germinate. I work full time plus, so I need any easy shortcuts I can get lol
In Wisconsin and back in the 60s, every stop at the gas station meant the windshield was cleaned of bugs and on Sunday afternoons the entire car got washed. Now, the windshield gets cleaned at every gas fill however it's only covered with dust. The drought here is pretty bad with a lot of tree die off, low streams, stagnant and drying ponds. I have a rain gauge and rainfall collected this year is 35 to 50% higher than normal. My conclusion is that the atmosphere is 50% dryer than normal.
I so remember having to stop a. number of times while driving with my mother to clean bugs off of the windscreen and bumper and there were even screens for the front of your car because of the numbers of insects crash landing on the cars. Now we can drive twice as far and never have to stop to clean off bugs.
50 Year bug/windshield study, California vs. Texas. 60's 70's 80's Texas was nothing short of gross compared to practically non-existent in CA. 2 years ago, I drove west to east across the nation and don't recall even so much as a "Cloud of bees".
Hi Farmer Jesse! Thanks for the show! The link to the Colorado study doesn’t work, and I’d like the citation. I’m just curious if that’s my old friend John Harte’s subalpine meadow at Rocky Mountain Biological Lab? Thanks!
Drove with parents from Colorado to Florida as a kid occasionally and also a number of drives from Denver to western Colorado, I remember being grossed out by bugs on windshield, wipers, and I also remember avoiding brushing against car bumpers because of the bugs encrusted on them. Ugh. We would use the free squeegies at every gas station stop, now I rarely need to use them, usually just due to bird poop. We lived in a suburb of Denver and had a bad fly problem in the summer, screen doors were the norm, I don't know if that still applies there. I drive larger distances every week due to work here in Central Florida and bugs are generally not an issue. We still get large swarms of bugs occasionally with Lovebug seasons or when blind mosquitoes hatch but that is the exception and not the rule.
I'm just a home owner with a second urban lot for growing on. With almost no lawn and lots of greenery I think of firefly's as the sign I'm on the right track. This year I used an 8' diameter stock tank as a pond. I think that helped expand the number of insects, but out of respect for the health of my neighbors I did use mosquito dunks 😐
My cousin told me a method to clean the windshield of bugs -- she drove lots ... from Rainbow Lake to Medicine Hat Alberta (so the north west corner of the province to the south east corner). Spray Windex wait 5 minutes and then use wipers with was. I have not had to do this because the bugs are not at all a problem anymore
In my part of Indiana most of the bugs hit the windshield in the evening. I attributed the decline to the fact that we now drive with windows rolled up, maybe aerodynamics, but I guess not.
Having grown up in Florida, we had love bugs galore. What their actual name is, no clue, but any trip through central Florida involved scrapping these fornicating orange and black insects from every front facing surface of the vehicle. It was enough to turn any vehicle nearly as dark as my grandfather's language about the conspiracy theory of how they were created at the University of Florida...
In my area of illinois the decline is almost certainly lack of any cover crops (let alone diverse ones), and keeping fields extremely clean of any weeds and pests... can't have insects if you turn all of their habitat into a poisonous food desert.
My neighbors sprayed for mosquitos earlier this year. I'm fairly certain it killed everything but the mosquitos which seemed strangely more abundant. I don't have a large passionflower patch; however, compared to the year prior there was a deplorable yield this year following their spraying. My beach plums also had zero fruit this year. I saw a couple of bees that survived in my blueberry patch that thankfully had a solid work ethic, and we still got about 70% yield from those. So, it certainly seemed like all they did was kill the pollinators due to their phobia of mosquitos.
25 years ago I used to wash my motorbike after every trip as it was covered with dead bugs. Car windshield was scrapped at least once a week. Now the number of dead bugs has shrinked to less than 20%. EU funded studies last year to count the flying bugs' numbers... From Germany, to France, to Italy (where I live) they found a reduction of 70% of their number from the 1980es. It's scaring.
what roller and spacing do you use on the Jang? As for bugs, I can remember the "love bugs" in flordia being so thick you couldn't go 10 miles without cleanign your windsheild. Makes me wonder if they are still this way down there.
Cars are vastly more aerodynamic than they used to be, that has a major impact (lol) on the volume of bugs you'll get on the windshield. That said, yes, bugs are objectively far less common. Regionally we don't have wide-scale spraying for mosquitos. I've seen anecdotes online of a percentage of homeowners having their lawns/property sprayed with chemicals to suppress spiders and other insects, but I'm not aware of how many households in this absurdly granola area go to the trouble.
Bird populations are crashing too, right in concert with insect decline. Birds eat literally tons of bugs so if there aren't tons of bugs then there aren't going to be healthy populations of birds.
Visited the USA from Australia on two occasions. Rented a car and toured the western states for two months, then the following year the eastern states for same period. My wife and I both noticed the fewer numbers of birds overall compared to here in Australia. We are not bird watcher hobbyists. Just an observation from visitors to your beautiful country.
Back in 1974 my brother had a gorgeous Ford Mustang. The insects plastered all over the front of that car, drove him insane.. he would spend many hours washing bug guts off that pony. I live and farm 3 miles from our childhood home that was so 'buggy' .. nowadays I can count the bug spatters on my vehicle as opposed to the paste of the 70's. With that insect die off , has also gone the birds. The bird population and diversity is greatly reduced. We are living in a human induced extinction event. It's sickening.
@4:57 I find it interesting the increase in spraying for mosquito's was excluded from the data. Or is that being lumped into climate change? It kinda needs it's own number but there's probably no correlation. Kinda like the California condor. but we don't need to bring that up.
The reduction in bugs on windshields is mostly due to increased aerodynamics of vehicles. Go look at the boxy vehicles from the 1980s and compare it to today. I drive a semi truck and I can it tell you from experience my windshield is absolutely covered in blood and guts from bugs all day long. I haven't noticed any decrease. But in my personal vehicle at home, almost no bugs. Because its aerodynamic
Q. What's the last thing that goes through a flies mind as it hits a car? A. It's arse/ass Here in the UK we have 'windscreen washers', they're jets of water aimed at the windscreen, these soften and liquify dirt and insect deposits so the wipers can wipe them off. I'm amazed they never made it to the US and you actually have to pull over the clean the windshield. Cars are also much more aerodynamic these days, so maybe the bugs fly over with the air instead of hitting the cars. Maybe someone showed them how to avoid the roads... If insects are in decline then the strange thing is it's only the harmless ones. My crops and I still get eaten by midges, CRF larvae, cabbage white caterpillars, flea beetle, aphids, whitefly, red spidermite etc. So what's that all about then?
These windshield washers are also available in parts of the United States. For example, down in Florida where during certain times of the year you have to frequently stop to wash your windshield off bugs. But of course this is only certain weeks of the year, but I don't remember when.
We have windshield fluid for our cars here in the USA. It’s not pure water, of course, since that would freeze in the wintertime. However, the bugs are so numerous (on some occasions) that the windshield fluid and the wipers can’t keep up.
Thank you for articulating so well the catastrophic nature of insect decline and it's relation to human health and the ecosystem at large. The case can't be overstated. I recently took a trip through rural Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico and noticed (alarmingly) how few insects there were on my windshield! That's why your title to this video caught my attention. My childhood memories are much like yours of having to clean the bug off your windshield...very alarming and sad. Thanks for raising awareness of this.
If you like bugs on your car, come to Florida for "love bug season." You will not be disappointed....
Yes I scrapped bug covered windshields too. I have noticed it declining over the years too.
Thank you for bringing up insect decline. I remember traveling across the US as a child during the 70s and my dad stopping often to clean the sticky yellow green insect innards from the windshield. Also travelled the same route in 2000 and 2019, and noticed the lack of bugs increasing over time. Since 90% of insect species are specialists (meaning they can only eat or reproduce on one plant species), and because we as humans have introduced mainly non-native plants wherever we’ve gone, which often displace native plant communities, this helps explain the crashing insect populations. They simply don’t have the plants they need. Most of the land in the US is privately owned, so we need to restore native plants and the biodiversity they support on these lands. I’d recommend everyone read Doug Tallamy’s “The Nature of Oaks” and “Nature’s Best Hope.” Also EO Wilson’s “Half Earth.” They both explain this so well, and give a path forward for individuals that can inspire some hope in the face of all this terrible news.
I've noticed exactly the same in the UK. Nowadays I can drive for many miles and not see a single squashed bug. The lack of bugs this year has been particularly noticeable, there's even been low numbers of pests like cabbage whites and blackfly. Everywhere just seems dead. I've also noticed a number of dead birds just lying on paths and other areas with no obvious injuries.
I live in rural Japan and we have the same issue with insect population collapse. Also very few birds in the sky and I live in a forest. I think about the loss of biodiversity everyday. I am working on building soil health and have just finished filling my second Johnson-Su bioreactor. I'm hoping that restoring soil biology will bring the bugs back.
Thanks for the answer! I’m looking into soil testing for my region. Keep up the great work!
And yeah, I remember the bugs too. I remember when I was younger not wanting to drive a motorcycle because the bugs would hurt my face.
I remember being asked 25 years ago what my least favorite motorcycle hazard was, and I replied "beetles."
 5:57 i’m only 25 years old and I definitely remember having to pull over multiple times traveling to just the next state over to clean the windshields even just driving to the next town there was quite a few bugs. I brought this point up to my significant other multiple times recently about the decrease of bugs, another thing to mention that’s part of the issue is here locally at least they spray the entire town for bugs as well. As well as the farms.
I am from Indiana, now live in North Carolina and there are hardly any insects anywhere. Yes those memories are accurate. Let’s stop pesticides and maybe they can recover
You're welcome to visit my farm, we have plenty of bugs :)
I have driven back and forth across Washington state for 30 years, grew up in Texas. I can drive across Washington now and get nearly no bugs on my windshield. It used to be so bad it was a big chore cleaning them off after the trip.
I used to carry a squeegee and gallon of window cleaner, but I haven't had any need for that in years. I can't remember the last time I had to scrape bugs off my windshield. I don't miss the bugs, but I do miss having a healthier environment!
I've been living in the Southeast for over 20 yrs now. When we first moved here, I used to be SO annoyed by how many lovebugs there were in the summer. They were EVERYWHERE! I don't think I've seen a single lovebug in at least 5 years now. It's scary. 😟
Like VW Lovebugs???
@@KPVFarmer Plecia nearctica - an annoying little insect that mates mid-flight.
10 years ago I ran through a group of love bugs in Florida. So many it sounded like thunderstorm rain hurting the car.
I'm in North Georgia and I currently have thousands of ladybugs in and around our barn. It's kind of cool outside and I think the warmth of the sun on the walls and door of the barn attracts them and somehow they get into a semi-sealed building and, of course they die in there. It's not just the red and black ladybugs but different colored ones including some that are black with red dots and some that are yellowish. Not sure what all those are. I don't know how to keep them from getting in the barn and I tried opening the windows and the door but that doesn't help. It's like this virtually every year. Lots of other people around here have the problem in their houses. So no shortage of ladybugs.
I have seen 1 ladybug in the last 5+ years. Plenty of the orange/yellowish ones. I understand those are the invasive ones. I don't think I have ever heard of black with red spots! Now I'm curious...
@stefanr570
When I was a kid, I always remember the drive back and forth from Reno, NV to Los Angeles to visit family. We'd take the 395 most of the way and the windshield would be covered in bug splats by the time we got to our destination. Definitely not the case now. You'd be lucky to have one or two end up on there.
Yes! Windshields were covered with bugs as a kid in Maine- Never thought i would be scared/ sad/ miss not having to scrub them off- in striking contrast, an evening vespa ride through the farms in Umbria was thick with insects, sometimes painful when we caught a big one in the neck, so many bats feasting!
And they were in drought
Im only 32 and I remember cleaning bugs off of my grandma's car Everytime she crossed fl to visit or we took a several hour trip. I think it's also to do with population and building in there environment ❤❤
I remember stopping to clean bugs off the windshield, thanks for highlighting the decline in the insect population. I too have struggled with carrots out here in hot dry California. I’ll try your advice😃
Driving through Oregon just a decade ago we had to pull over to clean windshields because they were COVERED. Now I do the same drive and there are like 5 to 10 big bugs to clean, tops.
Bring the bugs back.
I have a large cattle ranch north of Death NV. There are plenty of bug on everything. However. If I drive out to SLC there are zero bugs. If is a rainy year we have trillions of bugs. Love your channel!!
I too vividly recall insects on the windshield !
California kid from the 50s and 60s. Couldn’t travel anywhere without major bug splat on the windshield. Northern Nevada and Wyoming through late 70s on. Trips to Denver were a bug slaughter until the later 90s . Can travel now in the northern Rockies for a couple hundred miles and not have to bother cleaning the windshield. The change is glaringly obvious. We gardeners and farmers need to plant keystone plant species where possible to provide insect habitat and a food source for birds, especially the neo-tropical migrants.
I took a road trip in 2013 and the bugs were overwhelming. My next similar trip in 2022 was orders of magnitude cleaner. It's devastation.
This season for me was pretty bleak. I saw so many butterflies, bees and insects last year. This year however there seemed to be a stark decline. No butterflies and just a few lone honeybees. I planted more native perennials too….The collapse of insect populations and the loss of biodiversity is so terrifying to me. Were gonna be living in a bladerunner/do androids dream of electric sheep future- no wild life left, just a decaying world covered in dust
Interesting. I planted a huge amount of sunflowers, zinnias, and some wildflowers and got tons of butterflies, bees, and some insects I've never seen before
back in the day, if you turned a porch light on, there were many that came in the house when the door was opened. birds and bats are decreasing as well.
I was just thinking about this the other day, I'm about your age and all my childhood going up north we always had to stop half way to clean off the bugs, it's not even an issue anymore and hasn't been for at least 10-15 years. This is in Wisconsin. The wild fields used to be almost deafening now it's silence. The only good thing is the 1000s of dragon flies that take care of flies and mosquitos. I've been working on restoring these habitats for a few years now and it's helping. I find walking sticks again
I live in sw Tn. I've noticed that if I cross the Ms line after dark, the bugs are crazy. I rarely get them on my windshield close to home. But 30 minutes away, they cover the window.
Absolutely I have noticed the decline in bugs on my windshield. I drove from the Atlanta metro area to Long Island, NY and I don't think there was a single bug on my windshield. I drove up I81 through the Smokies, a mostly rural area, not I95.
I remember as well about the bugs on the windshield, but the one thing you did not consider is that cars are more aerodynamic now than they were 30 4050 years ago.
I am a truck driver, and I see a lot more bugs on my truck then I do want any civilian vehicle. Look at any truckstop, and look at the trucks that are lined up. Their entire front grills are covered in bugs. Cars are just more aerodynamic than they were years ago, and they're far more aerodynamic than trucks today.
I am new to Southern TN, and we have had a ton of pests, but it's seemed quite difficult to get pollinators in my garden... Though I can't say it's very different as it's my first year gardening here, but it was rather shocking how pests outnumbered pollinators so drastically.
Yep cool and depressing re the bugs. And yes I remember the buggy windshields and lights too :)
I remember as a kid being grossed out by bugs covering the grill of every car.
Experiment idea...
This year, I scattered Carrot seeds. Then covered with a light layer of perlite. I watered then, but didn't get back to water again. Got good germination without much attention and we had no rain for a month. I have trouble germinating carrots normally. I'd like to know if this could be a fairly dependable trick. Did the perlite keep it just moist enough? The perlite didn't all stay where I put it, and the germination was mostly where the perlite stayed. So I sprinkled more out. Waiting to see if more germinate. I work full time plus, so I need any easy shortcuts I can get lol
In Wisconsin and back in the 60s, every stop at the gas station meant the windshield was cleaned of bugs and on Sunday afternoons the entire car got washed. Now, the windshield gets cleaned at every gas fill however it's only covered with dust. The drought here is pretty bad with a lot of tree die off, low streams, stagnant and drying ponds. I have a rain gauge and rainfall collected this year is 35 to 50% higher than normal. My conclusion is that the atmosphere is 50% dryer than normal.
Georgia here, def remember cleaning windshields a lot more as a kid to help parents vs now, I never have to do that.....sigh
I so remember having to stop a. number of times while driving with my mother to clean bugs off of the windscreen and bumper and there were even screens for the front of your car because of the numbers of insects crash landing on the cars. Now we can drive twice as far and never have to stop to clean off bugs.
50 Year bug/windshield study, California vs. Texas. 60's 70's 80's Texas was nothing short of gross compared to practically non-existent in CA. 2 years ago, I drove west to east across the nation and don't recall even so much as a "Cloud of bees".
Hi Farmer Jesse! Thanks for the show!
The link to the Colorado study doesn’t work, and I’d like the citation. I’m just curious if that’s my old friend John Harte’s subalpine meadow at Rocky Mountain Biological Lab? Thanks!
Drove with parents from Colorado to Florida as a kid occasionally and also a number of drives from Denver to western Colorado, I remember being grossed out by bugs on windshield, wipers, and I also remember avoiding brushing against car bumpers because of the bugs encrusted on them. Ugh. We would use the free squeegies at every gas station stop, now I rarely need to use them, usually just due to bird poop. We lived in a suburb of Denver and had a bad fly problem in the summer, screen doors were the norm, I don't know if that still applies there. I drive larger distances every week due to work here in Central Florida and bugs are generally not an issue. We still get large swarms of bugs occasionally with Lovebug seasons or when blind mosquitoes hatch but that is the exception and not the rule.
I'm just a home owner with a second urban lot for growing on.
With almost no lawn and lots of greenery I think of firefly's as the sign I'm on the right track.
This year I used an 8' diameter stock tank as a pond.
I think that helped expand the number of insects, but out of respect for the health of my neighbors I did use mosquito dunks 😐
Yes, we saw the same thing with bugs.
My cousin told me a method to clean the windshield of bugs -- she drove lots ... from Rainbow Lake to Medicine Hat Alberta (so the north west corner of the province to the south east corner). Spray Windex wait 5 minutes and then use wipers with was. I have not had to do this because the bugs are not at all a problem anymore
I remember also on the front of the car and headlights.
I had a chevrtte. I loved that car
In my part of Indiana most of the bugs hit the windshield in the evening. I attributed the decline to the fact that we now drive with windows rolled up, maybe aerodynamics, but I guess not.
Having grown up in Florida, we had love bugs galore. What their actual name is, no clue, but any trip through central Florida involved scrapping these fornicating orange and black insects from every front facing surface of the vehicle. It was enough to turn any vehicle nearly as dark as my grandfather's language about the conspiracy theory of how they were created at the University of Florida...
In my area of illinois the decline is almost certainly lack of any cover crops (let alone diverse ones), and keeping fields extremely clean of any weeds and pests... can't have insects if you turn all of their habitat into a poisonous food desert.
My neighbors sprayed for mosquitos earlier this year. I'm fairly certain it killed everything but the mosquitos which seemed strangely more abundant. I don't have a large passionflower patch; however, compared to the year prior there was a deplorable yield this year following their spraying. My beach plums also had zero fruit this year. I saw a couple of bees that survived in my blueberry patch that thankfully had a solid work ethic, and we still got about 70% yield from those. So, it certainly seemed like all they did was kill the pollinators due to their phobia of mosquitos.
25 years ago I used to wash my motorbike after every trip as it was covered with dead bugs. Car windshield was scrapped at least once a week. Now the number of dead bugs has shrinked to less than 20%. EU funded studies last year to count the flying bugs' numbers... From Germany, to France, to Italy (where I live) they found a reduction of 70% of their number from the 1980es. It's scaring.
I'm in my 60s and boy have things changed.
what roller and spacing do you use on the Jang? As for bugs, I can remember the "love bugs" in flordia being so thick you couldn't go 10 miles without cleanign your windsheild. Makes me wonder if they are still this way down there.
Cars are vastly more aerodynamic than they used to be, that has a major impact (lol) on the volume of bugs you'll get on the windshield. That said, yes, bugs are objectively far less common. Regionally we don't have wide-scale spraying for mosquitos. I've seen anecdotes online of a percentage of homeowners having their lawns/property sprayed with chemicals to suppress spiders and other insects, but I'm not aware of how many households in this absurdly granola area go to the trouble.
This year I noticed a sharp decline in all kinds of insects. Piedmont of NC
Bird populations are crashing too, right in concert with insect decline. Birds eat literally tons of bugs so if there aren't tons of bugs then there aren't going to be healthy populations of birds.
Visited the USA from Australia on two occasions. Rented a car and toured the western states for two months, then the following year the eastern states for same period. My wife and I both noticed the fewer numbers of birds overall compared to here in Australia. We are not bird watcher hobbyists. Just an observation from visitors to your beautiful country.
In the 70s so many bugs hit the windshield, even with windshield washer on you couldn't see.
Back in 1974 my brother had a gorgeous Ford Mustang. The insects plastered all over the front of that car, drove him insane.. he would spend many hours washing bug guts off that pony. I live and farm 3 miles from our childhood home that was so 'buggy' .. nowadays I can count the bug spatters on my vehicle as opposed to the paste of the 70's. With that insect die off , has also gone the birds. The bird population and diversity is greatly reduced. We are living in a human induced extinction event. It's sickening.
I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!
@4:57 I find it interesting the increase in spraying for mosquito's was excluded from the data. Or is that being lumped into climate change? It kinda needs it's own number but there's probably no correlation. Kinda like the California condor. but we don't need to bring that up.
The reduction in bugs on windshields is mostly due to increased aerodynamics of vehicles. Go look at the boxy vehicles from the 1980s and compare it to today. I drive a semi truck and I can it tell you from experience my windshield is absolutely covered in blood and guts from bugs all day long. I haven't noticed any decrease. But in my personal vehicle at home, almost no bugs. Because its aerodynamic
Every year we have more ticks .we never use to have them but you cannot even go for a walk without gwtting one
Low bug populations not properly feeding bird populations which eat ticks would be my guess as to why
Advancing ecoag has a product to remediate herbicides and pesticide. You probably have to call to find out which one it is.
If you drive a Jeep in Wisconsin, bugs on the windshield are still a thing. Aerodynamics of cars has a big difference.
Bugs inside the radiator cooling fins. Moths, wasps, yellow jackets, and who knows what else
When I harvest carrots they tend to go soft quickly. How do you keep them from going soft ?
Does the low profile of automobile windshield effect the bug kills.
❤❤❤
Rings true. 😢
Bugs are alive and well in South Dakota. Windscreen bug juice flows freely.
Still no shortage of mosquitoes tho 🤷♀️
Ah the good old days, insects on windshields.. and white dog poop (that's something that has completely disappeared).
@@Metalgarn whoa I forgot about this one. Yeahhhh
shoutout to Virginia Woolfe.
We’re in a mass extinction event…
Q. What's the last thing that goes through a flies mind as it hits a car?
A. It's arse/ass
Here in the UK we have 'windscreen washers', they're jets of water aimed at the windscreen, these soften and liquify dirt and insect deposits so the wipers can wipe them off. I'm amazed they never made it to the US and you actually have to pull over the clean the windshield. Cars are also much more aerodynamic these days, so maybe the bugs fly over with the air instead of hitting the cars.
Maybe someone showed them how to avoid the roads...
If insects are in decline then the strange thing is it's only the harmless ones. My crops and I still get eaten by midges, CRF larvae, cabbage white caterpillars, flea beetle, aphids, whitefly, red spidermite etc. So what's that all about then?
These windshield washers are also available in parts of the United States. For example, down in Florida where during certain times of the year you have to frequently stop to wash your windshield off bugs. But of course this is only certain weeks of the year, but I don't remember when.
We have windshield fluid for our cars here in the USA. It’s not pure water, of course, since that would freeze in the wintertime. However, the bugs are so numerous (on some occasions) that the windshield fluid and the wipers can’t keep up.
I ride a motorcycle... yes the bug issue is real
As a rider, II remember how painful it used to be when insects would hit exposed skin at 60 mph!
Climate my ass.
Sunflowers / Cannabis. Soil busters and remediators