this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
1570 points (98.0% liked)

memes

10673 readers
2633 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1570
Tell me what it means (lemm.ee)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
845 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Of course the amount of insects drastically reduced, but for the windscreen there is another thing to take into account: Cars today are extremely aerodynamic. Even new Jeeps and the F150s are aerodynamic. Because of this, the insects are pushed away from your windscreen instead of against it, which is one of the main reasons why your windscreen isn't full of insects anymore.

The only real exception to this is the Mercedes G-Class, but I doubt that a lot of us will ever sit in one

Edit: apparently I'm wrong: https://feddit.de/comment/8318194

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (2 children)

This is a myth and has been debunked.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-number-insects

The survey of insects hitting car windscreens in rural Denmark used data collected every summer from 1997 to 2017 and found an 80% decline in abundance. It also found a parallel decline in the number of swallows and martins, birds that live on insects.

The second survey, in the UK county of Kent in 2019, examined splats in a grid placed over car registration plates, known as a “splatometer”. This revealed 50% fewer impacts than in 2004. The research included vintage cars up to 70 years old to see if their less aerodynamic shape meant they killed more bugs, but it found that modern cars actually hit slightly more insects.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

didn't know that!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

but it found that modern cars actually hit slightly more insects.

I assume this is from the larger more flat-faced grills, especially on SUVs and pick-up truck size creep.