this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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Tell me what it means (lemm.ee)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 97 points 8 months ago (20 children)

Insects. At night there would be plenty of insects under every singe street lamp. The windscreen would be full of yellow goo after driving in summer.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 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 8 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 8 months ago

didn't know that!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 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.

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