2026-09-13 14:00 UTC
I know people talk about it a lot - but we go on long drives occasionally (not often). And we usually arrive with a clean windscreen. Maybe a couple of bugs.
But I remember when I was young, we would go on a similar drive and the windscreen would be covered in bugs.
That is in my lifetime - in some 50 years, the number of bugs identified on the Windscreen Index has gone from 200 to 1 (estimates).
It is a very clear visible sign of the devastation we have caused in our country*. I was thinking of that as I have just acquired some carnivorous plants - but they will only take a fraction of the insects cars used to.
Replies (3)
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@brad@1040ste.net 2026-09-13 14:45
@SteveClough@metalhead.club We definitely had a lot of insects on the windscreen in the 80s in Western Australia. That dropped right off by the end of the 90s. Pretty sure it's industrial farming to blame.
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@SteveClough@metalhead.club 2026-09-13 14:01
* When we were driving in the US, I don't remember us having large number of bugs there either. But I cannot make comparisons. I would be interesting.
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@JKrotkov@mastodon.social 2026-09-13 14:04
@SteveClough@metalhead.club bugs on the windshield, crickets in the evening, birdsong in the morning.... all diminished. I'm trying hard to not step into the 'poverty mindset', but it is hard, when so much that is good diminishes.