Maybe this question should also request the responder’s general location, because I imagine the situations vary substantially.
I’ve lived in California for most of my life, and we go on frequent drives between LA and SF, usually a few times a year.
In the 80’s and 90’s bugs would cover the front of our vehicles and the windshield would be difficult to see through even with wipers and washer fluid. We’d actually have to stop to manually scrape them off.
In the 00’s and 10’s we noticed that we’d get basically zero bugs on a long drive, and that sparked many conversations about California environmental law.
I just got back from a drive up the coast and I can happily say that we’re back to insane numbers of bug strikes on the highway. Just north of Ventura I drove through a cloud of large bugs that hit like rocks and instantly covered almost my entire windshield. This situation has been noticably turning around since COVID, which I think is a good thing
The front of my car is pretty splattered with bug remains.
Insect populations are affected by human urbanization.
In other words, the area you live in has become more developed over the last few decades and has become a poorer ecosystem for insects.
UK here. It’s just not a thing any more. I regularly drive - or am a passenger - on a ~200 mile round trip and insect strikes just don’t happen.
That said, I recently drove from the North of England to the South of France. Almost as soon as we crossed the Channel we were instantly getting insects splattered on the windscreen to the point we had to refill buy some bright pink no-nonsense washer fluid at the next services. So I assume some counties are more responsible than others with their use of pesticides.
Last time I drove at highway speed: Thursday around 19:40
You’ve activated my “thing”. No one seems to have noticed that the bottom of the ecosystem just fucking dropped out.
When I was a child, dad taught me to always clean the windshield when we stopped for gas, and sometimes in between. I have not done this in years, easily more than a decade.
We drive hundreds of miles of back country highway to pick up my kids. Talking the South here, mostly Alabama which is 77% wooded. Nada.
Screw it, I could tell stories for an hour, too depressing to go on.
I recently drove from the North of England to the South of France. Almost as soon as we crossed the Channel we were instantly getting insects splattered on the windscreen to the point we had to refill buy some bright pink no-nonsense washer fluid at the next services.
A part of it is how car aerodynamics have changed.
My work car has a flatter windshield and gets a lot more bug splatter than my personal car.
This is definitely true. I usually drive rentals and totally coniced how safer tilted windshields are.
Took the words out of my mouth. I used to plan for a car wash after every trip through the countryside. Haven’t done that going on 15 years now. Amazing how few people notice.
I’ve definitely noticed. When I was a kid in the South, lovebug season was a whole thing. I got drafted to wash the car constantly. Last time I was down there during lovebug season driving around, I didn’t see a single one. No splats, no scraping bugs out of the grill, nothing. No fireflies either. It is depressing. I’m a city girl now, but I still keep a densely planted organic flower garden. Even with huge patches of native flowers, I see very few pollinators, and it really bums me out. But I do often see bees sleeping in my flowers, so there’s that.
No, no. You’re not alone. I’ve noticed too.
I drove from San Diego to Boston with my buddy a couple years back and it never even crossed our minds to wipe the windshields the entire trip
They’re 70-80% gone here since around ‘20, anecdotally as someone who’s driven the same highway corridor day and night.
They still get hit by the vehicle, but there is a profoundly apparent absence.
I drove for 8 hours today, I’d estimate I hit at least 200
Every day, over and over and over… I have to keep actual glass cleaner in my car and spray the windshield occasionally—like at stop lights by sticking my arm out the window—because not even the “bug remover” windshield washer fluid works well enough. You need something strong like ammonia to loosen all the protein.
Note: I don’t live in a city.
Last week.
But cars tend to have more of a slant to the windows then they used to, so less bugs smack and splatter.
I’m driving the same car since 2006. It’s gone way down.
Well a car from 2006 isn’t going to stay pristine forever so it’s no surprise it’s gone down over the past 20 years.
That makes no sense.
The aerodynamics haven’t changed.
I drove through miles of a literal swarm of cicadas a few years ago and 99% of them didn’t splat on the windshield. My roof rack was coated with bug guts, though.
Almost every day. Rural living.
Live on a farm, I mean, it’s summer, the bug-murder season. This is like asking “when did you last breath oxygen?”
Yeah, I was going to say - when was the last time this didn’t happen?
I have some roads which would be swarming with bugs at certain times of day barely have any now. A lot of the country roads by fields just don’t have the insect populations they used to around, I assume due to the massive amount of insecticides they use.
Yeah, I’ve never had to deal with swarms of insects splattering against my windshield. We’ve never had that, here. But a few here and there every time I drive.
We have some roads that pass next to woods and other shady areas where insects like to group up for mating/feeding/whatever else bugs do in a group and passing through them at the right times would mean stopping by a gas station shortly after to clean them off. I avoided those areas entirely during certain parts of the year when riding a bike, because it is way worse without a windshield!
Now those areas barely have anything at all.
I also miss the large numbers of lightning bugs that used to hang out in our back yard. A couple dozen is a lot less fun to watch compared to hundreds.
Nothing like it use to be though
Like 2 days ago.
Not really on my windshield often but my bumper and mirrors are covered within a few miles of driving. Maybe it’s an aerodynamics thing?
sadly, global warming is killing them. I remember years ago they’d splatter my windshield every commute
Light pollution is also a big one. Impacts migration, reproduction and predation.
That, but I’d put pesticides and environment devastation to more blame.
Monoculture farming in particular is absolutely horrific for biodiversity.
“Sadly” is a massive understatement. There will be devastating knock-on effects.
It’s been years.
