• @[email protected]
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    7010 months ago

    ever notice how this is getting rare?

    we used to get a rain of bugs when travelling by car at night on back roads.

    • @[email protected]
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      5710 months ago

      There are scientists who actually study bug strikes on vehicles. They use it to measure insect decline, and if you’re wondering, it’s massive. I think one article I read had it as high as 40% over the last 20 years in some areas.

    • Johanno
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      2610 months ago

      Insects are dying. Especially close to cities. Cars are to blame, but probably even more the human impact on nature, destroying the natural living space.

      • @coffeebiscuit
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        2110 months ago

        No, it’s climate change and pesticide. (Also cars but not the biggest factor).

        • @problematicPanther
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          910 months ago

          it’s like saying that sport fishermen are to blame for declining fish population. They aren’t technically wrong. but they aren’t right either.

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            i tought overfishing was the biggest problem. whats actually killing the fish? pollution?

            • @problematicPanther
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              110 months ago

              It’s fishing, just not sport fishing. It’s like saying that NASCAR is responsible for pollution. Yeah, not technically wrong, but a drop in the bucket comparatively.

    • @[email protected]
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      1910 months ago

      remember how white vehicles were always covered with dead bugs? and how people used to put nets on their front bumper?

    • M137
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      1810 months ago

      Not just back roads, it used to be almost everywhere. Even riding your bike you often had bugs smash into your face. It’s really eerie now that it’s not a thing anymore.

      • @problematicPanther
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        410 months ago

        15 years ago i couldn’t go for a run without getting a bunch of cluster flies in my teeth and eyes. now, i hardly see them anymore. and not just because i don’t run as often.

    • @ThatWeirdGuy1001
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      710 months ago

      It’s the same with birds.

      Growing up I used to get woken up by the sounds of thousands of birds tweeting and chirping.

      Now I’m lucky to hear a bird that isn’t a crow

    • @HeyThisIsntTheYMCA
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      610 months ago

      It’s all my fault. I accidentally hit an entire swarm of bees with my car in the 90s and it’s all gone downhill from there. Hell of a thing to clean off.

      • @toynbee
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        2910 months ago

        Moreso the bug apocalypse.

      • M137
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        1710 months ago

        You say that like you think everyone has newer cars. It’s absolutely not about that. It’s our destruction of the climate, which has killed off the majority of insects.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          I did a quick search after the other replies came in, scientific consensus seems to be "more research required to be scientific about it, but looks like there are way less bugs about’