Why there are fewer and fewer dead flies on your windshield | Mobility

The main reason you should cut back on cleaning the front of your car of dead bugs is that there are significantly fewer bugs. Anders Pape Müller, a Danish biologist, has used fly spray on cars for decades to estimate insect populations. According to his data, the number of insects fell 80 percent on one track and 97 percent on the other between 1996 and 2017.

Because reliable and accurate counts of insect populations are difficult to obtain, this does not necessarily mean that the total number of insects has fallen between 80 and 97 percent. Thus the American newspaper’Washington PostSearch for causes related to cars. For example, could more aerodynamic cars reduce the number of dead flies because they are more likely to graze with the car rather than crash into it?

At first glance, this explanation seems logical, but based on the experts they spoke to, The Washington Post doesn’t think improved aerodynamics is a major factor. For starters, many of the aerodynamic improvements happen at the rear of the car rather than the front. Also, more and more SUVs and crossovers were added with larger and straighter windshields. In addition, a local investigation in the UK focused on bug splatter on license plates rather than windshields.

In the end, the phenomenon of cleaner windshields on modern cars is very easy to explain. In addition to declining insect numbers, the number of kilometers traveled per month in the Western world has increased continuously since the 1970s. And as more people drive into a stream for others, fewer creatures are killed per car window on average. So the increase in vehicular traffic is the main reason, according to the “Washington Post.”