Windshield Phenomenon (no bugs)

[Skooby]

Just got back from visiting my uncle's for Christmas. A 4-hour drive.

That's 8 hours total today, and not a single bug on my windshield. Not one.

 

[tuckgod]

What part of the country?

Maybe they’re frozen

 

[BaggerofTea]

Yea been experiencing this for a few years now.

Canary in the coal mine type shyt.

 

[Skooby]

What part of the country?

Maybe they’re frozen

Virginia to North Carolina. It is winter maybe that's it.

But I went in October for my grandfather's funeral...didn't remember any bugs then either.

 

[Oldschooler]

It's winter breh....even in VA and NC the bugs can't sustain cooler temps. I wonder what will happen when earth goes into the next Milankovitch cycle.

 

[Vandelay]

I drive Chicago to Philly 1-2 times a year and if it's March to October my windshield gets nasty as fukk. Probably just time of the year.

 

[B86]

nikka, it’s cold as fukk outside across the whole country. Nobody or nothing is outside unless it has to be…

 

[Professor Emeritus]

This particular drive might have been the cold but the overall issue is DEFINITELY a real one. Back in the 80s/90s when I was a kid we used to drive road trips to visit family in Cali and Missouri and you'd have to clean the windshield multiple times a day just to see. The grill would be absolutely disgusting. But for the last 15 years I've been taking plenty of my own road trips driving up to 1000 miles in a day and the difference is remarkable. There are bugs but in any particular day it's just a few spots here and there, not the total coverage every few hours like it used to be.


Read the link if you don't believe me - all the entomologists have noticed it and multiple studies have confirmed serious declines since the late 1990s (which probably means even larger declines if they had begun measuring in the 1950s or even the 1980s)

Windshield phenomenon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[CouldntBeMeTho]

Man I drove cross country through the Midwest this summer, my car still got crusted bugs that wont come off

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

Where I live is along a known Monarch butterfly migration route. I've noticed for years the decline in their population. When I was a kid, it was nothing to see swarms of them flying all over the place. Even caught a couple caterpillars and raised them to adulthood as science experiments/curiosity.

This year, I saw a grand total of 2 and I work outside year-round most of the time.

Same thing has been going on with fireflies/lightning bugs. During the Summer, there'd usually be swarms of them. This year, I barely saw any.​

 

[ThaBronxBully]

They’re Huddled Up At The Crib Enjoying The Holidays

 

[Who Not How]

I drove a lot these past 2 years going on cross country trips and got plenty of bugs on my windshield so can’t say I’ve noticed.

 

[Fillerguy]

I haven't seen firefires in Jersey the 2010s.

Mosquitoes don't bite me no more.

Drove down to SC in 2017 during the summer for a family reunion, not a since bug on our windshield. In the early 2000s, it would be like raining bugs if you went about 20 mph.

We're in the end game now.