I highly recommend The Silent Earth by Dave Goulson for more. It's not a strident eco piece, I'd call it more of a lamentation, but it's also very clear headed and fairly detailed on the evidence and the issues around good science in this space.
Shit is not good.
It's possible that modern aerodynamic cars are better at avoiding bugs than old cars, although I don't know if this explains the whole difference.
I suspect automobile aerodynamics play a bigger role in the windscreen index reduction than ecological destruction does.
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2019/february/the-world-... https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023989118
Consumer vehicles have benefitted from improvements in the process to make safety glass, and are substantially more aerodynamic than they were.
This leads to much less bug splatter, which is good! But it exaggerates the decline as well.
In the 41 years since our VW Vanagon was made, the aerodynamic profile has not changed. And yet, while not measured with accuracy suitable for a lab report, we clean far fewer bugs of thing than years prior. As in, previously one might have to stop at a gas station just to clean the bugs off the windshield. Whereas these days, I'm actually surprised when a bug splats on the windshield.
That, and your premise is flawed to begin with: ...data showing that modern cars hit more bugs, perhaps because older models push a bigger layer of air – and insects – over the vehicle.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-spla...
Also, bumpers and grills were covered in moths, butterflies and grasshoppers, etc... when I was a kid. Not anymore, not for a long time.
They are almost all gone now, clear as can be.
I’d be curious about your opinion since it sounds like you may have some first or second hand experience with pesticides and varroa mites.
There is another article here [2] which talks about the tactics used with atrazine (not a neonic).
1: https://theintercept.com/2020/01/18/bees-insecticides-pestic...
2: https://100r.org/2013/06/pest-control-syngentas-secret-campa...
I have to wonder if the lack of car travel just allowed the already existing animals to wander further into town, but birds made a big recovery. There are types of birds I jad never seen before now in flocks around the city. I hope they can survive now that it is busy again.
Once, while kilted one evening in Skye, I ended up with literally hundreds of midge bites all over my legs.
I f*cking hate midges :(
The anecdotes about "bugs on the windscreen and the bonnet" driving around really resonate to me. There are far, far less casual bug splatters per car these days, and I cannot but think this ties back to a reduction in small insectivore populations too: we killed the bugs, the birds and lizards which depend on them are dying too.
Cycling in scotland in the 70s I could come home covered in black dots. I don't know if the midge problem is as big or not these days. I know out beyond the ranges in Australia, in the bush, its still hand flapping to keep the buggers out of your face but closer to the towns, the immediate rural areas around cities, I sense less insects overall.