Not so long ago, the front of every car was a graveyard filled with flies, mosquitoes, and other flying insects. However, in recent years, these animals seem to be getting into cars much less often. How did this happen?
The main reason you need to reduce the frequency of removing dead insects from your car window is because there are significantly fewer insects. Anders Pape Moller, a Danish biologist, has been using fly spray on cars to estimate insect populations for decades. According to his data, between 1996 and 2017, the number of insects decreased by 80 percent on one track and 97 percent in the other direction.
Given the difficulty in obtaining a reliable and accurate count of insect populations, this does not necessarily mean that the total number of insects has decreased by 80 to 97 percent. So went the American newspaper Washington Post Search for causes related to cars. Could it mean that more aerodynamic vehicles mean fewer dead flies because they bounce off the vehicle instead of hitting it?
In addition to the decline in insect populations, the number of kilometers traveled per month has continuously increased.
Better aerodynamics?
At first glance, this explanation seems logical, but based on the experts it spoke to, The Washington Post doesn’t think better aerodynamics is an important factor. For starters, many of the aerodynamic improvements happen at the rear of the car rather than the front. More and more SUVs and crossovers were added with larger and straighter windshields. A local British investigation focused on the number plates being littered with insects rather than on the windshield.
In the end, the phenomenon of cleaner windshields in modern cars is very easy to explain. In addition to declining insect populations, the number of vehicle kilometers traveled per month has increased in the Western world since the 1970s. And with more people driving into the stream of others, fewer insects are killed per car window, on average. So the increase in vehicular traffic is the main reason, according to The Washington Post.
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