Why fewer bug guts may be piling up on your car windshield

If you’ve ever taken a long road trip, you’ve likely experienced the rite of stopping at a gas station to squeegee bug guts off your windshield. It’s disgusting, but it paints a remarkably vibrant picture of insect life in the region. Over the years, though, you may have also noticed that there are fewer bug splats carpeting your car than there used to be. Enough people have observed a bug splat decline that an informal term has bubbled up out of the anecdotes: the “windshield phenomenon.”
More concerning, some observers have drawn parallels between the “windshield phenomenon” and broader declines in some insect populations around the world. The distinct lack of bugs on modern windshields has even made an appearance as a tangible example…

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