Hacker News

points by poelzi 3 days ago | 0 comments

We don't see the swarms anymore, because they are all dead. If you don't look, you will not notice -https://www.science.org/content/article/germany-s-insects-ar...

AFAIK a nonprofit in Germany collected real data over the last decades. Your childhood memories of windscreens full of insects after each trip are true

[–] FartyMcFarter 3 days ago

> Your childhood memories of windscreens full of insects after each trip are true

I think cars became a lot more aerodynamic which makes comparisons difficult.

When I installed a roof rack on my car, it was full of insects after a trip. I don't know how the amount of insects would compare to decades ago though.

[–] poelzi 3 days ago

For sure, but the nonprofit that did the measurements where not counting windshields, they where counting traps in different areas. The decline of 50%+ biomass since in the last decades is just fucking real. Cats are not the reason for decline in birds, a collapse of the food chain is.

[–] AlexandrB 3 days ago

Cats definitely don't help. I really don't understand why it's socially acceptable to let a pet cat run around the neighborhood killing things and pooping in other people's yards when doing the same with a dog (even a small one) would result in a call to animal control.

[–] piltdownman 3 days ago

The grills of articulated trucks/16 wheelers aren't aerodynamic and are testament enough on their own tbh.

The stats back it up - one long-term tracking project in Denmark found an 80% decline in insect abundance between 1997 and 2017. The 'Bugs Matter' initiative in the UK similarly found that the number of flying insects hitting car license plates dropped by up to 72% in under two decades.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-spla...

[–] slibhb 2 days ago

This is a meme that people constantly repeat "insects are all dead!" but I don't think it's true - these studies seem low quality. Maybe they're true in particular regions in Europe and North America.

As a counter-anecdote, I bought a house recently and the back yard is basically uninhabitable all summer due to insects. Insects may be less prevalent along some roads due to better drainage.

Another point I'd make is that there's no reason to think insect life should be stable across 30-40 years. Insects are not people. Even aside from climate change, insect population is very dependent on weather patterns.