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Fewer dead bugs on car badges means fewer bugs overall
Photo: allOver / IMAGO
According to a study in the UK, the number of flying insects in the country has fallen by almost 60 percent since 2004.
Hundreds of citizens took part in the “count” of dead insects on car stickers from 2019 to 2021.
The decline was sharpest in England at 65 percent, Wales had 55 percent fewer insects and Scotland 28 percent.
Researchers call the so-called "windshield phenomenon" the perceived observation that fewer insects tend to stick to the windshields of cars than before.
Environmentalists and researchers in Great Britain now wanted to underpin this "feeling" with data in a campaign.
To do this, they asked drivers to count the number of crushed insects on their license plates.
The participants were able to download an app and were sent a "splatometer" - a kind of template that is attached to the license plate of the respective car.
The insects stuck in it are counted after a certain number of kilometers.
The researchers then compared the numbers with data collected in 2004 using the same method.
The decline is "frightening," they write in their evaluation.
Nevertheless, more measurement campaigns would have to be carried out, since unfavorable weather conditions could also distort the results.
»The number of flying insects is decreasing by an average of 34 percent per decade«
"This important study suggests that the number of flying insects is declining by an average of 34 percent per decade - that's staggering," Buglife's Matt Shardlow told The Guardian, which conducted the survey in partnership with the Kent Wildlife Trust.
»We must act urgently and stop the decline in biological diversity now.«
The numbers from the measurement are also consistent with other studies on insect decline.
There was already a similar measurement campaign in Denmark.
This was carried out annually from 1997 to 2017.
The drop there was even more dramatic at 80 percent.
The British now want to repeat their campaign.
As early as this summer, the »citizen scientists« are supposed to count crushed insects again.
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