Clean Windscreens (no more annoying insects)

There was some discussion in the media in recent months of the 'Insect Apocalypse'. It faded away a few months ago. One major debunking was that cars have become more aerodynamic and hence insects are aerodynamically pushed over the car rather than being splatted on the windscreen.

Apologies if I am resurrecting a dead topic. However I just discovered this sub-forum. What concerns me is that over the last 11 months, I have seen almost no insects outdoors, and when using very old cars that I have used for many years (or decade(s)), the same old cars no longer require regular cleaning of splattered insects. And the flat, front-facing license plates remain clean 'forever' now, whereas in the past would be covered in dead insect residue.

If a researcher was to use a vehicle as an 'insect density analyser', it might seem that insects are less common than they used to be. If insects are less common, we are in trouble, because insects are very important for the food chain, and insect mass extinctions are rare. If insects suffer a partial mass extinction, we are in trouble.

For example, life on land depends on nutrients being available. Many or most nutrients are water soluble, so they drain away when it rains, they drain into rivers, and the into the sea / ocean. Life on land has to survive despite a constant depletion of nutrients.
-> Most life evolved in water. I hate mosquitoes, and some other people do, too. However, they grow in water, and 'convert' to flying, land-based forms after feeding in water and growing there. If we eliminated mosquitoes, we would suffer ecosystem collapse.
-> Insects apocalypse would also have problems for beekeepers; neonicotinoid insecticides, to which honey bees are 'immune' would also cause problems due to the fact that bees commit 'altruistic suicide' when they are ill; this means they fly away and die alone when they are infected with a virus or parasite; however they also feel ill during nicotine withdrawal. Nicotine is a plant-based insecticide, so neonicotinoid insectisides will kill 'pest' insects, but let honey bees survive. However, the honey bees might become 'addicted' to 'smoking' 'nicotine', and the withdrawal from nicotine is terrible - so they might protect the hive by flying away and dying alone. This could cause the colony to collapse.

Honey bees aside, it worries me that my Nissan Bluebird T12/T72, which I have been a passenger in as a child (and washed the car for pocket money), and which I still own a fairly mint example of, used to be covered in insect debris, but now is free of insects after a year of driving. It also worries me that I could go outside in summer and even outdoor lights would be free of insects, whereas 1-8 years ago they would be surrounded.

Who else has noticed either
- Clean windscreens when they used to be covered in splattered insects
- Far fewer insects around light sources at home overnight?

 

Maybe it is because I live in Clean Green New Zealand Where they do their best to ensure invasive foreign species taking hold; for example the fruit fly analysis scheme caught a few overseas fruit flies (which would do real harm if they took hold), so they nuke the whole area for miles around with insecticide. They also put down a poison called '1080', which is sodium fluoroacetate, basically acetic acid, with a fluorine attached (that can't be removed). It kills mammals by getting into the energy conversion system from sugar -> energy and 'jams' it up. Similar to how cyanide works, just at a different place. It kills rats and mice and possums (which eat native birds, especially the flightless ones), but also kills other random things and any birds that eat the pellets.

I was shocked this summer by have days on end with literally no bugs outdoors being attracted to the outdoor lights when they were on - including no mosquitoes. This may have been due to the heatwave we had at that time rather than something more sinister.

That said, there is an article where they went back to virgin rainforest recently compared to the 1970s and found it was 'empty', with I think 1-2% the insect population and the food chain above it mostly gone (almost no birdsong etc). I will try to find that article!