🪰 If you drive a lot, you may have noticed that in recent years fewer and fewer insects seem to be hitting our windshields, even after long trips.
🚘 The phenomenon has started to spread and affect so many countries around the world that scientists have even given it a name: "windshield syndrome".
📚 While this effect has been known for some time, a recent study conducted by a group of British citizens affiliated with Buglife and reported by New Scientist revealed findings that are in line with this trend.
📉 Using small grids placed on their license plates - "splatometers" - participants were asked to count dead insects at the end of their journey and upload the results to an app created especially for the occasion.
👎 If the experiment makes people smile, its results are worrying. 😱
Indeed, from 2004 to 2021, the number of insects crushed on cars has dropped by 58.5%.
The conclusions are therefore dramatic and alarming.
❓ But what is the cause of this spectacular decline?
☠️ The loss of their habitat or their degradation, global warming or the invasion of exotic species are the causes of this alarming decrease but agriculture appears to be one of the main drivers of the decline of insects, in particular because of the excessive use of pesticides.
⚠️ Here is a new proof that our ecosystem is not doing well. It reinforces the numerous worrying studies on our environment.