Are insects returning?
- Thread starter hja
- Start date
As a kid, I'd go door knocking to wash cars for extra pocket money. I'd wash the same cars every weekend because they'd be coated in fly guts. That just doesn't happen anymore. I know cars have got more slippery since, but not by that much. And motorhomes have the fluid dynamic grace of a rough hewn brick, yet they still don't need scraping after a couple of hours driving on a country road.
Funnily enough, one of they ways they've confirmed the reduction in flying insects is from data accidentally collected by rally teams. In the 80s, several of the top teams wanted to know how efficient their washer systems needed to be, so they scientifically recorded the number of bug strikes. That data can be used to estimate density and compared to modern bug densities. Someone even repeated the bug splat tests to check. And that data lines up, some insects are down to a quarter of what they were a few decades ago.
Funnily enough, one of they ways they've confirmed the reduction in flying insects is from data accidentally collected by rally teams. In the 80s, several of the top teams wanted to know how efficient their washer systems needed to be, so they scientifically recorded the number of bug strikes. That data can be used to estimate density and compared to modern bug densities. Someone even repeated the bug splat tests to check. And that data lines up, some insects are down to a quarter of what they were a few decades ago.
Minxy
LIFE MEMBER
- Aug 22, 2007
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- Carthago Compactline
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- Since 1996, had Elddis/Swift/Rapido/Rimor/Chausson MHs. Autocruise/Globecar PVCs/Compactline i-138
On our drive down from Calais in the first couple of days we must've collected a good percentage of the insects as the front of our MH was covered. We were struggling to remove the remains from the windscreen despite having squeegees, rubber blade windscreen kit etc.
We pulled in to the side of the road to set the sat nav and noticed a discarded floor mop/cleaner near the rubbish bins. It has a flat plastic floor 'plate' which folds in half to squeeze the water out with a removable twill fabric cover, similar to the below.
The cover was dirty (nothing nasty!) but I soon got it washed and like new. I was sure my hard work to get it cleaned was worthwhile and fortunately I was right, it cleaned the windscreen really well with only the most stubborn baked on bugs needing more attention.
Hubby is chuffed to bits with it and wishes he'd had one years ago!
We pulled in to the side of the road to set the sat nav and noticed a discarded floor mop/cleaner near the rubbish bins. It has a flat plastic floor 'plate' which folds in half to squeeze the water out with a removable twill fabric cover, similar to the below.
The cover was dirty (nothing nasty!) but I soon got it washed and like new. I was sure my hard work to get it cleaned was worthwhile and fortunately I was right, it cleaned the windscreen really well with only the most stubborn baked on bugs needing more attention.
Hubby is chuffed to bits with it and wishes he'd had one years ago!
It's worth getting a proper car shampoo. I did a long tour a few years ago. Washer pump failed in the first week, so every few days I was manually cleaning the bugs off when we parked up for the evening. To begin with, I was just using regular washing up liquid. Bugs were really hard to lift. Picked up a small bottle of car shampoo and it was like they were melting off.
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