Posted on 07/13/2011 7:06:34 PM PDT by nascarnation
Last May, Dutch biologist Arnold van Vliet embarked on a bold and buggy mission to count how many insects are killed by cars -- and six weeks later, the results are in. To perform the census of bug vs. car fatalities, the researcher enlisted the help of around 250 drivers to count the number of squashed insects on their front licence plates per distance travelled. After some simple math, van Vliet has arrived at a figure that is nothing short of astronomical.
With the help of volunteer squished-insect-counters submitting data to a web site devoted to the dead bug census, SplashTeller, biologists have learned a bit more about how deadly driving can be. All told, over the course of six weeks and 19,184 miles of travel, the smooshed bodies of no less than 17,836 insects were discovered -- on the cars' front licence plates alone. That averages to two insects killed (in that particular area of the vehicle) for every 6.2 miles traveled.
While the lives of a couple of bugs may not seem like much, van Vliet is quick to point out that all those little deaths really add up -- to nearly a trillion insect fatalities caused by cars every six months in the Netherlands alone.
In 2007, over 7 million cars [in the Netherlands] traveled about 200 billion kilometers. If we assume for simplicity that every month the average is the same for all cars, then 16.7 billion kilometers are traveled a month. In just the licence plates, 3.3 billion bugs are killed per month. The front of the car is at least forty times as large as the surface of the plate. This means that cars hit around 133 billion insects every month. In half a year, that is 800 billion insects. This is significantly more than we had estimated six weeks ago.
A similar bug-survey conducted in the UK found about the same average of insects killed by cars per distance traveled, so it could be said the rate could be applied elsewhere as well -- which could have grave implications for insects in the United States. For fun, I'll work through van Vliet's formula with US driving statistics.
With 200 million cars in the US, driven an average of 12,500 miles per year, the entire nation travels approximately 2.5 trillion miles annually, and kills around 32.5 trillion insects in the process!
My cats like to eat any bug that gets into the my house. Guess I better tell them to stop.
Ever notice that Holocaust is a conjunction of Ho and Locust? I wonder...maybe there was some intuition there..
Especially if it’s love bug season.
Isn’t that good???? Trillions fewer trying to crawl in my eyes and ears or biting me. If these econuts weren’t killing so many beloved birds with their wacky windmills, maybe the birds would eat some of them.
Who cares?
This just counts the ones they can find. How many times do you hear the little critters hitting the windshield, but they just crunch and don’t splat. Those guys end up on the side of the road.
This means they are disenfranchised. We need a law to make sure that ALL of the dead bugs are counted. A law, I tell ya.... I think we should appropriate a few million to study the impact and report back in a couple of years. I have just the guy to manage this project. And you are lookin’ at him.
Well, then, I guess nobama will require all FLA residents to buy Volts (aka: Dolts) to drive around continuously, thereby, killing the little buggers.
Great, imagine how many of the little ba*****s we would have if it wasn’t for cars. Why doesn’t this idiot do research on how many mammals, such as deer, die each year due to cars hitting them. I am sure insects, and deer, will both survive the onslaught of American cars.
thank you, cars!
You know why they’re called lovebugs?
Incredulous! I have read all the comments and not one person recognized the tremendous massacre that occurs every day and every night by the tractor trailers and semi trucks. These 80,000 pound monsters must be restricted to 10 mph immediately!
I think it needs to be “drive through season” on canadian geese, too. kind of clean out the gene pool of geese that like to doddle across roads.
Not to mention public transit buses! The government is killing insects, and YOUR tax dollars are promoting it!!!!
INSECTS should RULE the world! They outnumber us by millions....they are the MAJORITY! And, they’d do a better job than Obomba!
thank you, cars!
I haven't been in Texas long enough to know if they are here or not, but we experianced them twice a year along the Al. gulf coast.
What’s the last thing to go through a treehugger’s mind after he falls out of the tree and just as he hits the ground.
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