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!
“I’ve become a ground hugger?......”
No blood for windshield wiper solution!
His ass.
That’s in Alabama alone.
Sparrows thank you. Next time you’re sitting in the car in a parking lot waiting for hubby or wifey watch and see if you notice sparrows hopping up under the front end of cars. They are picking insects out of radiators. Smart birds.
No,he left those out!
Not to mention COMPUTER BUGS!!!!
They’re mostly in Houston.
I ruined the joke my grandparents used to laugh about while trying to wipe them off their windshields. They called them *telephone* bugs, because they say hello and hang up!
The amount of bugs that I clean off of my Harley after night rides is crazy where I live! And the ones that bounce off of my forehead really are annoying. Makes me want to build a few trillion bat boxes to work on population control for the lil’ pests.
I hate to think of the carnage that will result from high speed rail lines. I am certain they won’t even slow down for swarms of locusts or darling honey bees.
It’s evident we need more cars driving twice the miles they currently do!
“Yep tonight a lightning bug hit my windshield. His light went out.”
Change his battery!
Never mind using a car - I’m going to throttle them with my bare hands if they don’t leave my vegetables alone...
If the stupid bugs keep flying into cars, they are committing bugicide...idiots. GG
In Michigan you’ll find more dead deer than dead squirrels...deer are dumber...they stand in the middle of the road and wait for you to hit them....at least a squirrel will run.
I’ll have to tell my wife that one. We are in the Houston area, but not seen any love bugs that I can remember, but we have only been here a short time. In Al. sometimes they were so thick that you didn’t dare open your mouth.
We’re saving the planet from the artificially high number of insects, which survive the reduction in pesticides.
Onomatopoeia for the last time a bug hit my windshield and got stuck under my windshield wiper.
The automobile is the only predator left in much of our country...
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