Bugs on the Bumper.

[Kalahari]

Is it just me or do there seem to be more flying insects about this year than the previous few years. I know the state of my windscreen may not be a very scientific test but I do seem to be picking up a lot of insects and using a lot more screen wash.

David.

 

[Pellet Pinger]

Yes, i’ve noticed the same, last year was barren!

 

[Tom270]

I noticed this, not much for years now covered,

 

[TringSaint]

Is it just me or do there seem to be more flying insects about this year than the previous few years. I know the state of my windscreen may not be a very scientific test but I do seem to be picking up a lot of insects and using a lot more screen wash.

David.

Yup. Definitely swallowing a lot more of the little critters accidentally, I may add, as I walk through the garden.

 

[Tim.243]

Yup. Definitely swallowing a lot more of the little critters accidentally, I may add, as I walk through the garden.

Much more wild bird cover than ever before!

 

[HonestJohn]

It’s good for the swallows! Although I dare say, the swallow numbers are down this year, by quite a margin

 

[Bo Diddley]

I trimmed a bit of box hedge in the garden at the weekend, and had crickets hopping out of it left, right & centre, last time I noticed so many crickets & grasshoppers I was fly fishing a stream that ran though some watermeadows. As kids we spent hours catching them, and when you walked home as it was getting dark, you would hear the call of the summer ringing in your ears.

 

[wilbert]

Yes I've noticed more bugs about when out on my motorbike, car, out in the fields and in my garden round the pond. Hopefully the fish and birds benefit from the extra food about. Still not like it used to be but good to see an improvement. No idea what has caused it, weather conditions or a ban on certain pesticides / sheep dip etc???

 

[BenBhoy]

Long may it continue

 

[User00056]

Very much back to how I remember it being years ago. Jeremy Clarkson commented on this very thing during one of his Clarkson's Farm episodes. He was driving down a lane and observed how few insects there were. I washed my car earlier today, and was surprised to see just how many were on my bumper and bonnet. I'd noticed my screen getting dirtier, but hadn't really made the connection.

 

[Freeforester]

Is it just me or do there seem to be more flying insects about this year than the previous few years. I know the state of my windscreen may not be a very scientific test but I do seem to be picking up a lot of insects and using a lot more screen wash.

David.

There may indeed be more, of fewer remaining species; roughly 70% of species are reckoned to have disappeared from France and U.K. since the 1980’s, according to the entomology experts.

Plenty swallows here still, cuckoos numerous also this year.

 

[jall55]

It’s good for the swallows! Although I dare say, the swallow numbers are down this year, by quite a margin

We are thronged with swallows and indeed insects this year

 

[jall55]

We have far higher numbers of cockchaffer beetle than i have ever know too

 

[Freeforester]

Haven’t seen any Ladybirds here for a few years, but have begun to see occasional grasshoppers once more, on conserved land.

 

[Hod]

Loads more here than in recent times, stuck to the white front bumper of my car. Mainly greenfly I think. Little hard to tell when they’re so squashed.

 

[McKenzie]

I would say so too. I still had winter screenwash in the car & the state of the windscreen after a drive north then south was something to behold.

 

[VSS]

Definitely more insects splattered on the vehicle this year. Haven't seen so many since I was a child, I don't think.

 

[shakey jake]

Plenty of insects here.
Honey bees are doing well. If this continues should be plenty of wasps.
Not seen any cabbage white butterflies

 

[Apthorpe]

Like everyone else, for years I'd noticed my car had fewer insect splatters on the windscreen than cars decades ago. The question was the degree to which that represents fewer insects or better aerodynamics. This spring, I'd fitted a roof rack which is heavily splattered while my windscreen isn't. It seems that car aerodynamics are likely to be a significant factor.

 

[Mr Tree]

Total absence of St Georges fly here. Cow parley flowering used to harbour millions of them on the verges of country lanes. Council mowing of CP on verges & an increase in traffic is to blame, But yes, more bugs here than in many a year, the best colony of house martins I seen in a long time, Skys full of them.