Buzz
This figure was collected based on a rather unique study, which involved counting insects colliding with car license plates in the UK during the summer of 2021. Scientists assess this decline as extremely serious because life on Earth depends heavily on these tiny creatures.
This result was obtained thanks to thousands of volunteers in the UK attaching a board to their license plates and traveling during last summer. The results show that in the UK, insect numbers decreased the most, by 65%, in Wales it was 55%, and in Scotland it was 28%. Volunteers conducted this survey by downloading an app called Bugs Matter on their phones, attaching a sticky board to their license plates, and recording the insects hitting it during their trips. The final figures, after volunteers completed over 5 thousand trips, show that if compared to 2004 when insect numbers only decreased by 8%, by now, every decade sees a decline of up to 34% in insects.
This method requires several years of implementation because if done for only a few years, there may be years with more insect breeding than others. However, the survey results are highly accurate as they align with other assessments, including a similar assessment applied to windshield screens in rural areas of Denmark, which ran for 20 years from 1997 to 2017, resulting in an 80% decline in insects.Scientists are concerned that if left unchecked, the collapse of natural ecosystems will occur much faster than previously predicted. To counteract this, in addition to effective environmental protection measures by governments, individuals also need to limit the use of pesticides or, simply put, reduce garden maintenance to help insects thrive.
