Cleaned the car today, not for the first time this summer it occured to me that I have had noticably less squashed and dried bugs to remove than I recall from previous years, same can be said for bike and visor.
Any naturists .., er .., um, I mean naturalists out there with a suitable explanation?
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It has been noted by naturalists that there are less wasps around this year but more moths. Somefink to do with the winter and spring.
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I was about to say I've noticed less wasps around and now that you mention it, less bugs on the car.
But then I remembered my little problem with my German friends in the garden earlier on this year.
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Adam
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Somefink to do with the winter and spring.
Wot ave they changed the order of them or sum'it?
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Less butterflies too.
Fullchat
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At the end of June I was thinking there were more bugs than usual. That was during the one and only heatwave we got this summer, and I still have the horsefly scars to prove it.
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You?re clearly not driving fast enough
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On the radio the other day it was saying that there are to few wasps this year and that we should be encouraging them into our garden. I won't be.
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Another reason for the apparent bug scarcity could be that with our plethora of cameras sited nationwide, we are all now driving that much slower and giving the bugs chance to escape.!!!!!!
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Far fewer butterflies on buddleja this year. last year Painted Ladies, Peacocks, Red Admirals etc. This year no Painted Ladies at all. Last year average 30 per day butterflies, this year 2-3.
Wasps? None seen this year. LOADS of bees.
Midges? Normal.
Dragonflies? Normal.
Bugs on windscreen ? v few.
Crane flies (d long legs?) : fewer
Spiders: lots.
Greenfly blackfly (my dahlias!) and ladybirds: loads.
Catrepillers on B sprouts? as last year. A pia.
I blame the frost/snow April/ early May here in Staffs Moorlands..
madf
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& we've not had the ant attack day - usually have ONE late afternoon when they all fly n swarm together.
Mrs V needs the her top up, then!!
VB
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Had a huge amount of flying Ants this year, much worse than any year I can remember.
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I did notice a rather large,what normally I would have said was a queen Wasp,But about twice the size in my front garden today.It was huge and put me off of what I was doing,suspect change in climate is upsetting nature at the moment.But I did see wasp`s around last December??
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Steve
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And now back to motoring.
DD.
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Had a huge amount of flying Ants this year,
Aren't flying ants just those that have reached the stage of being ready to mate?
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L\'escargot.
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>> Had a huge amount of flying Ants this year, Aren't flying ants just those that have reached the stage of being ready to mate? -- L'escargot.
Oh hell... I swallowed one of those while out on the bike last night.
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The situation in west France seems to be the same - the front of the car has never stayed cleaner than this year (motoring link!) and very few wasps in the garden. We usually get flying stag beetles (honestly!) at dusk but not this year.
PS: the 'queen wasp' mentioned above is almost certainly a hornet. Very impressive to look at but with a v nasty sting. Luckily they are (almost always) not aggressive.
We haven't had many of those this year either. No doubt the car is very pleased...
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I can verify the French thing. The car has not been washed since the return from France three weeks ago, and the bug count is barely noticeable. Normally the screen would have turned into a greasy mess
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Back from France a week ago and there was a moderate accumulation of bugs.
Auto Glym Motorcycle Cleaner shifted them easily. Make sure you rinse off straight away as it is pretty aggresive stuff if it dries.
In UK , agree very few of anything visible.Hoverflies were very late.
Confusingly- lots of swallows in our neghbourhood so they must be eating something.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Plenty of wood wasps, the little ones, in the back garden, observed on the way to the garage; only one or two common wasps. (I feed them sugar, the excuse being they seem to discourage bluebottles!).
Definitely more butterflies than last year.
Not many hoverflies so far.
We see no swallows and the house martins, which were quite numerous at times, seem to have gone.
Definitely less bugs noticed now I am brought to think about it, because Toad really destroys them on his country outings!
And the blackbirds, quite plentiful at breeding (and feeding) time, are very scarce just now. Indeed little uptake of ground feed at all, though the sparrows and finches are fairly running up Haith's bill for seed.
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Loads of moths coming in the open window this balmy late summer evening, also loads of Mosquitos (two engines!) buzzing around though luckily they are more interested in my monitor than my arms.
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Yep noticed loads of moths and very few wasps. And very few bugs on the windscreen etc.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Might be very few wasps and bugs around,but my motor has at the moment,spiders in each mirror and around boot hatch.Not to mention more than usual amount in garden this year.And in places I would not expect,mind you anything that gets rid of those stinging things is good in my book :)
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Steve
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I seem to remember that there was some sort of census on bugs a few years back using cars. IIRC the idea was that you fixed a standard sized template on the front of the car for a period of so long then counted the number of splattered bugs and rung or emailed the results in. Would be interesting if they made it an annual thing then comparisons could be made more easily.
Personally haven't seen many wasps about this year but there were plenty of butterflies in Derbyshire in late July/early August along with plenty of house martens and swallows which must have been feeding well on something. Locally, Essex, lots of flying ants this year including a load over the last weekend as well as earlier in July when we normally see them.
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I thought there'd be more bugs as there are less birds to eat them. Can't remember the last time I heard a chirp in my garden.
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>>Can't remember the last time I heard a chirp in my garden.
Should live where I do,you either hear cars revving up/handbrake turns,late at night, or in early hours birds making a heck of a noise waking up.including me and family.Later bit I enjoy
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Steve
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Update from France
Pal up the road (who doesn't own a car to get splattered) got stung yesterday by an aggressive hornet
Hope it wasn't something I said...
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Definintely fewer bugs hitting my windscreen this year than ever before. I've done 5,000 miles since I last washed the windscreen.
And a top tip, when in France, for removing the bugs is to get up early when the dew is still resting on the car. They will have been nicely softened by the water and will come straight off. Strangely we don't seem to get dew like it in England.
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Hardly seen any bugs at all this year and no friendly spiders at all making a web on my wing mirrors.
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I have to report:
a 66% increase in Peacock butterflies (3 to 5)
Lots of daddy long legs on windscreen.
and invasion of spiders on the wing mirrors (and house).
Loads of bees.
madf
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Hardly seen any bugs at all this year and no friendly spiders at all making a web on my wing mirrors.
HF, you are welcome to the spider in my drivers side mirror, survived in their at least 6 months so far including a 2000 mile round trip to Skye. It rebuilds the web each time I clear it and yes t is the same (7 legged) spider each time!
StarGazer
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>> >> Had a huge amount of flying Ants this year
Cue for that Bob Dylan song:
The ants are my friends,
They're blowing in the wind.
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I have noticed that suicidal rabbits running out into your headlights on a night appear to have drastically decreased.
Maybe Tufty has taught them some road sense!
Fullchat
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"Tufty has taught them some road sense"
Wish he'd had a word with the wood pidgeon that shattered my windscreen!!
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That's odd. You can decrease the count of suicidal rabbits by one as of 5am yesterday morning, but I did have to swerve a number of times before I hit it.
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Lots of rabbits on Congleton Edge last three times I ran up it..
Lots and lots of bees in garden
madf
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Dont mind scraping flies and bugs of my windscreen though I draw the line at Rabbits.
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Got bitten a few days ago by what I have identified as a Devil's Coach Horse. Some vehicular content then.
Never seen one before and they behave like a scorpion with much raising of the rear body.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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