{"id":85813,"date":"2025-07-23T11:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85813\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T11:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:44:10","slug":"whats-that-splatter-on-your-windshield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85813\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s That Splatter on Your Windshield?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Avia Rebekah McClean<\/p>\n

Kersplat \u2026 thwack \u2026 thunk \u2026 wham!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing quite like a summer road trip and the hail-like sound of bugs hitting your windshield and leaving a streak of splatter.<\/p>\n

The blobs are icky but they also leave identifiable patterns.<\/p>\n

Mark Hostetler, a wildlife biologist, noticed how messy his windshield would get, especially in May and September, during \u201clovebug season\u201d in Florida.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hostetler, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Florida, said the bug glop can coat windshields during those peak times, forcing drivers to pull over to do a cleaning.<\/p>\n

During one of his own stops in the 1990s, he realized that the goo on his car could become a teaching tool.<\/p>\n

He began identifying the sticky remains.<\/p>\n

His windshield became a laboratory, and now yours can, too.<\/p>\n

1 of 5\"Avia Rebekah McClean<\/p>\n

Dr. Hostetler began his own education in the field of \u201csplatology\u201d by heading to a Greyhound bus station in Gainesville, Fla., and then to Greyhound bus depots across North America.<\/p>\n

The large vertical bus windshields made it easier to identify the splatter because parts of the insects would stick, he said.<\/p>\n

At night, Dr. Hostetler plucked bug carcasses from buses after they returned to their stations from being out during the day.<\/p>\n

2 of 5\"Avia Rebekah McClean<\/p>\n

No matter the terrain, bugs will find you, Dr. Hostetler said. You might find more cicadas near forested areas, and more butterflies and moths on roads near open areas and meadows.<\/p>\n

Insects, especially moths, are attracted to headlights. They confuse the lights with moonlight, which they use as a compass.<\/p>\n

The lovebugs that first caught Dr. Hostetler\u2019s eye are found in the southeastern United States. They\u2019re called lovebugs because they\u2019re busy making love while in flight \u2014 and stuck together midair \u2014 during their four\u2010day life span.<\/p>\n

This makes it challenging for them to see where they are going. It\u2019s no wonder that they end up smushed on windshields.<\/p>\n

It was so bad in the late 1960s and early \u201970s that drivers in Florida had to stop every 10 miles to scrape them off.<\/p>\n

3 of 5\"via Rebekah McClean<\/p>\n

Dr. Hostetler identified 24 types of bugs, and he found an illustrator, Rebekah McClean, to create colorful drawings to match the insects with their splatter.<\/p>\n

They compiled their work into \u201cThat Gunk on Your Car: A Unique Guide to the Insects of North America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Hostetler\u2019s son, Bryce Hostetler, built and released a free app, \u201cThat Gunk On Your Car.\u201d It has the contents of the book, which lists critters, their characteristic splats, fun facts about each bug, and car games.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s all educational and fun, it\u2019s also challenging and imprecise.<\/p>\n

The splats are tiny and measured in millimeters. It\u2019s easy to mistake one insect for another, especially when there are thousands of kinds of butterflies and moths.<\/p>\n

The splatter\u2019s form can depend on the speed and shape of your car, specifically the windshield angle.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hostetler advised that it\u2019s best to wash off the creamed remains as soon as possible, before they dry, and to use elbow grease with soapy water and \u201ca sponge with a little mesh on it for scrubbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

4 of 5\"Avia Rebekah McClean<\/p>\n

Bug guts are not quite snowflakes \u2014 of which no two are alike \u2014 but they can look that way to a novice.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hostetler\u2019s aim is to get people to think more about the critical role that insects play in the environment and in the food chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we got rid of all our insects, the whole ecosystem would collapse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

5 of 5\"Avia Rebekah McClean<\/p>\n

Other scientists have noticed fewer bug splatters than in past decades and refer to the decline as the windshield phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Their hypothesis is that a drop in vehicle bug splatter signals a decline in the insect population.<\/p>\n

Beyond this anecdotal indication, there is much more scientific research suggesting that insects are in the greatest existential crisis in their 400-million-year history.<\/p>\n

The population of monarch butterflies, for example, dropped to the second-lowest level on record at their overwintering areas in Mexico last year. Industrial agricultural practices \u2014 habitat destruction and pesticide use, in particular \u2014 were to blame, scientists suggested.<\/p>\n

No scientist blames vehicles for the precipitous decline in insects, though it can look that way after a summer road trip.<\/p>\n

As Mary Chapin Carpenter sings, \u201cSometimes you\u2019re the windshield; sometimes you\u2019re the bug.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"via Rebekah McClean Kersplat \u2026 thwack \u2026 thunk \u2026 wham! There\u2019s nothing quite like a summer road trip…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":85814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[44046,57991,57993,57990,57992,26056,45021,159,38303,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-85813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-bees","9":"tag-beetles","10":"tag-biology-and-biochemistry","11":"tag-butterflies-and-moths","12":"tag-cicadas-insects","13":"tag-insects","14":"tag-road-trips","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-summer-season","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114902379181018832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}