• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    You’ve activated my “thing”. No one seems to have noticed that the bottom of the ecosystem just fucking dropped out.

    When I was a child, dad taught me to always clean the windshield when we stopped for gas, and sometimes in between. I have not done this in years, easily more than a decade.

    We drive hundreds of miles of back country highway to pick up my kids. Talking the South here, mostly Alabama which is 77% wooded. Nada.

    Screw it, I could tell stories for an hour, too depressing to go on.

    • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      A part of it is how car aerodynamics have changed.

      My work car has a flatter windshield and gets a lot more bug splatter than my personal car.

    • DreamButt@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      I drove from San Diego to Boston with my buddy a couple years back and it never even crossed our minds to wipe the windshields the entire trip

    • cleanandsunny@literature.cafe
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      14 hours ago

      I’ve definitely noticed. When I was a kid in the South, lovebug season was a whole thing. I got drafted to wash the car constantly. Last time I was down there during lovebug season driving around, I didn’t see a single one. No splats, no scraping bugs out of the grill, nothing. No fireflies either. It is depressing. I’m a city girl now, but I still keep a densely planted organic flower garden. Even with huge patches of native flowers, I see very few pollinators, and it really bums me out. But I do often see bees sleeping in my flowers, so there’s that.

    • doc@fedia.io
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      14 hours ago

      Took the words out of my mouth. I used to plan for a car wash after every trip through the countryside. Haven’t done that going on 15 years now. Amazing how few people notice.