#525: Bugs Matter 2025 results

The annual Bugs Matter survey results are out.

This draws its data from the bugs that are splattered on license plates after car journeys. The paper templates I used to use have been replaced by a digital version with before and after images.

In years past, a journey would have resulted in a lot of insects that would need to be cleaned off windscreens.

Terrifyingly, the loss of those insects is a sign of deep problems for food chains and ecosystems generally.

Headline summary:

Thanks to all the citizen scientists who took part in 2025, we can now share the shocking results discovered thanks to Bugs Matter.

The 2025 Bugs Matter findings, which are published in a report released by Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife (Bugs Matter Summary Report 2025), show that the number of flying insects sampled on vehicle number plates across the UK has fallen by a staggering 59% in just 5 years. Analysis of records from more than 25,000 journeys shows an alarming annual average decline in bug splats of 19%, since the survey began in 2021. These findings are consistent with research which has widely reported declining trends in insect populations globally.

#40: Rachel Carson's prophetic 'Silent Spring'

Rachel Carson was the author of the classic book 'Silent Spring'.

This BBC World podcast explores the origins of the book, which is one of the more significant environmental books ever published.

She also wrote several other books which would be of relevance, including on the theme of the world's oceans: 'The Sea Around Us' and 'The Edge of the Sea' - I have copies of these in my library.

One would hope that Rachel Carson will be another person whose name is added to the list of people which those studying the new GCSE Natural History specification should be made aware of.

Details on the podcast:

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring has probably done more than any other to raise concerns about the damage that uncontrolled use of chemicals can cause to the natural world. Carson imagined a ‘silent spring’ in a world where birds no longer sang, killed off by indiscriminate spraying of pesticides.
Her plea for caution when using insecticides led to major changes in government regulation of agrochemicals both in the United States and elsewhere. So who was Rachel Carson? How did this scientist with a passionate interest in marine biology turn first into a best-selling author and then into an environmental campaigner? And - six decades on - have the warnings of Silent Spring been heeded? Bridget Kendall is joined by Dr. Sabine Clarke, Senior Lecturer in Modern History at University of York with a particular interest in the history of synthetic insecticides; Michelle Ferrari, an award-winning film maker who directed a documentary about Rachel Carson's life for the American public broadcaster PBS; and Professor David Kinkela, an environmental historian and chair of the Department of History at Fredonia, State University of New York whose books include 'DDT and the American Century'. The reader is Ina Marie Smith.

The book is available in a large number of editions.

Her story about a lack of insects has been in the news for some years.

In 2016 for example, The Guardian reported on it.

Several people have mentioned the obvious dearth of insects this spring...

Check out her Wikipedia article for plenty more information on her life of campaigning against pesticide use.