[brimble]

This was the case in the Midwest in our basically-the-same-shape-as-modern-cars 90s family cars. We'd use the windshield cleaner thing next to the gas pump nearly every time we stopped, when on road trips, and for good reason—there'd be a few large splatters and a bunch of smaller ones, every time. And that's if it wasn't particularly buggy out that day—there were some times we stopped for the windshield, not for gas.

I think I've done that like... four or five times, total, since the year 2000. And I think every time it was for a single big bug-splatter.

[EDIT] I also recall there being tens of times more large insects—butterflies, large moths, grasshoppers, katydids—around in general back in the late 80s and early 90s, even in the 'burbs, like they were just all over the place in the Spring and Summer, you'd walk through lawn-length grass at the school playground and tons of them would be all around you, hopping away or taking to the air, and now I have to try pretty hard to find even one... but surely that can't be right, can it? That'd be super noticeable by scientists who track that kind of thing. Right?

[throwaway894345]

I’ve been driving all over the midwest and my car is covered in splats after each trip. This seems really surprising to me.

[Tagbert]

I’ve driven a lot over Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas in rural areas since the 60’s. The number of bug splats now is just a fraction of what it was in the 60’s and 70’s.

[choeger]

There might be a perception thing involved as well. Insects tend to emit sound in high frequencies and adults get worse in hearing those as they age. When I was in my early 20s, my mother once swore there were no crickets around while I was like "how can you not hear them? They're so loud...". Nowadays, I wonder were the crickets have gone...