Why should we care if there aren’t any squished insects on our windshield?

This summer, you may have wondered why you are seeing so few insects squished on your car’s windshield compared with a road trip several years ago.

This is because insects are declining globally at an alarming rate.

One extensive citizen science survey looked at insect numbers over several years by tracking insect deaths on car license plates. Participants were asked to clean their license plates before a journey, then photograph them afterward and count the number of bugs killed.

The survey was conducted from 2021 to 2025. It found the number of flying insects sampled on vehicle license plates across the UK had fallen by 60% in five years. Analysis of records from more than 25,000 journeys showed an annual average decline in bug splats of 19% since the survey began in 2021.

Some people may look at these statistics and wonder why they should care. But the decline of insect life is a significant cause for concern. It’s not just in the UK that we are seeing declines, but also across Europe and in tropical rainforests, including some of the most biodiverse spots on the planet. Agricultural land is seeing some of the worst effects.

There are an estimated 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) insects alive on this planet, with more than a million described species and estimates of millions more yet to be discovered. But we are losing insects far faster than other animals, and at an unprecedented rate.

A review in 2019 suggested 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction. Ants, bees and wasps (Hymenoptera), butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera), and dung beetles are thought to be the most affected. More recent reviews show similar declining trends on a global scale.

Why are insects disappearing?

The reasons for losing our insects include habitat loss, disease, pollution and pesticides. Agriculture is a major concern because converting land to farming can remove existing habitats—essentially removing some insects’ homes. Agricultural chemicals, such as pesticides designed to kill agricultural pests, are also negatively affecting the nontarget insects that we want to protect.

Climate change is a major concern and one that potentially exacerbates other factors. When it’s hotter, water availability becomes more difficult, plants become more stressed and food becomes harder for insects to find.

In the same way that humans struggle in the heat, other animals do, too. Insects can try to cope with temperature extremes by using water to cool, fanning their wings or simply going somewhere cooler.

The summer of 2026 saw record temperatures, and the year is expected to be the hottest year on record for the UK. Coupled with intense droughts, wildfires and a changing landscape, this is a tricky world for insects to navigate.

This changing climate is affecting whole communities of insects, where they live and what they do.

As the UK shifts from its typically cooler climate to a more Mediterranean climate, we are seeing species move from southern Europe to northern Europe.

We are also seeing insects change their seasonal life cycles, with effects on other species that are dependent on them. They are even carrying diseases to new human or animal populations as climates become more amenable to certain species that may carry diseases or other pathogens.

This loss of biodiversity is often referred to as the sixth mass extinction, or the sixth time in history that we know of that such a vast number of species have been lost in rapid succession.

Why should we care?

Insects have evolved in large numbers because of the vast range of roles they play in the natural world.

They keep pests under control, pollinate our plants by transporting pollen from one flower to another, recycle our waste by feeding on and shredding material and generally keep our planet in a good state.

American naturalist E.O. Wilson said, “If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

However, insect populations can recover. Appreciating how fundamental they are is the first step in conserving and restoring what we are losing.

Who’s behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space.

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Andrew Zinin

Master’s in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X’s editorial success.

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.