A new app is allowing car drivers to help survey the UK’s insect populations by counting the number of bugs squashed on their car registration plates after a journey.
The free Bugs Matter app – launched today by Kent, Gwent, Essex and Somerset Wildlife Trusts and insect charity Buglife – aims to help wildlife organisations better understand how local insect populations are faring.
After downloading the app, users are asked to clean their number plate before a drive.
Upon reaching their destination, they count the bugs squashed on a section of the number plate by placing a special grid against it – known as a splatometer.
Further details are then submitted, along with a photo.
The survey is based on the so-called "windscreen phenomenon", a term given to the observation that people tend to find fewer insects squashed on the windscreens of their cars compared to several decades ago.
There is growing evidence of insect decline on a global scale caused by habitat loss and pesticides, according to Buglife.
The charity added the decline could be catastrophic for the integrity of our ecosystems, the future survival of other wildlife and the pollination of crops.
Countries manager for Buglife, Andrew Whitehouse, said: “Many people remark on not having to clean bug splats off their car windscreens as much as they did 20 or 30 years ago.
“The falling abundance of flying insects should be a major concern to everybody as these essential creatures are, quite simply, the small things that run the world.
“Bugs Matter gives everybody the opportunity to take part in essential monitoring that will help us to better understand the health of our insect populations, and our environment as a whole.”
The survey period runs from June 1 until August 31.
