Bugs Matter is an annual citizen science survey which monitors the number of bugs splats on vehicle number plates, to monitor the abundance of flying insects.
Daisy Page reports.
Daisy Page reports.
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00:00Taking the time to look closer at nature, you may get the chance to see a pollinator feeding on flowers and even crane flies taking flight.
00:08Insects play an important part of our ecosystem, underpinning our food chain which supports birds, mammals and other wildlife, but research is showing that their population is declining.
00:19Bugs Matter is a National Systems of Science survey of flying insect abundance, led by the Kent Wildlife Trust in partnership with the invertebrate charity Bug Life.
00:29Volunteers take part by cleaning their number plate ahead of a drive, then using the Bug Matter app they monitor their journey.
00:36Recent data collected showed there were 30% more journeys recorded in 2024 than in 2023.
00:43So when you've finished your journey, you take a photo of the number plate, using the virtual splatometer.
00:57Count the number of bug splats.
01:04Enter that in the app.
01:07Say whether it rained or not.
01:09And that's it.
01:11Submit.
01:12And that submits the bug splat counts along with the journey route.
01:16But the latest data has revealed that the number of insects sampled on a vehicle's number plate across the UK has fallen by 63% since 2021.
01:25Unfortunately, they are in decline due to all the usual factors that are affecting most biodiversity.
01:31So land cover change, loss of natural habitats, pollution, climate change, you know, all these big drivers of biodiversity loss.
01:42When you consider what the terrestrial surface of our planet looked like a few thousand years ago, we've transformed it from swains of natural habitat to huge areas of agriculture.
01:53But these small creatures may have a bigger impact than we may think.
01:57Insects and other invertebrates provide a huge number of essential services, I guess you could call them, which support human life and the life of other animals.
02:09So they do things like they pollinate our crops.
02:12They help to break down waste and recycle nutrients.
02:16And insects are food for other animals.
02:19Lots of birds, lots of fish, lots of mammals feed on insects.
02:24So they provide these services.
02:26They're these essential parts in the food chains and the functioning of the ecosystems.
02:30But they're also important in their own right.
02:32It is hoped by tracking the bug splats on vehicle number plates, we will have a better understanding
02:37of how their abundance is changing over time.
02:40Daisy Page for KMTV.