Bugs on windshield.

[90cummins]

In the 50s & 60s I remember the windshield being covered in bug juice after a short trip on highway. Gas stations were full service back then and always cleaned the windshield & checked the oil.
Bugs & full service have mostly disappeared.

90cummins

 

[Eagle1]

In the 50s & 60s I remember the windshield being covered in bug juice after a short trip on highway. Gas stations were full service back then and always cleaned the windshield & checked the oil.
Bugs & full service have mostly disappeared.

90cummins

Maybe where you live, plenty of bugs out here. Just have to get away from all poisons used on everything to control the bugs.
Full service is no longer a thing.

 

[ponytug]

Bugs are alive and kicking here, too...

All the best, Peter

 

[tacticalturnip]

Where you are, it sounds lovely, lol. There are plenty of mosquitos and moths in particular, and if you get on the highway it's somehow multiplied.

 

[DarkBlack]

Bugs haven’t disappeared. Vehicles are way more aerodynamic than they were in the 50’s and 60’s. Instead of smacking and splattering into an old 4 wheel road brick, most bugs now are swept up over and around today’s vehicles

 

[Eagle1]

Bugs haven’t disappeared. Vehicles are way more aerodynamic than they were in the 50’s and 60’s. Instead of smacking and splattering into an old 4 wheel road brick, most bugs now are swept up over and around today’s vehicles

I still drive bricks.....

 

[tacticalturnip]

I still drive bricks.....

I drive a brick, the missus drives a jellybean.

 

[Torvy]

Definitely differences by geography.

In Vegas, there were/are few flying insects.

Drive across a body of water around dusk and you will get plenty of squish.

As someone mentioned, aerodynamics plays a part, we also have better fluid and wipers to clean it up before it gets as bad.

There's probably a bit of faded memory, too.

 

[Eagle1]

I remember riding a Suzuki from Sacramento to LA at night through the Central Valley (farm country) and had pull over every 15-20 minutes to wipe the headlight to have some sort of illumination.
BTW those giant grasshoppers hurt and make a mess on the face shield, one of those times a helmet made sense.

 

[Torvy]

I remember riding a Suzuki from Sacramento to LA at night through the Central Valley (farm country) and had pull over every 15-20 minutes to wipe the headlight to have some sort of illumination.
BTW those giant grasshoppers hurt and make a mess on the face shield, one of those times a helmet made sense.

Chicken. I drove across back roads of Nebraska one night sans headlights. My alternator was working and I could go a lot further before the battery died if I skipped the headlights. Once it died, call AAA, get battery charges, repeat. It took me until 10am to get home.

 

[90cummins]

Where you are, it sounds lovely, lol. There are plenty of mosquitos and moths in particular, and if you get on the highway it's somehow multiplied.

Western Massachusetts zip 01247

 

[Jstpssng]

No bugs here... they're buried under the snow.

 

[garry1p]

Driving across AR I40 between LT Rock and Memphis in the spring can be an adventure, the rice paddies must be a breeding ground for flying insects.
We would have to stop every 30 or so miles and wash the windshield with coke cola.

 

[Jstpssng]

Driving across AR I40 between LT Rock and Memphis in the spring can be an adventure, the rice paddies must be a breeding ground for flying insects.
We would have to stop every 30 or so miles and wash the windshield with coke cola.

Try it on a motorcycle sometime.
I once rode a highway arojnd dusk, which followed the river for about 20 miles. By the time I got to where I was going it was impossible to see through my glasses.

 

[bigtiller]

As a teenager, I worked at a gas station.
A car with several people in it wanted "$2 of Ethel please, and check the oil".

There were about eleventy gazillion bugs on the front of that car. I worked on that cars windshield longer and harder than any other vehicle, ever.

 

[JasperFrank]

Drove through Texas one summer, and they were having a hatch of the "Big Black Beetles." That's what they called them. These were the size of a quarter and they were every where. You couldn't walk with out stepping on one. And you could not drive more than 50 miles with out stopping, cause they clogged your radiator and splattered all over the windshield. The locals told me its not ever year like this one was, but happens now and then. They were use to it. I thought it was crazy.

 

[Jstpssng]

As a teenager, I worked at a gas station.
A car with several people in it wanted "$2 of Ethel please, and check the oil".

There were about eleventy gazillion bugs on the front of that car. I worked on that cars windshield longer and harder than any other vehicle, ever.

Ah, yes. The good old days pumping gas.
One customer came in daily with his company car. Every day I tried to sell him a pair of wiper blades, which he desperately needed. He always refused.
Then we had cold, rainy, nasty day. He came in and demanded that I put new blades on.

 

[Thomas]

Try it on a motorcycle sometime.
I once rode a highway arojnd dusk, which followed the river for about 20 miles. By the time I got to where I was going it was impossible to see through my glasses.

Yup...if no wind screen shirt etc. looks like salad.

 

[drizler]

You haven’t lived until you ran into a fog of shad flies. Thats the curse that seems to only appear at the St. Lawrence river. It’s tolerable if you manage, but if you forget and hit that windshield wiper switch, you’re done for. It’s like somebody smeared a pound of bacon fat all over the windshield and it stinks like fish. After that, you might as well scrape it off with the credit card.
When I was a kid back in the 60s, we had a drive in theater across the road, I used to get in free because I live across the road and my father would park the car over there and I just walk home and he would go get it the next day. Do you know how we get rid of the mosquitoes when they were really pesky. Old Joe who owned the place would call out over the speaker everybody turn on your motors and let them run for five minutes. Bingo no more mosquitoes. It worked like a charm.

 

[otlski]

My worst seen is I91 dusk to midnight in Vermont. Same pasty buildup.