I am glad that the "windshield test"has at least gotten a bit of science to back it up albeit in Europe. The argument of improved vehicle aerodynamics has never sat well with my observation. I am as deep in the heart of Ag country as any and can predict where I will encounter flying insects and where not. Is it not precisely the objective of insecticide application to reduce the biomass of insects? Harmful ones they will argue but you usually can't make a careful selection. With ever improved application methods, read aerial and 60' boom ground rigs, as well as systemic treated seed we can economically massively reduce the insect biomass on vast acreages of croplands. At the same time farming operations are becoming ever larger with the ancillary loss of fence rows, ditches, and out-ground. Urbanization has the same effect. There may be pockets of improved habitat but they are overwhelmed by pavement, buildings, and green spaces such as golf courses and play fields that are mostly insect free. Don't get me started on the lawn care industry. We also actively reduce insect forage on tens of millions of acres of range land in the name of noxious weed control and grazing improvement. So how can we be surprised?

 It is the free market at work. Unfortunately the insects are not market participants. We have made a choice that in our modern economy insects are dispensable. Humans dominate the earth and mold it to our needs with technology. But the insects will, I believe, play the long game and after our relatively brief stay recover and regain their rightful place in the planets ecology. And on a very predictable time line the sun will explode into a red giant and all of our atoms, insect and human alike, will get a new start in the universe. I can't wait.

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

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