re: the Windshield Test (as eloquently described by "I remember having to continually clean the windshield and the front of my car of all the bugs that accumulated and stuck there.")
Remember that your old car was far less aerodynamic than modern cars. Windshields and grills were essentially vertical plates against which the bugs squashed. Modern cars and even trucks are specifically designed to minimize air resistance by controlling the flow of air around the vehicle. Bugs that used to smash into the car are now caught in the stream and carried over (or sometimes under) the car. We are also driving faster which, counterintuitively, reduces the incidence of bug impacts. (Faster speed creates a larger bow wave which has a higher likelihood of exceeding the zone of turbulence.)
There may be fewer bugs than there used to but the Windshield Test is a very unreliable measure of that hypothesis.
Mike Rossander
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