It’s easy to identify bugs when they’re flitting around flowers, buzzing your face or munching on your picnic.
The rules are simple: Houseflies are black, bees are yellow and black, ladybugs are red and black, and cockroaches are just dis … gust … ing.
But how do you identify them when they’re plastered to your windshield?
Mark Hostetler has the answer. A professor of wildlife and conservation and author of “That Gunk on Your Car: A Unique Guide to Insects of North America,” Hostetler is a self-professed “splatologist” who has made it his mission to unlock the secrets of the splats on your windshield.
Hostetler, who teaches at the University of Florida, got his start in splatology while on a road trip a decade ago.
“I was at a gas station, and this guy in a pickup truck that was covered in dead bugs turned to me and said, ‘What the blankety blank is all this?'” Hostetler said. “He asked the right person.”
An entomologist–or in professional circles, “bug guy”–Hostetler determined the type of bugs stuck to the truck’s grill: lovebugs. He also discovered a new way to get people interested in insects–his passion.
“They provide a service beyond just appearing on your windshield,” Hostetler said. “They pollinate fruit and vegetables, for instance.”
So he took a long road trip to study bugs and their impact on society, among other things. He strapped a net to the roof of his car.
After seeing a large splat, he would inspect the net to see what bounced off his windshield.
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He also stopped at 10 Greyhound bus depots and studied the grills and windows of more than 50 buses.
“They’re so big and flat that they got a lot of bugs,” he said. “The night buses get hit a lot.”
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Name that splat!
Mark Hostetler says bugs can be identified from windshield splatter:
– Red splats are female bugs, most likely mosquitoes.
– Yellow or creamy spots that slide upward are typically butterflies or moths.
– The smallest splats are usually midges, or “no-see-ums.”
– “Glowing” splats are fireflies.
– Lovebugs love exhaust pipes, which smell like perfect places to lay eggs.
[ Contra Costa Times ]