it's a beautiful car it's an mg mg
magnet from 1955 well now we're going
off into Kent countryside in your prime
if I can put it that way you were a
saloon car rally driver correct
I started out circuit racing in a mini
in the very early 1970s it was a
characteristic of driving at the time
that he would regularly have to clean
the windscreen because it was becoming
so completely hiked with with squashed
insects if you're of a certain age
you'll remember the great British summer
getaway of old the long drive followed
by wiping all the dead insects and
smeared blood from your number plate and
windscreen are those days gone forever
or is it that modern cars are more
aerodynamic so catching fewer bugs last
summer
Kent Wildlife Trusts put his windscreen
phenomenon to the test they sent out a
fleet of both vintage and modern cars to
measure the number of dead insects on
number players they found the age of
cars made absolutely no difference
they've been applying some science to
this and you took part in an actual
survey how did that work absolutely yes
the Front's of the cars are cleaned and
checked and then at the end of the event
they would count the number of insects
washed how would the windscreen contrast
with the old windscreen days of rallying
there would be hardly anything on it
their report published today has been
seen exclusively by this programme they
compared their findings to a similar
study by the RSPB in 2004 and the
results show an alarming drop of 50%
fewer insects Platts over just 15 years
our data that we've collected here in
Kent mirrors the data in other studies
for insect decline and the consequences
of that are catastrophic it is very rare
to hear a naturalist use the word
catastrophic insects form the basis of
many many food webs they're really the
foundation of life on Earth 3/4 of crops
are pollinated by insects without
insects life on Earth just couldn't
exist many international studies are
showing a similar sharp decline of our
insects intensive agriculture and our
over-reliance hog pesticides being
largely responsible we now grow these in
almost monocultures of crops that are
treated over and over again with
pesticides on average each field is
treated about 17 times a year so 17
different pesticide applications which
is a figure that's twice as high as it
was just 25 years ago if we were to come
back in July and go and stand in the
middle of this field it would be silent
there wouldn't be any butterflies or
bumble bees buzzing around because
there's nothing there for them they
can't survive and so that's really at
the heart of why insects of decline so
much and I think it's a real tragedy at
can be Wyck they're trying to reverse
the decline
it's the UK's first bug Nature Reserve
and is flourishing with over 1,300
invertebrate species in the summer this
would be full of wild flowers as well as
grasses which could buzzing with life
buzzing with bees and butterflies and
beetles the rate of loss of insects is
much higher than ever wildlife such as
mammals and birds up to eight times
higher sites such as this like candy
which have really by diverse and really
important sites for insects we cannot
afford to lose we've got to protect them
we need to look at restoring habitats we
need to look at connecting habitats not
just in our countryside but in our urban
areas as well we need better
connectivity across a landscape linking
up with insects in decline so too are
many animals which rely upon them for
food
derek has been striving to preserve one
of Britain's endangered species the
dormers the amazing thing about you is
that we can even explore the effect on
the food chain because you monitor
dormouse we've had 50 boxes in the
woodland for ten years now that we've
been monitoring every month through
February to November the Dormouse will
use the boxes when they come out of
hibernation to breed if it's anything
like last year in these woods
few will turn up at all so now let's
look at the numbers ten years ago
roughly how many would be on on an
average I would say around fifty to
sixty dormice in a season in our
original 50 boxes I was here like 2019
we saw ten but the numbers you're
talking about is so dramatic absolutely
having there are fewer insects that
could be affecting the number of door
mice it's definitely part of their diet
and there are far fewer insects around
which is going to affect their ability
to put on weight in order to get into a
condition that where they can breed in a
world with glaciers melting and
devastating wildfires it's easy to
overlook this silent decline of our
insects but we ignore it at our peril as
humans we cannot survive without them
the scientists talk about the sixth mass
extinction event that right now species
are going extinct faster than they have
done for 65 million years since the
dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor but
this time around it's down to us this
kind of quiet decline of our insects is
a catastrophe unraveling all around us
right now and we need to act immediately
or else it'll be too late