The collapse of arthropod populations continues unabated, with no reversal in sight. Released on Wednesday, April 30, the latest results from the participatory study "Bugs Matter" indicate that the flying insect population in the United Kingdom plummeted by 63% between 2021 and 2024. Overall, the accumulated data suggests a collapse of more than 80% over two decades in the UK – figures comparable to those produced by other studies conducted elsewhere in Europe.

However, the British study is unique in its scale and its ability to track the evolution of insect populations across a country year by year, using the same experimental protocol. The destruction of habitats, climate warming and especially the widespread presence of pesticides in all environments are the culprits, according to researchers interviewed by Le Monde.

The "Bugs Matter" study was designed and implemented by two nature conservation organizations, Buglife and Kent Wildlife Trust, enlisting thousands of motorists. These motorists use an app to upload photos of their license plates before and after a road trip, counting the number of insect impacts. A wide variety of other data is collected: the type of vehicle and its aerodynamics, travel speed, weather conditions, areas and landscapes traversed, the date and duration of the trip, etc. The decline of 63% measured in just three years was deemed "stunning" by Vincent Bretagnolle, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) on the Zone Atelier Plaine et Val de Sèvres and a specialist in agriculture-biodiversity interactions.

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