What is the car with a net on the roof in the Smokies?

by: Matt Hollingsworth

Posted: Jul 22, 2025 / 12:30 PM EDT

Updated: Jul 22, 2025 / 06:20 PM EDT

SMOKY MOUNTAINS, Tenn. (WATE) — Who are the people driving around the Smokies with a large net strapped to the roof of their car?

A local nonprofit is trying a creative, low-tech method to track insect populations. The new “Buzz Buggy” driving around the Smokies is from Discover Life in America, a nonprofit dedicated to discovering, understanding and conserving the natural world.

And don’t worry about birds getting caught in the net. The designers thought of this and have put chicken wire over the front to prevent them from entering, a DLiA spokesperson said.

The “Buggy” is one of four methods for collecting insects that teams are trying out as part of a research project to monitor insect diversity and biomass in the Smoky Mountains. DLIA said the study was preliminary, and it was too early to tell how the insect population was doing.

The other methods are sticky traps, hand netting transects and malaise traps, which the Great Smoky Mountains National Park described as big insect tents. DLiA is comparing all four methods to try to create a sustainable long-term plan for surveying insects.

“Monitoring insects in the Smokies is no easy task,” Great Smoky Mountains National Park wrote on Facebook. “Although we know there are more than 10,000 documented species, it’s hard to gauge how well they are faring.”

Find more Smokies news on WATE.com.

.