Are Love Bugs Bugging You?
The romantic pests blanket Florida for a few weeks in April-May every year and again in August-September. How bad have they been this spring in your neck of the woods?
Love bug season is in full swing here in our part of Florida.
Are these romantic pests bugging you?
TBO.com recently caught up with one Tampa motorist who was washing bits of love bugs off his dad's Roush Mustang at a Brandon car wash. Cody Ellis, 20, of Tampa, told the news site the car got blasted with bugs during a recent trip to Anna Maria Island but that "you pick them up all over."
It's no surprise the bugs seem to be drawn to our cars on the highway. TBO cites the University of Florida Entomology and Nematology Department's website, which notes that love bugs are attracted to automobile exhaust fumes irradiated by the sun's light, usually between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. They can leave behind acidic remains on our vehicles that can damage the paint.
According to UF's Insect ID Lab, Florida is typically inundated with the bugs for two four-week periods in April-May and August-September.
How bad have the love bugs been this year in your neck of the woods? Are they gone now, or still wreaking havoc on your car's paint job? Post a comment below and let us know.
Sam
9:26 am on Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Love bugs have been fairly bad on the east coast in the Stuart/Fort Pierce area. I have started using a product I found on line, the Love Bug Solution, to protect my car. You spray it on to create a cellophane like barrier that traps the bugs and their goo before it gets to your paint. When you rinse the coating with water, it turns to soap suds and takes care of the bug residue. Pretty simple.
Jason Bartolone
1:02 pm on Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Interesting! That would have made washing my car last weekend a lot easier ...
Mark S. Hankins
11:26 am on Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The FDOT could go a long way toward eliminating love bugs by bagging their bahia grass clippings or switching to a different ground cover on the interstates. It's been well known for at least 40 years that they breed in clumps of decomposing bahia grass.