If you’ve been outside recently, you’ve probably walked into at least one crowd of lovebugs. For many of us down south, may means that the lovebugs are going to take over our airspace. Sometimes Lovebugs nearly choke us with their numbers. So today, we’re going to talk about these pesky little pests. Even just sitting here typing this, looking out my window, I feel like I’m being watched by some lovebug determined to get squished.
Tampa Lovebug: An Annoying Pest
Lovebugs are a massive pain to people who drive.
“The adult flies are a nuisance to motorists because the flies are attracted to highways and spatter on the hood and windshield of vehicles,” according to research on the species from the University of Florida. The bugs can clog radiators and reduce visibility on the road. They can also mess up your car’s paint job.
Lovebugs are perhaps best known for an (untrue) urban legend surrounding them. Some say entomologists or people who study bugs created the bugs. As the legend goes, “Sometime in the 1950s an experiment gone horribly wrong at the University of Florida produced a pesky bug with no apparent purpose” according to a 2004 University of Florida news release. “The strange-looking insect—commonly known as the lovebug—managed to escape from researchers and began to spread rapidly, wreaking havoc on people and cars.”
It turns out, however, that the lovebug’s arrival in Florida was much less dramatic. It simply migrated to Florida from the Gulf Coast. The insects originated in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas.
So are these invasive critters dangerous? Thankfully, no. While they might be a pain to people who are frequently on the road, lovebugs are harmless. “They’re everywhere, but they’re not a hazard. They don’t bite, and they don’t sting” Douglas Lipka, an assistant professor of biology at William Carey University in Mississippi, says.
