We started our summer journey on April 26 and it was a bit of a slaughter. We drove to the east coast of Florida, cutting an ugly swath of destruction coast to coast. Millions of pesky love bugs gave up their lives on our windshield and the front of our rig. After we traveled for an hour through the flatlands, past the hundreds of thousands of cattle grazing and sleeping under any available shade, we had to stop and scrub off the black bugs that obscured our vision.
These love bugs seem to be unique to Florida. We are told they are visible in Louisiana and Mississippi but we've never hit them there. They have the delightful habit of seeking out a mate in mid April. The male attaches himself to the rear of the female and the two of them fly off on a wild copulating ride that always seems to result in death. Somewhere, though, some of the little critters manage to survive and produce more offspring so this ritual might be repeated in the coming year.
When we sailed in Florida, we'd have hundreds of these bugs fly onto our boat. But that doesn't kill them because the boat was traveling around 6 miles an hour. Sixty miles an hour is a different story.
So we'd done our part in reducing the pesky population. We are told the best way to get the carcasses off the rig is to spray the rig with WD-40 lubricant before setting out. Now that we are in Hobe Sound, on Florida's Atlantic coast, we might just do that before heading north in another couple of days.
Here's what Wikipedia says about this phenomenon:
Lovebug flights can number in the hundreds of thousands. The slow, drifting movement of the insects is almost reminiscent of snow fall except the flies also rise in the air. Two major flights occur each year, first in late spring, then again in late summer. The spring flight occurs during late April and May, the summer during late August and September.
Flights extend over periods of four to five weeks. Mating takes place almost immediately after emergence of the females. Adult females live only three to four days, while males live a little longer.
This species' reputation as a public nuisance is due not to any bite or sting (it is incapable of either), but to its slightly acidic body chemistry. Because airborne lovebugs can exist in enormous numbers near highways, they die en masse on automobile windshields, hoods, and radiator grills when the vehicles travel at high speeds. If left for more than an hour or two, the remains become dried and extremely difficult to remove.
Their body chemistry has a nearly neutral 6.5 pH but may become acidic at 4.25 pH if left on the car for a day.[1] In the past, the acidity of the dead adult body, especially the female's egg masses, often resulted in pits and etches in automotive paint and chrome if not quickly removed. However, advances in automotive paints and protective coatings have reduced this threat significantly. Now the greatest concern is excessive clogging of vehicle radiator air passages with the bodies of the adults, with the reduction of the cooling effect on engines, and the obstruction of windshields when the remains of the adults and egg masses are smeared on the glass.
