{"id":44902,"date":"2019-09-30T00:46:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T04:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=44902"},"modified":"2019-09-30T00:46:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T04:46:52","slug":"no-love-for-lovebugs-origins-of-these-florida-pests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/09\/no-love-for-lovebugs-origins-of-these-florida-pests\/","title":{"rendered":"No Love for Lovebugs, Origins of These Florida Pests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It happens around this time every year in\nFlorida. Seemingly out of nowhere, swarms of lovebugs (also known as honeymoon\nflies) take to the air across our yards and roadways. While harmless to people,\nthey can be quite the nuisance. Despite their recurring appearance, few people\nactually know much about these flying insects \u2013 and rumors of their origins are\nrampant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovebugs are relatively small black insects\nwith a red to reddish-brown color highlighting the back of the thorax (upper\nbody). Scientifically named Plecia nearctica<\/em>, they do not bite or\nsting people, animals or other insects. As larvae, they feed on decaying\nplants; as adults, they feed on nectar. The adults generally live for only a\nfew days. They truly are quite harmless, so why do they infuriate so many\npeople?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During their major semi-annual mating flights,\nhundreds of thousands of lovebugs can fill the air in a given area. In Florida,\nthese flights usually take place in late April\/early May and late August\/early\nSeptember. There can also be a smaller flight in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While mating, male and female lovebug pairs\nlink together for days at a time, flying together in a kind of slow drift.\nWalking through a cloud of lovebugs is no fun, but driving through them is what\ntends to really irritate us. Lovebugs don\u2019t move out of the way of cars and\ntheir bodies don\u2019t stand much of a chance against your grille, hood or\nwindshield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of hundreds of squished lovebug\nbodies decorating your vehicle aren\u2019t just aesthetically unpleasing, they\u2019re\nalso quite damaging. The sheer volume of them can potentially clog your\nradiator intake, causing your car to overheat. There are also dangers with\nvisual impairment related to their bodies obscuring windshields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the fluids from inside lovebugs\u2019 bodies,\nhowever, that cause most people\u2019s biggest complaint. They become pretty acidic\nafter a short time, dissolving away your car\u2019s paint job. To prevent paint\ndamage as much as possible, be sure to keep a good coat of wax on your vehicle\nand wash the bodies off at every opportunity. The longer they\u2019re on, the harder\nthey are to wash off and the more damage they will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some people blame lovebugs on scientists at\nthe University of Florida in Gainesville! The myth claims lovebugs were\ngenetically engineered by UF entomologists attempting to create a species of\nsterile female insects that would mate with male mosquitos, preventing them\nfrom creating offspring. Through that process, the scientists mistakenly\ncreated the lovebugs which somehow escaped into the wild. A fun story, but\ntotally untrue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovebugs are actually from Central America.\nThey migrated through Texas and Louisiana, before making their way to Florida.\nThey can now also be found in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia among other\nstates, even into South Carolina. Still, Florida seems to be where their\npopulations thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While you\u2019d probably\nprefer that lovebugs not visit twice a year, they\u2019re much less harmful than\nmany bugs that share our homes and yards year-round. Spiders,\nants, fleas and other household pests<\/a> present much bigger\nproblems. So, have a little compassion for the lovebug\u2026and remember to wash\nyour car when they get in your way!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It happens around this time every year in Florida. Seemingly out of nowhere, swarms of lovebugs (also known as honeymoon flies) take to the air across our yards and roadways.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}