# Ever experienced a swarm of "love bugs?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [July 4, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497 "2025-07-04T18:13:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/1 "2025-07-04T18:13:47Z")
I saw this news item today
> **[Watch: Millions of 'lovebugs' swarm hikers in South Korea](https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c5ylld834mko)**
>
> A hiker who filmed the infestation told local media the bugs at Gyeyangsan mountain were like a "thick carpet".
> **[What is happening in South Korea? Seoul has caught the lovebug that nobody...](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/04/asia/what-is-happening-in-south-korea-seoul-has-caught-the-lovebug-that-nobody-wants-intl-hnk)**
>
> What is happening in South Korea? Seoul has caught the lovebug that nobody wants
There is also something in the US called “love bugs”, and googling shiws that they are the same genus as the Asian ones. We don’t get them in deep inland South Carolina, but they are on the coast. I remember a time driving through Hollywood, SC when we ran into a massive swarm of them. I remember passing through the town center and seeing people on the sidewalks trying to bat away clouds of them like the people in Korea. We had to stop at a car wash and wash the windshield because it was so covered in splattered bug goo.
> **[Lovebugs - Edisto Island Open Land Trust, South Carolina](https://edisto.org/lovebugs/)**
>
> This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have the bane of windshields, the living smoke of spring, that monogamous miasma seeping beneath the door jam. This week we’re surrounded \[…\]
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/2 "2025-07-04T18:21:24Z")
I lived in Jax, FL for 18 years, so, yeah.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/3 "2025-07-04T18:21:45Z")
About 15 years ago, my wife and I were traveling with her father across central Florida, and the love bugs were swarming. My FIL was concerned about the effect of love bug guts on his car’s finish, so there was an extensive trip to the self-serve car wash late that evening.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/4 "2025-07-04T18:22:43Z")
I was going to say, “Yes, but only while visiting Florida”.
It was tough on my windshield. I stopped to gas up after a thick cloud of them to also scrub my windows clean.
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### Author:  [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/5 "2025-07-04T22:20:35Z")
I see them more often in “deep inland” Texas - Dallas and San Antonio from experience, than I do here on the Gulf coast, but the swarms do occur.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/6 "2025-07-04T22:40:38Z")
We live on the Florida coast between St. Augustine and Daytona and _ **Whoa! Here’s a cloud of the little bastards in my kitchen! I can hardly see through them! How’d they get in here? ‘Scuse me.** _
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/7 "2025-07-04T22:49:53Z")
I first ran into them in central Florida and was mildly irritated. The worst time though was in Texas driving between Big Thicket and Waco. I had to stop at two car washes that day.
The other memorable mega-swarm (some kind of gnat) I encountered was at the Great Salt Lake on the causeway out to Antelope Island.
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### Author:  [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/8 "2025-07-04T22:54:38Z")
First encountered them when I moved to Galveston County, Texas, in 1997. Haven’t seen them since I left there in 2005. I do not miss them and neither does my car’s paint job. I swear their insides are made of super glue.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/9 "2025-07-05T19:45:05Z")
I’ve not, but I recall a talk at a natural gas vehicles conference back when the US was awash in cheap natural gas. The speaker was designing more streamlined fuel storage for large trucks, and spoke of using a “redneck wind tunnel” to test aerodynamics. This involves driving on the highway, then stopping to count lovebug splatter on the fuel enclosure.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497/10 "2025-07-05T19:59:29Z")
When I was 7, in Houston, I was at some sort of outdoors event and lots of lovebugs clustered on my white shirt while the other kids had no bugs. We speculated they were drawn to the white color.