# Love Bugs (Not VW's) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2000, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-bugs-not-vws/32455 "2000-09-08T04:04:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![muffinman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@muffinman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muffinman)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-bugs-not-vws/32455/1 "2000-09-08T04:04:08Z")
Here in good ol’ Tallahassee, FL, we are descended upon by locusts at least twice a year. Actually, this season is not one of the great blights of Egypt. It’s called “Love Bug Season.” This event, usually occuring in the spring, and sometimes in the fall, involves swarms of slow flying black bugs, which fly either alone or copulating in mid air (hence the name). They are relatively harmless, but are quite annoying, and their acidic bodies eat into automobile finishes, splatter to make windshields opaque, and basically just go about puttering around in the air, flying leisurely and screwing. My question stems from what I saw a few months back. A family of traveling yankees gets out of their car at a gas station. After standing outside the car for several seconds, they yankee sees the swarms of bugs, and begins swatting and ducking, trying to keep from being stung. Meanwhile, many a bewildered southerner are standing around, scratching their heads at this crazy yankee trying not to get stung by the Manatee of bugs. From where did these annoying pests come? My grandparents are unable to recall seeing them in their youth, leading me to believe they were an introduced species. Any “Love Bug” experts out there? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-bugs-not-vws/32455/2 "2000-09-08T04:34:58Z")
They are [_Plecia nearctica_](http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~insect/misc/lovebug.htm). They were first reported in Florida in 1949. Before that, they were most common in Texas and Louisiana. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-bugs-not-vws/32455/3 "2000-09-08T05:21:11Z")
And god are they _ever_ common in Louisiana! I don’t know how bad you have it in FL, but here there are so many that they sometimes look like a black fog descending on your car. For some reason they also like to congregate in front of convenience stores. There are some patches of sidewalk that you literally can’t see the concrete through due to the thousands of love bugs resting there. If I don’t wash my windshield soon, I’m not going to be able to see through it. Damn, I wish those things would just go away. ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-bugs-not-vws/32455/4 "2000-09-08T19:52:42Z")
My bad. I thought this thread was about STD’s. Sua ---
**Author:** ![tomas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tomas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-bugs-not-vws/32455/5 "2000-09-08T20:34:27Z")
Bibliophage-Thanx for the link! My son lives in Tallahassee and the story of their creation by the University of Florida is a common legend in that area. I will forward this to him and perhaps he can wipe out some of those dumb southerners ignorance!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2000, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-bugs-not-vws/32455/6 "2000-09-09T04:00:29Z")
Outside Houston they get real bad usually about mid-to-late september. The eggs must lay dormant for the rest of the year. What a life though. Fly. Have sex. Stain a car.