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Lovebugs

kbowman

Member
Here in central and east Texas we are having one of our sporadic outbreaks of what are referred to as "lovebugs". Not being a native of the region, I assume that name arises from the fact that mating pairs fly around coupled together as they exchange genetic material in what counts for sex among insects.

On the upside, they don't bite or sting, don't move very fast, and are considered beneficial insects. On the downside, there must be trillions of them flying around.

I made the mistake of going for a ride yesterday. Below is a photo of my headlight protector after about an hour of riding. They splatter everywhere, even on the back side of my windscreen. The smell of lovebugs grilling on hot exhaust pipes can put even me off my feed. My radiators collected another few kilograms the things.

You can't beat the open road!

Cheers, Ken

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Whoa! I have never seen anything like this. Does this happen on a regular basis? How long does this go on?
 
Lower Alabama, Florida Panhandle, the swarm in the fall, and sometimes a minor swarm in the spring. We are in that season now as well, but not nearly as bad as what your experiencing.
 
Whoa! I have never seen anything like this. Does this happen on a regular basis? How long does this go on?

We seem to get bad swarms every few years, either in the spring or fall. They can last for several weeks. All of the rain from Harvey may have made things worse this year.
 
Make sure you wash them off immediately, they are highly acidic and will eat through your paint! Keep a good coat of wax on everything!
 
We seem to get bad swarms every few years, either in the spring or fall. They can last for several weeks. All of the rain from Harvey may have made things worse this year.

They are worse towards the coast if you can believe that is possible. I used to spray PAM cooking spray on every forward facing surface except windshields for years on my Jeeps and trucks when I lived further south near Houston..washes right off.
But as mentioned, remove ASAP as they will put the hurt on painted surfaces when left too long

We drove H's FJ with its flat profile to a funeral near Houston Saturday and got hammered in daylight run ,peaking near Sealy and I-10.Spent a good amount of my Sunday cleaning the funk off :banghead The radiator looked like yours
 
Never knew about them until I rode from the Natchez Trace to New Orleans. Hit them on the way down and back. Best thing you can do is ride through a torrential downpour, which also happened on the way down and back. Helmet and bike were like new again after briefly turning from BMW blue to love bug gut black.
 
Thanks for the radiator reminder. Rode through them near Huntsville and Bryan/College Station on the way to and from Arkansas last week. I cleaned the screens and the paint, but didn't hose out the radiator.
 
They are down here in S.Florida as well. Not as bad as further north near Lake Okeechobee but still a PITA. Never seen them as bad as in the OP's foto though....
 
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Years ago, I remember seeing a folded screen in the trunk of my grandfather's new Buick, I asked about it, "love-bug screen" was his reply, the dealers used to provide them with every new car sold.
 
Love bug cleaning

Being from the South, you just get used to them if riding a motorcycle. I found that a dryer sheet dampened with water and a hose to rinse works wonders in removing the splattered bugs. I got caught riding through a swarm along the Louisiana coast. My bike had no shield or plastic protection. My bike, shirt, pants, and helmet were covered with bug splatter. Got home and threw away my pants and shirt. Clean the bike and helmet asap!:gerg
 
We experience the same here in Florida. This past weekend was not as bad as I have seen it though.

+1 for the dryer sheets and water. It works all the time.

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