It's Love Bug Season in Florida!

[sedelen]

For those of you who don't know we have this little insect in Florida that shows up in May and September. These black little winged insects swarm in mated pairs. The problem is that they get thick as rain at times. They can sure make a mess of the front of any vehicle in short order.
These were imported to fight against the mosquito but that didn't work out and now we're stuck with zillions of these bugs twice a year.
Furthermore, if you don't remove them from your paint fairly quickly the splat they make will eat at the paint, leaving a nasty reminder of their being there.
This morning, while getting ready to ride, I was getting swarmed by the little devils, don't know how many I killed riding, but as we go through the month they'll probably only get worse.
Here's some examples what they can do.

[Redman]

esch.
And they dont look small either.

.

[fishfarm]

I just washed mine, or I could have posted a similar picture. I try to restrict my lovebug-season riding to early morning and late evening hours.

[Allie]

Yeeeeeeeaww I remember those! They are unbelievable! They're about the size of large ants if I remember correctly, and they can get so thick you can't even walk down the street without getting them in your eyes. Speaking of ants, Fire Ants were another feature I don't miss about Florida, along with Palmetto bugs - big brown cockroaches that smell AWFUL when you squish them, and EVERY house has them.

[earlfor]

When the love bugs get thick, I usually use a rag to smear a light film of vaseline on the front of the fairing and windshield, lights, fork tubes, etc. The bugs still make a mess, but they don't stick. Just rinse them off with a hose.

[earlfor]

Yeeeeeeeaww I remember those! They are unbelievable! They're about the size of large ants if I remember correctly, and they can get so thick you can't even walk down the street without getting them in your eyes. Speaking of ants, Fire Ants were another feature I don't miss about Florida, along with Palmetto bugs - big brown cockroaches that smell AWFUL when you squish them, and EVERY house has them.

The big ones that smell like Pine Sol are commonly called pine bugs because they're normally in and around pine trees. One in the house is usually just an accident. The gators and the big pine bugs are easy to tell apart. The bugs don't have big teeth. LOL

[sedelen]

Those little bugs are pretty much harmless, I don't think they bite and before they end up on your windshield, faceshield, they look like this.


But after awhile of driving through them, they end up looking like this.



In May they weren't bad at all, but it was a dry spring, with all the rain we had, we may have a banner year for these things. Bad thing about them is they stain the paint if not removed quickly.

[RichDesmond]

They have them in Louisiana too, in September at least. We doing an endurance race at NPR back in 2001 and just got inundated with them. Made doing the normal 1 hour shifts almost impossible, after 30 minutes you could barely see out of your faceshield. Helmet, faceshield and front of the bike covered in bug goo. Not a good memory...

[sedelen]

They have them in Louisiana too, in September at least. We doing an endurance race at NPR back in 2001 and just got inundated with them. Made doing the normal 1 hour shifts almost impossible, after 30 minutes you could barely see out of your faceshield. Helmet, faceshield and front of the bike covered in bug goo. Not a good memory...

They have a funny taste to them also, but I really hate it when they get in my ears and nose.

[tkent02]

How about Stink Bugs? Y'all still have Stink Bugs?

[Allie]

The ones from China? Probably, if they can live in that climate.

[tatu]

When the love bugs get thick, I usually use a rag to smear a light film of vaseline on the front of the fairing and windshield, lights, fork tubes, etc. The bugs still make a mess, but they don't stick. Just rinse them off with a hose.

Does the vaseline make their feet slippy?

[Good Times]

Grew up in Florida. Remember one year they were so thick you had a hard time not breathing them in when you were outside. Nasty stuff on auto paint.

[Buddy]

We see them up here also. I'm about 180 miles from the gulf. There's something about asphault that attracts them to highways. Fairly light crop for us this time. Hurricane Issac blew them in for a few days. There's a dead one inside the speedometer of my truck, leftover from two years ago.

Buddy

[Buddy]

Does the vaseline make their feet slippy?

That's funny right there, I don't care who you are!