Are Lovebugs Attracted to Soap

seadoons · September 11, 2003

There have been an excessive number of love bugs flying around here in Houston lately...I washed my truck and it looked like a d**n swarm of them attacking my truck. Are they attracted to the smell of soap? I hate them...

JonesNTN · September 11, 2003

I hate those things! We don't get 'em here in TN, but I got my share of them when I went to Lousiana!

Texas Z · September 11, 2003

I live up in Spring and they are horrible. My house is backed up to woods/swamp land and they are very thick in my backyard. My house is tan and they swarm around it. I guess they are attracted to light colors. I washed my truck over the weekend and monday on the way to work the front got covered with bug guts. Now its raining so the weekend wash was useless anyways.

Instrument 40 · September 12, 2003

They are attracted to light colors. Better get those bugs off your paint as soon as possible. the acid in the bugs will etch your paint.

toddgotfish · September 12, 2003

they do love the product of carnuba

and you know what that means

WAX ON = BUGS ON

BIGDAWG69 · September 12, 2003

Origins: The "love bug" (also known as the honeymoon fly, telephone bug, double-headed bug, united bug, and March fly) is a nuisance any southern motorist is unhappily more than passingly familiar with. Though these bugs neither bite nor sting, at certain times of the year their sheer numbers transform these innocuous insects into airborne hordes seemingly determined to devil anyone fool enough to take to the road. The adults splatter on windshields, lights, grills, and radiators of motor vehicles, and their dried remains are hard to remove. Suicidal pairs of love bugs have been known to cause overheating of motors when large numbers of them are drawn into the cooling systems of liquid-cooled engines. Unlike other bugs, something particular to them adversely affects the paint jobs on cars, pitting and etching the paint if their mortal remains are left on a vehicle for more than 48 hours.

chevy38fan · September 12, 2003

i hate those kamikaze bugs.. i mean HELLLLO... you're FLYING on a HIGHWAY that CONSTANTLY has traffic on it 24/7 in speeds of excess of 75 MPH..... MOVE IT!! I hate love bugs.. can't wait till october when they go away... if TN don't have any... I'm moving... lol...

Tfin · September 12, 2003

d**n, and I though we had it bad up here in the northeast with the bugs. Nothing like the bastards you guys got down there! Eats your paint!?!

Rotorwrench · September 12, 2003

I got so many on my truck last Sunday that I coundn't see where I was going. I have a good coat of wax and they wash right off.

99-2door · September 12, 2003

What the heck is a love bug??

wandell · September 12, 2003

I read somewhere that they are attracted to any petroleum type of sent and that is why they flock to highways and vehicles. Supposedly it's similar to their own smell. I have noticed a faint petroleum type of smell from their remains on my vehicles. Weird, huh?

greyghost03 · September 12, 2003

I hate these d@mn love bugs!

Seems like as soon as I wash my truck I go through a swarm of about a thousand of em! This is the time of year when I wished that I owned one of the car washes with the high pressure sprayers because they make a killing during love bug season with everyone stopping in to spray off these little critters!

BIG Newton82 · September 13, 2003

You can thank the good ol' Florida 'Crocs'.. oops.. I mean Gators for those lil' bastard bugs. They were engineered at the University of Florida to control the mosquito population, and all they do is fly around and make a mess on your car! Shows you how bright Gainsville is.

Go NOLES!!!