The myth that love bugs eat mosquitos is totally unfounded. The bugs don t normally reside in your hair that s not typical for them thus if you suspect somebody s living in your hair most probably you have lice than bed bugs.
Also nicknamed the honeymoon fly love bugs have been so named because just about any time they re seen they re mating they.
What are love bugs and where do they come from. After about three weeks the larvae hatch and feed on the rotting plants. Love bugs plecia nearctica are small to medium sized flies that are native to south america and southern portions of the united states their thorax is reddish brown while the rest of their bodies are black and appear to be almost velvety and soft to the touch. Love is a battlefield and being hit by my car isn t the only way love bugs pass onto the next world.
The male flies don t live very long and they die shortly after sex. Lovebugs become a nuisance during two short periods of each year. Learning more about the life cycle of june bugs as well as their eating and mating habits makes it easier to understand where they come from why they stay awhile and where they go.
However one thing they have in common is that they seem to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly at the end of the summer. The love bug plecia nearctica is a species of march fly found in parts of central america and the southeastern united states especially along the gulf coast. But not even death can t disconnect these lovers and the female is left to drag around the male s body until she lays her eggs and dies a few days later.
The species was first described in 1940 by d. When they do they have an unfortunate habit of doing so along roads and highways where they risk encounters with cars. They love diesel exhaust warm car hoods and engines.
Do they have any ecological benefit. Likewise the myth that lovebugs were created by an experiment gone horribly wrong at the university of. It is also known as the honeymoon fly or double headed bug during and after mating matured pairs remain together even in flight for up to several days.
Sometimes you do can spot an insect crawling in your hair or body but this happens only when they come to find food. Love bugs are not the result of a genetic cloning experiment gone wrong nor were they unwittingly loosed from a research facility charged with studying exotic insects. Hardy but was seen in.
Despite their name few people really enjoy when love bugs pop up in may and september despite urban myths love bugs didn t come about from a cloning experiment they didn t escape from a. Love bugs congregate at intersections traffic lights filling stations and truck stops. Florida lovebugs emerge and mate en masse once in the spring april to may and again in late summer august to september.
Female love bugs lay 100 to 350 eggs underneath debris and decaying vegetation. Adult love bugs are vegetarians.