Upon observing car hoods around town, it can be noted that some people have still not scraped off the lovebug remnants from October. The lovebugs have most likely chipped the paint underneath. Lovebugs will destroy the paint on cars, and it's usually blamed on the acidic fats and oils in the eggs inside the females, said Phillip Koehler, professor of structural pest control and urban entomology at UF. Lovebugs emerge as adults twice a year, usually in May and September. When they mate, they attach together and usually remain coupled for several days. They are attracted to moist, grassy areas and are extremely abundant near highways. Fertilization of grass on the side of highways has been decreased as a way to decrease the lovebug population, Koehler said. "If you leave them on [your car] they get baked into the paint and it kind of pulls the paint off," said Norman Leppla, professor of entomology and director of integrated pest management at UF. On the bright side, they bring business to the carwash people, Leppla said. Lovebugs also seem to be attracted to automobiles, making them even more susceptible to getting smashed on your windshield. "They seem to be attracted to exhaust," Leppla said. "If you crank up a lawn mower in the middle of a bunch of lovebugs, they seem to love it. It could be the heat." Leppla has taken part in many research projects involving lovebugs, including research on their attraction to exhaust fumes. "The poor little lovebugs get blamed for being the only insect that damages cars," Leppla said. Leppla and Koehler suggested many ways to keep lovebugs off your car. Putting a coat of wax on your car, spraying Pam or another cooking spray on your car, or simply driving at night when lovebugs aren't flying were a few suggestions made by Leppla and Koehler. "My uncle uses spray silicon on the front of his car to keep the lovebugs off," said UF sophomore, Billy Rose. "I've never tried it myself, but he says it's pretty effective. "If they weren't so abundant on the highways, they would be classified in the same sense as butterflies," Leppla said. "There's just so darn many of them." The fact that lovebugs are so abundant makes them considered "nuisance pests" in Florida. The Department of Entomology gets a lot of phone calls when lovebugs are flying. The department does quite a bit to help educate Florida residents and tourists about lovebugs. This includes providing a Web site and doing many radio and TV spots. They make sure to correct the myth that lovebugs were genetically engineered at UF to kill mosquitoes. The myth is complete fantasy. "It's wrong to say that UF did that," Koehler said. "The myth probably came from FSU," he joked. "I just read [the myth] in a book and I was like, 'where did that come from?'" Leppla said. "It was by a top notch scientist in an encyclopedia. It was by the Department of Entomology chairman at Michigan State, Leppla said "I heard that [lovebugs] were created at UF," Rose said. "What were they thinking?" | 
