ATTACK OF THE DREADED LOVE BUGS!

Yup, that's them.  Plecia nearctica; one of the family of "March Flies", also known as the honeymoon fly, kissing bug, or two-headed bug.  These are the little critters that plague drivers along northern and Central Florida, as well as other southern states as far west as Texas.   You mostly see them in pairs mating, which they do in a large hurry, since the females only live for about three or four days, and the impressive thing is that their swarms, which occur two times a year (spring and autumn) include hundreds of thousands of these short-lived insects! (I'm told they may swarm a third time in southern Florida but thankfully I don't live there).

Around here these days it's easy to tell which cars have been on the highways for any length of time - the evidence is clear enough!  Not only are the car grills covered with the little critters, the windshields are, too!!                               Talk about the living, flying definition of the word, "Ubiquitous", as I drive around town doing my errands or whatever, no matter in which direction I look I'm guaranteed to see, if not at least one couple "in flagrante delicto", a few single insects looking frantically for a mate.  They seem to hover any and every place one goes.  I walk from the car to the grocery store's door and I'll see maybe three or four "sets" of them.  If I stop at a traffic light, one or two "sets" will rest on the hood of the car.  When I stand in the driveway chatting with a neighbor for ten minutes we'll encounter at least one per minute.  Then, if I stroll from my front door to the mailbox at the front of my driveway I'll see two or three sets.  It's kind of amazing, actually.  

These little critters are just one more detail Al and I had known about but forgot to consider when we decided to move here.  Well, they're just a small annoyance, really.  They don't sting or bite or draw blood.  Other than being everywhere you look, their "nuisance" factor has to do with the fact that their little bodies turn acidic after they die, and if they're stuck to your car they can literally etch into your paint job if you don't remove 'em!  Plus, they're so numerous on the highways that they can literally cut off your vision! 

Al and I had this experience long ago when we lived in Pennsylvania and went to Miami to visit family during a lovebug flight.  This photo is NOT our car but it just as well might have been!

Scary, huh?  They can get so thick that your windshield wipers don't even help!  Luckily, though they do light on the car these days, I don't see huge numbers of them committing suicide on my vehicle; especially since I don't go jamming down the road at 60 mph. 

Wikipedia informs me that these semi-annual flights last for about 4 - 5 weeks which isn't really bad unless you're a sales person who has to spend a lot of time on the road.  So we're now in the midst of Lovebug season.  It seems interesting that as soon as the Snowbirds start to migrate, the Lovebugs do too!!

Drive safely, everyone!