Monday, August 27, 2007

Love Bugs

No, I have no pictures of my children. I have no pictures of my animals. I have no pictures of my honey. But I do have love bugs.....



These love bugs. If you don't live in the coastal south, you are probably wondering what in the world this thing is. It's a love bug. Wikipedia says this about love bugs....

"Love bug larvae grow up in grassy areas and feed on dead vegetation. The adult love bug does not eat, but subsists solely on the food taken in during its larval stage. Upon reaching maturity the love bug spends the entirety of its life "making new baby love bugs" with its mate, hence its numerous romantic nicknames. The male and female attach themselves at the rear of the abdomen and remain that way at all times, even in flight. In fact, after mating, the male dies and is dragged around by the female until she lays her eggs. Females lay up to 350 eggs in debris, and about 20 days later the eggs hatch into larvae. The larvae may live for months before passing into adulthood."

Lovebugs love white houses. Right now, my house is covered with white Tyvek. Lovebugs are loving my house. So far, the season hasn't hit full swing. I've seen white houses swarmed with so many love bugs, it looks like a black house. I have a friend who used to live in an old house and they would actually crawl in through the old windows and were covering the INTERIOR of her house. Yuck. I really hate love bugs. And they play havoc with the paint job on your vehicle. Their guts will actually pit the paint! Double yuck!

But they are a sure sign that September is almost here. Either that or May. :^D

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

OH NO...not yet!! I hate this time of year, I always manage to eat several dozen on our training rides :-/ You'd think I'd learn to NOT breathe through my mouth...but it's hard after 50 miles!! E

Unknown said...

Anyone who'd tell a chubby, out-of-shape girl like me they'd ridden 50 miles on a bicycle deserves to eat a few love bugs! ;^D

Kathy in WA said...

How, um, romantic. Hard luck on the male though.

I'm feeling more and more cheerful about my relatively bug-free WA home. Ha!

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Cynthia said...

UGH... I'm glad we don't get those kinds of bugs here.

Kristine said...

They look like they're in love . . . or something. But he's probably already dead. Eww!

berrypatch said...

You know, the more I read, the more I'm glad I live in the far north! LOL :-)

Emily said...

We are dealing with the same problem here in Florida. For some reason it seems like this year is way worse than any other. Also, we have a white house . . just imagine how many we have hanging around here Ugh!