If you don’t think that this article is on point for a blog that’s focused on living in Disney, then you’ve never spent time in Florida during late April to early May or late August to early September. Because, while relatively harmless, the swarms of lovebugs on your car, on your house, on you, in your hair, and on and on, are bound to make you batty.
I think I can say that love bug season is my least favorite thing – from a day-to-day practical standpoint – about living in Florida. Or maybe we’re just in the thick of it right now and I’m being dramatic. Like childbirth, I tend to block it out as soon as it’s over. But still, they’re gross. And I can’t be the only one searching for ways to clear them out.
If you don’t know what “love bugs” are, then count yourself lucky. Apparently originating in Central America, they made their way through Texas and Louisiana before falling head over heels with everything that Florida had to offer their short little lives.
Thought by innocent children and inexperienced adults alike to be two headed bugs, they actually spend the few days of their fleeting adult lives in some sort of bizarre tantric situation. Then – from what I’ve read – the male dies and the female just keeps dragging him around until she lays her eggs.
In short, it’s all very romantic.
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So I’ve been all over the Google searching for something to get these things off my lanai and I finally came up with this.
A mixture of water, citrus-scented dish detergent, and mouthwash (visit here to know the uses). If you asked me how much of each, I couldn’t give you an exact amount. I can only say that I was out with a vengeance and dumped that entire trial size bottle of mouthwash into an empty spray bottle along with about a half cup of detergent and then topped it off with water and shook.
Then I sprayed. And I sprayed and I sprayed and I sprayed. I doused my lanai with the vengeance of a woman scorned (who douses lanais?) and then doused it some more. And when I say that a swarm of these things lifted and started hovering around the area, I’m not kidding. I kept spraying. And most of them eventually left.
I have also read that turning on a fan to “blow them away” helps, so I turned on my lanai ceiling fans and that seems to have cleared the air even more. (Yes. These things are so stupid that “turn on a fan” is on the list of prevention techniques.) But in any case…
Now I’m sitting outside!!
I’m not going to overstate the effectiveness. There are still a few hanging out here, apparently too distracted by their, um, main focus in life to notice that they’re standing in homemade bug spray. But still. I’m outside!! It’s amazing!!
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Have these pests taken over your yard, too? What have you tried to deal with them??
