I am happy to report that it is nearing the end of September, and the lovebugs are still not showing up. If you are not familiar with lovebugs, check out this article and this article. In the first article, there is a photo of lovebugs covering a bus stop in W*lt D*sney W*rld. That's pretty much the way they always looked covering our house at this time of the year.

I have lived in Florida for over 14 years now, never having heard of a lovebug until then. There are outbreaks of lovebugs every April and September here. In fact, every year, they were getting worse and worse. Swarms and swarms of them, and they stick on the grills and front bumpers of our cars as we drive through them. While they don't bite (thank goodness for that!) their bodies are acidic, so it has always been very important to wash them off the cars as often as possible so as to avoid damaging the paint. DH has been very particular about this, as he is one to take good care of the cars.

Last year, 2007, I couldn't imagine them being any more plentiful. They plastered the exterior walls of our home, and got in through the screen doors all over the porch. They even got in through our main house entry doors. Every day, I would find a dozen or so buggers dead on the floor near the entry doors (yes, inside), and there would be hundreds of dead lovebugs on the concrete floor of our screened porch/ breezeway.

So, they aren't dangerous, they don't bite, or spread disease, but they are a real nuisance and make it very unpleasant to be outside during this time.

Then suddenly, in 2008, they are gone! Back in April, I noticed happily that there were no lovebugs anymore. There were only a few, here and there, that I saw, but probably less than a dozen I saw the whole season. And now it is late September, the worst time of all for lovebugs, and I have scarcely seen 6 of them. What does this mean? Are they migrating? I have heard reports that they are still in other places in our state, and in other states, but it is amazing to me that they are virtually not here, anymore, after all these years. Does anybody have any answers to this great (and wonderful) mystery?