Everything you wanted to know about lovebugs but were afraid to ask The amorous bugs are currently driving area residents insane



We asked Kathryn Hokamp with the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science to give us the straight dope on lovebugs.

Learn more than you ever wanted to know about lovebugs... less PHOTOS: Things you should know about lovebugs

We asked Kathryn Hokamp with the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science to give us the straight dope on lovebugs.

Learn more than you ... more PHOTOS: Things you should know about lovebugs Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Everything you wanted to know about lovebugs but were afraid to ask 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

The Houston area is currently awash in lovebugs, those amorously-named species of flies that emerge twice a year to generally annoy the population and maybe bring about awkward conversation between parents and small children.

The black-bodied insects, which have a reddish-orange thorax, are called lovebugs or honeymoon flies because of their midair copulation ritual. They came to the United States via South America and were first noted in our area in 1940.

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The bugs (scientific name Plecia Nearctica) become locked in embrace with their mates as they flit through the air, not unlike teenagers on dates at your local movie theater.

Those relationships typically only last 56 hours, which is likely an eternity in the bug world.

During a particularly rowdy lovebug season Evan Siemann, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Rice University, told Chron.com in 2013 said that they only live long enough to eat nectar, copulate, lay eggs and die.

Sounds like a solid life.

Butterfly entomologist Kathryn Hokamp with the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science told Chron.com this week that there is no reason to use pesticides on the bugs.

"Lovebug swarms are often so large that pesticides will not be very effective," Hokamp said.

Lovebugs don't bite, they don't sting, and they are much like maggots. The female plants her eggs in moist soil, and when hatched, the larvae consume the detritus that surrounds them. Ditches and swampy areas are their kingdoms.

"Lovebugs won't hurt you, so the best thing to do is to wait their mating season out," Hokamp added.

Let them do their thing. They are only alive for two and half days anyway.

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They also seem to have a sweetheart deal with the car wash industry in the humid southern United States where they are prevalent in the late spring and late summer months.

They are attracted to car emissions and black top roads, which is a deadly combination for a living thing so small and delicate.

The bugs' bodies can wreak havoc on paint jobs and other surfaces on cars after they meet their end at a high rate of speed. Windshields and grills are their killing fields.

The faster they are removed the better. Don't let the bugs cook overnight in the Texas heat into your paint. It's important to choose a bug remover that doesn't harm car paint or strip wax.

Check out the slideshow above to learn some obscure facts about lovebugs, one of nature's cutest pests...