Don’t know how to deal with them? Keep reading, as I’ll be giving you tips on how to get rid of lovebugs.
Lovebugs can cause a real mess when they come in swarms. They can splatter all over your car and leave a serious clog in your radiator. They can also make their way into your home if they get the chance.
About Lovebugs
Lovebugs can be found in most states in America, and they appear during two seasons – the spring (April, May, June), and the fall (August, September, October).
Female lovebugs look for convenient places to lay their eggs, and the ideal environment is one with a source of methane or Co2 gasses. Decaying organic matter produces such, as well as vehicle emissions. This is why they are fond of swarming vehicles.
A swarm of lovebugs is quite large it could block off the view of a driver and force them to pull over to the side until the swarm is gone.
If the highway cannot give them what they are looking for, they will make their way to your yard in search of compost piles, swimming pools, or other forms of standing water, as these are also good environments for the females to lay their eggs.
If there is a leak in your roof, then lovebugs may lay there on top of it, and eventually find their way inside.
What Attracts Lovebugs?
Lovebugs are attracted to freshly painted light-colored surfaces, as well as fumes from vehicles and standing water.
How To Get Rid Of Lovebugs In Your Yard
Lovebug swarms or infestation can become a major inconvenience.
If they make their way into your yard, then follow the tips below to get rid of them.
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Get Rid Of Standing Water
Female lovebugs need an ideal location to have their eggs laid. One such location is standing water.
If you have pools of stagnant water around your yard during the seasons when lovebugs usually appear, then expect to find them harboring around there.
What you need to do in such an instance is to determine the cause of the standing water and fix the problem. If you have a pipe leakage, then it could lead to pools of standing water popping up.
Get a plumber to change the pipes if need be. It may even require a simple patch up. Whatever treatment the pipe needs, make sure you deliver.
As the leakage stops, the pool of standing water will eventually dry up and the lovebugs will no longer be attracted to those areas.
If you have a swimming pool, then that could attract the bugs too. During the lovebug season, you can drain your pool so the bugs won’t have a place to lay their eggs. Although not too many people will be willing to sacrifice their regular dip in the pool because of a few bugs.
You can always get a pool tarp which you will use to cover up your pool when it’s not in use. Once again, if the source of standing water is cut off, the bugs will leave and uninterested in coming back.
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Use Organic Pesticides On Your Garden
Lovebugs can be found on nectar-producing trees. If you find a small number of them in your garden, then it isn’t so much of a problem, at least not yet.
However, if you allow them to mate, lay, and hatch their eggs, then you will have a whole army to deal with later.
An organic pesticide spray can help you get rid of them.
Go to a garden pest control store near you to buy one. There are many brands you will find on the shelves, so you have a wide range of options.
Since you plan to spray the pesticides directly on your garden plants, then using organic pesticides is the recommended option as they will not harm the trees.
Chemical-based pesticides on the other hand should not be applied directly to garden plants, especially the fruit-bearing ones, since you plan to eat them later.
Grab a can of organic pesticide, and spray directly on the affected plants. Also, spray directly on as many lovebugs you find, make sure the spray hits their eggs too.
Some organic pesticides have long-lasting effects. This means after they have killed the bugs, they still act as a repellant to prevent other bugs from visiting.
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Hose Your Plants
As I just mentioned, garden bugs in small numbers pose no threat to your plants. But when their eggs are hatched they will expand greatly I numbers and attack the plants.
A hose and running water can knock these little creatures and their eggs off your plants, but that is if they are in small numbers.
If you find a handful of them making a home on one or two of your plants, then you can connect a hose to a source of running water and blast them off the plants. Be sure to hose down every angle of the tree leaves and branches, just in case some of them are hiding in certain corners which you can’t see.
After they have been blasted off, you can get some mulch and press it down around the floor of the disinfested trees. The mulch should be about 2 inches thick, as that will make it hard or impossible for the wet bugs to get off the ground and climb back up the plants to nest.
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Fix Roof Leakages
Leakage in your roof will also attract lovebugs, so if you notice a bunch of them always flying towards your roof area, then you can be sure that there is some moisture up there.
The danger of leaving such unattended is that when their eggs hatch, they will increase in number and crawl through the leakages, eventually ending up in your home.
Get a contractor to take a look at the roof and identify the problem. If it is fixed and becomes inhabitable for the bugs, then they will leave.
You can also take more extreme measures by using a strong chemical-based Insecticide after the roof leakage has been fixed.
Go to a pest control store and buy one. Climb up the roof (if you can) and apply the pesticide across your roof. If the lovebugs planned to hang around before, a pesticide application will change their minds.
It usually kills them in minutes, and many chemical-based pesticides have a lasting effect. Meaning it can keep other lovebugs from camping on your roof.
How To Keep Lovebugs Away From Your Car
It is common to see swarms of lovebugs flying towards vehicles during the spring and fall season. When they do this, they get splattered all over the hood, and sometimes get into your car radiator.
Follow these tips to remove lovebugs from your car or prevent them.
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Wash Your Car
Well, if you’re driving and you get hit by a swarm of lovebugs then there’s nothing else to do but to get your car washed.
If you’re not willing to do it by yourself, then visit a car wash and have them do it for you.
A professional car wash service will get bug splatters off your car and will wash deep into the radiator and other parts of your car engine.
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Use Anti-Stick Spray
During the lovebug season, it will be a good idea to buy an Anti-Stick Spray and use it on the front of your vehicle anytime you want to drive out.
There are different brands of this spray, so you have many choices.
Some simply stop the bugs from sticking to the vehicle when they make an impact, while others completely deflect the bugs away.
To use an Anti-Stick Spray, all you need do is spray some of it on a clean rag, then wipe across your windshield, hood, grille, and headlights.
Make sure you wipe the liquid on every area of the front part pf your vehicle so no spot will have lovebug splatters on them.
How To Get Rid Of Lovebugs Inside Your Home
If a small number of lovebugs make their way into your home, then you can use a simple organically made spray to get rid of them.
You can buy one from a pest control store and spray it into spaces around your home. You don’t necessarily have to spray directly on the bugs, just spray into space and they will come in contact with it and die.
Organic-sprays are safe to use around pets and children.
If the bugs appear in large numbers, then call a professional extermination service to get rid of them.
Conclusion
I trust this article on how to get rid of lovebugs has been helpful.
Take care!