Quick Tips on How to Get Love Bugs Off Cars
- These flies don’t bite, sting, or threaten crops, but lovebug removal from cars frustrates drivers. Remove lovebugs from cars as soon as possible.
- Avoid using washer fluid and wipers, which can smear splatters. Instead, use clean water and a squeegee on the windshield and headlights.
- Use a pressure washer to remove big clumps of love bugs on cars.
- Soak remaining blobs to soften and scrub stubborn spots with a dab of baby oil and a microfiber cloth or moistened dryer sheet before washing and waxing.
- Use car wax as a protective layer between your vehicle and acidic bug guts.
Before love bug season hits Florida and other Southern states, it’s wise to prepare your vehicle for these annoying insects. But you can’t predict when you’ll drive through a swarm, so you should also know how to remove lovebugs from your car before their splattered eggs and body parts leave a stain.
For those unfamiliar, we’ll tell you how to protect your car with proactive steps that help reduce the effects of driving into these bothersome bugs. And keep reading for tips on cleaning their splattered eggs and body parts from your car before they leave a stain.
- What Are Love Bugs?
- Protect with Wax and Deflectors
- Clean Lovebugs from Cars Promptly
- How to Get Lovebugs Off Cars
- Prevent Paint Damage
What Are Lovebugs?
Most Florida and Gulf Coast residents are aware of swarms of pesky love bugs — or lovebugs — and the big nuisance they cause twice yearly during mating seasons.
This species of fly doesn’t bite, sting, or threaten crops. Instead, frustration comes from an abundance of black-and-red fly bodies smashed on car windshields, grilles, headlights, and hoods during lovebug mating frenzies.
Lovebug season can create an immediate traffic hazard. That’s why you will want to prepare your car for the swarms of lovebugs. Many crushed lovebugs will obstruct visibility for drivers. If left to accumulate, the amount of lovebug remains covering the car’s grille might cause the engine to overheat because of reduced airflow. And if car owners don’t clean off bug body parts quickly, the blotches of acidic lovebug guts can damage the vehicle’s paint.
Wax and Divert Love Bugs
Millions of mating lovebugs swarm along highways in Florida and other southern states during four-week mating seasons twice yearly — one from around April to May or longer and another from August to September.
The timing and size of the swarms depend on the weather. Even off-peak seasons can produce a significant amount of this invasive species that can be unavoidable when driving.
Here are steps you can take in advance to prepare your car for lovebug season.
- Wash and wax your vehicle before lovebug season begins. Car wax adds a protective layer between your vehicle’s paint and the acid from the lovebug guts. Applying a thorough coating of wax gives you a little more time to remove the splatters before the finish is damaged. Maintain the wax throughout the season.
- Consider fitting your vehicle’s hood with an air deflector or bug guard. It could help divert some of the flies. Plastic bug shields for car hoods are available through auto parts retailers. While they won’t keep every little fly from colliding with your car, the shields can catch or change the course of enough of them to reduce the amount of lovebug mess from sticking to the car’s paint and glass.
- Use a bug screen or protective netting across the front end of your car to keep lovebugs away from the engine’s air intake. Temporary mesh netting found at automotive supply stores is simple to install and a good solution for keeping insects out of the car’s grille. Clean the mesh regularly during lovebug season to ensure proper airflow.
Clean Lovebugs from Cars Promptly
Researchers say love bugs are drawn to the irradiated exhaust fumes from automobiles. The flies might confuse that smell with the scent of rotting vegetation they’re naturally attracted to. Hot engines and the vibrations of vehicles also may contribute to their attraction to highways.
Whatever the reason, it can seem impossible for turnpike and interstate highway drivers to avoid lovebugs after they’ve taken flight during daylight hours in mating season.
When you have a run-in with lovebugs in Florida or anywhere in the southern United States, it’s essential to quickly and adequately take care of the splatters. Debris on your headlights and windshield can reduce visibility. Letting lovebug body parts and egg masses fester in the sun increases the acidity and can etch the car’s paint.
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How to Remove Lovebugs from Cars
You’ll want to prepare your vehicle for lovebug season and avoid using washer fluid and wipers to remove them from your windshield. The splatters are likely to turn into icky goop smeared across the glass.
Instead, travel with a container of water and use a squeegee to scrape off the remains. Read on for more tips when you have love bugs on car hoods, headlights, and windshields.
- Use a high-pressure washer or a hose with an adjustable nozzle to spray off the bulk of the lovebug mess from the car’s finish.
- Soak clumps of debris with water to soften larger blobs. Tackle tough spots with a dab of baby oil to loosen the residue of love bugs on the car. If available, automotive cleaning products for bug and tar removal — and even simple dishwashing liquid — can be effective for getting rid of dried-on gunk from lovebugs.
- Scrub using microfiber cloths or a soft netted sponge to wash away the dried lovebugs. You can also use a clay bar, which removes baked-on bugs. Clay bars for cars use a resin-like putty solution that can remove harmful dirt from paint. Some DIYers choose moistened dryer sheets to help rub lovebugs from car surfaces.
- Wash the car after removing the smashed lovebugs from the front bumper, grille, and side-view mirrors. Apply wax to help prevent the bugs from sticking. It will protect the surface from staining.
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Preventing Lovebug Damage
Advancements in new vehicle finishes can help reduce the problem of bugs damaging car paint. For example, you could consider a ceramic coating or other car protection film for your vehicle. You’ll be glad for the extra layer of paint protection.
However, if you don’t remove the bug masses after a period of time, your car’s finish could end up stained or otherwise harmed. In that case, an automotive detail shop might be able to help. Its technicians will likely have the tools, products, and skills to restore paint imperfections caused by lovebugs.
If you wonder whether car insurance will cover lovebug paint damage, it will not. Even with full coverage, lovebug damage is considered cosmetic.
Car warranties also do not cover this type of damage. When you keep your car clean of lovebugs, it helps you retain the vehicle’s value if you ever need to resell or trade it in at a dealership.
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