Anybody traveling in Florida and now surrounding states knows about the love bug. They fly “united” in groups of millions and the only natural enemy is the vehicle windshield. I have spent hours trying to remove them after a week trip. Sometimes they can get so thick on the front of the coach, they look like astroturf. With long exposure, their bodily fluids will damage the paint. They smear with the windshield washer and can hamper vision at times. They are non-native and were brought into this country by the U of F Experiment Station at Lake Alfred (Between Lakeland and Winter Haven) to remove the unsightly scale from orange rinds for cosmetic purposes. In the early 80’s they would swarm several times a year and that was it. Now you can see them frequently. When they swarm, there is little you can do. Until now that is. I have discovered a product, Road Tar and Sap cleaner which makes the job a whiz. It can be bought at places like Advance Discount Auto for $6.95 for a 12 oz spray bottle. We just back from a 6 weak trip and it took off all the bugs in a jiffy.
Thanks Lindsay, because they don't have those bugs just in Florida. We recently came across I-10 through Louisiana and Texas, and they were horrible. We did not get them off immediately because we had to put the MH in the shop and don't have it back yet. Hope it is not too late for us, but we'll give that product a try.
Try dryer sheets as well and we have found Super Clean (auto dept. at Wal-Mart) works very well. Wet they down first then use the Super Clean. We use a long brush that will go all the way to roof line, found it at Home Depot. Ones from Camping World are useless. Then the dryer sheets will clean any that were missed. This pest was in Louisiana back in the 1920's. First time in FL was 1947 and we have them yet. We went in Charleston, SC couple weeks ago and they are all over the place now. Love bugs come from South American, same place as the fire ants. Truck drivers call them "Black Rain" on CB channel 19. You will have damage to paint in as little as a week if you do not remove them. We wash front of motorhome each day to clean them off fast. The more they dry the harder there are to remove. Love them bugs! :lol:
We spray the front end of our vehicles with PAM, the non-stick food product. This coats the painted area and makes it much more difficult for the bugs to stick. It also attracts dirt, but it will all wash off pretty easy when the bugs are no longer a problem. Some people have also had good luck with petroleum jelly lightly applied to the front end. I found that effective, but a little too messy and it attracted even more dirt than the PAM.
Thanks John and rgatijnet for your input. I'm sure all those things will help. I have also heard to spray Baby Oil on the coach and Rain-X on the windshield, but we have never tried either. I'm sure the oil would have the same effect as PAM. We do keep it waxed, and I think that helps also. Hopefully those nasty things will be gone soon.
QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Sep 27 2009, 02:15 PM) [snapback]19271[/snapback] Hopefully those nasty things will be gone soon. Yep, that is what I hoped for back in the late 60's in this area. Now, 40 years later, I still hope they will be gone soon.
