Norman Leppla Tracks Love Bugs Florida Surge in Southern Counties
Love bugs florida are abundant this spring in pockets across southern Florida, according to Norman Leppla, a University of Florida professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology. He said the strongest reports are coming from the Keys and south of Fort Myers, while north-central Florida has not seen the same spread.
Leppla said lovebugs are typically rampant in Florida twice a year, usually first in late April and May and again in late August and September. He also said he is not seeing many on car fronts in Gainesville, even as the insects cover grills and mate midair in Tampa Bay.
Norman Leppla on Florida Reports
“Well, it hasn’t changed much in north-central Florida — Gainesville and north. We don’t see very many lovebugs in most areas, but I get reports from the Keys and south of Fort Myers that they’ve been abundant this season, which is interesting,” Leppla said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. The pattern points to a southern concentration rather than a statewide return at once.
He said, “They’re doing well in South Florida because they’re a tropical species.” Leppla added that “Their original home was the Yucatán Peninsula and in Mexico and south to Central America.” Those remarks line up with his view that the insects are responding to conditions in the southern part of the state more than in the north-central counties.
Keys, Fort Myers and Gainesville
The spring reports also create a split picture within Florida. Leppla said he is hearing about abundance in the Keys and south of Fort Myers, while he does not see very many lovebugs in most areas of north-central Florida and says the Gainesville occurrence is not a resurgence.
That matters for residents watching their cars and roads now, because the insects are showing up unevenly rather than across the state at once. Leppla said, “The larvae, as I pointed out, can tolerate periods of wet or dry,” but he said the adults are fragile, “blow around with the wind” and are not strong flyers.
Lovebugs’ Seasonal Pattern
Leppla said lovebugs are typically rampant twice a year, with one period in late April and May and another in late August and September. He said he first moved from Arizona to Florida in 1972 on a research grant and published his first paper on lovebugs in 1974.
He also said the species had been scarcely seen when the Tampa Bay Times spoke with him more than two years earlier, making this spring’s reports a clear change in distribution. For readers in the southern part of the state, the practical takeaway is simple: the current concentrations are local, and the strongest reports are now coming from the Keys and south of Fort Myers.
