Do lovebugs have any redeeming qualities?

I asked myself that question the other morning as I traversed the battle zone along U.S. 41 enduring a lovebug barrage – rat-a-splat-splat, rat-a-splat-splat – on my windshield. Squinting to see between the disarranged body parts smearing my vision, I contemplated the question. What possible good are they?

I recalled hearing that the adult female life span is 2-3 days, during which there seems to be only one thing on her little mind, and that one thing definitely includes a travel companion.

Well, I can already hear a few readers out there thinking, “Wish that’s all I had to think about 24 hours a day!”

Before you get too enamored of the idea, keep in mind that their mealtime is also spent in their Kama sutra position. Do you really believe you would be able to fully appreciate a loaded Domino’s pizza, a cup of Starbucks best, an Applebee’s salad, chocolate anything and other favorite soul food while locked in a 24-hour lovers embrace? Hmmm, that’s food for thought, isn’t it?

But back to the original question: are those pesky rat-a-splat-splat lovebugs good for anything? Mature, mate, procreate and then you die. Is that all, is that their sole raison d’etre?
In the Bible, “angel” means “messenger,” and while I wouldn’t go so far as to call the splats peppering my windshield angels, I guess they are messengers, heralding in the seasons here in Florida. I’m talking, of course, about summer and fall seasons, not the big H word – hurricane. Although I sometimes wonder if hurricanes weren’t guilty of blowing the lovebugs our way back in the 1940s when those little buggers first began making their presence known to Florida drivers.
What do you suppose passed through the lips of the driver back in 1947 or thereabouts who had the distinction of being the very first Florida driver plagued by a swarm of lovebugs bent on suicide by windshielding. I suspect “love” wasn’t part of the exclamations uttered.
According to an article published by the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, female lovebugs lay from 100 to 350 eggs, which are deposited beneath decaying vegetation. The larvae feed on the decaying vegetation. How is this beneficial? The larvae convert plant material into organic components which can again be used by the growing plants. So every time one of those lovebugs kamikazes into your windshield, remember in its younger life it helped the growth of perhaps the very vegetable you will one day find in your salad.
Another benefit lovebugs provide, at least for procrastinators, a title I bear, is it encourages – in fact demands – frequent visits to the car wash. When the lovebugs are absent, so is my incentive to wash my car. I never find “Wash me” etched in the dust of my car by the finger of some nagging critic. It’s more like “Wash me or I’m reporting you to the EPA!”
But procrastination is not a good thing during the lovebug infestation. Wait too long, especially in the Florida heat, and their smashed remains become a permanent part of your vehicle’s décor. Scrubbing too hard may do a number on your paint job (voice of experience), and using a base of oil on your car before the lovebugs strike for easier removal later isn’t exactly recommended either, since the sun bakes the oil.  However, a recently waxed car, followed by a car wash ASAP, makes for easier removal.

Today’s bumper sticker
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.