Question:
We spend every winter in Florida and return to the upper Midwest in late April, which is the height of the “love bug” season. For anyone who doesn’t know about this ugly phenomenon, these tiny bugs travel in waves so large they block visibility, coating your lights with their corpses when you drive through them. They ruin the paint on the hood if you don’t wash it off fast enough. This may sound sort of crazy, but we’re wondering if there is some sort of temporary Saran Wrap that we can spread across our car during the two days we’ll be traveling through the heart of love bug terrain.
Answer:
I empathize. I lived in Florida for a couple of years and am woefully familiar with these annoying flights.
People who have never had the experience find it hard to believe that tiny bugs can be such a nuisance, but they congregate in unbelievable numbers and splatter on the grills and hoods of moving vehicles. Their fatty remains can clog radiators to the point that the car overheats and can cause the finish of the car to pit if not washed off within about 48 hours.
You’ll avoid their impact if you travel at night (they quit flying at dusk) and you can limit their impact during the day by using one of the car-front screens (known as car-front protectors, or car bras) available at most auto parts shops for about $50, available in varying designs to cover varying amounts of the front of the vehicle.
And there is, believe it or not, a Saran-Wrap kind of product you can try. Road Wrap, a clear polyethylene wrap, sticks to itself and can be cut to the exact size you want and removed when the need no longer exists. You can also cover the side mirrors, which I found especially hard to clean off when I was dealing with the critters’ after effects.
The wrap will, the manufacturer says, last for up to a week after application, which should be plenty to get you into and out of love bug land. It costs about $30 from buyroadwrap.com.
