Uf Created Love Bugs

While some say florida has no seasons real floridians know there are three summer hurricane and lovebug.

Uf created love bugs. Well yes if by bugs you mean any creepy crawly thing such as insects spiders millipedes etc. Although most people have heard or told this. Unfortunately they accidentally also created a male love bug and a pair somehow escaped into the wild. But in the entomological world lovebugs are not considered to be true bugs in the order hemiptera.

University of florida equal opportunity institution entomology and nematology bldg 970 natural area dr p o. Buschman showed that migration explained the introduction of the lovebug into florida and other southeastern states contrary to the urban myth that the university of florida created them by manipulating dna to control mosquito populations. The strange looking insect commonly known as the lovebug managed to escape from researchers and began to spread rapidly wreaking havoc on people and cars. Since the bugs had no natural predators their numbers quickly exploded into the millions.

Urban legend holds that lovebugs are synthetic the result of a university of florida genetics experiment gone wrong. How love bugs came to florida and no they weren t created to eat mosquitoes it s love bug mating season and the pesky bugs are covering our cars and flying in swarms. Box 110620 gainesville fl 32611 0620. Rumor has it that uf created love bugs as a failed product for a mosquito control experiment said uf.

Twice a year these tiny harmless insects create a nuisance for drivers. University of florida researchers genetically engineered lovebugs to kill mosquitoes. Instead they are actually flies in the order diptera. Lovebugs are small slow herbivorous insects that feed on the pollen and nectar found in flowers.

Lovebugs may be a familiar summer and fall sight to many people in the south but these nuisance insects don t get a lot of love. Thus they lack the mandibles jaws grasping legs speed and other characteristics of predaceous insects such as dragonflies. Immediately many begin to blame the university of florida since legend has it they created lovebugs to help kill pesky mosquitos. Love bugs are stuck to each other like a decades old rumor has clung on uf s reputation.