In the Sibley Lake area Monday, while waiting for the solar eclipse, love bugs were everywhere. They were probably looking for somebody’s car windshield.
The amazing thing is that during the eclipse it got pretty dark…not completely…. but dark enough for the pesky little creatures to think it was nighttime and they disappeared.
Looking around, during the actual eclipse, the love bugs had swarmed onto the white blossoms of chive plants that are in full bloom. They had been deceived by the eclipse into thinking night was coming and taken refuge on the blossoms
Earlier in the day, JT headed out to Sibley Lake to take a picture of the mass of Salvinia clogging the shallow portions of the lake north of the Oak Grove Bridge.
He stopped at the boat landing and opened the car door to get a better overall picture of the mat of weeds. It was so thick it looked like a golf course.
Well, he left the door open with the air condition going full blast, and the love bugs swarmed in. They were everywhere! There must have been over a hundred inside the car.
When JT tried to get back in the car, he could not swoosh them away. They just kept coming. Finally, he sat down in the car seat. But, when he got out of the car JT had four bugs smashed on his bottom and two on the back of his shirt.
JT never has cleaned smushed love bugs off his cloths before. He just hopes he doesn’t have to send slacks and shirt to the cleaners.
While driving out to the lake, JT noticed that you can travel up to about 55 miles an hour, the parish road speed limit (if the road will let you go that fast), before the bugs smash and stick when they hit your windshield.
So, if you drive 50 miles an hour or less, the bugs will just hit your car windshield and bounce off. This is real trivia, but important if you do not like cleaning your windshield everyday during love bug season!
