Anytime lovebug season comes around, it can be a real hassle for car owners. You may all know firsthand that it's a pain to clean lovebugs off the front of your car, but if you don't, they can actually damage your cars paint since their bodies are acidic. If you happen to reside somewhere in the South, like Texas, Louisiana, or Florida, you're in one of the most populated areas for the bugs. That's because these things love the heat.
Cleaning lovebugs is never fun. There's good news, however, since we've got tips on how to prevent and how to clean that bug splatter off of the surface of your car with ease. Times have changed, and lots of elbow grease and scrubbing is no longer the only way to do it. So, let's go over car care with a few prevention and cleaning ideas to keep your car super clean from dead lovebugs throughout this season.
Lovebug Prevention Tips
- Give your vehicle a nice thorough car wash, and then apply a good wax job. This will protect your car against the splatter and make it easier for the bugs to come off.
- If you apply a light coating of cooking spray to the parts of the car, like mirrors, this will also make the remains of these bugs easier to remove.
- Place a bug screen on the inside and outside of the car's grille. This will keep the pesky bugs from sticking to your radiator, which will make your cleanup a much easier task.
- This may be a bit obvious, but taking your time and driving a bit slower will also aid in not hitting nearly as many large lovebug groups.
Lovebug Removal Tips
- The first step in removal of these bugs should be spraying the areas down with some warm water. If you have large groups of the bugs on your car, you can even apply some baby oil to soak on certain areas of the car. Soaking them will help loosen them up a bit.
- Of course, you can always use a bit of dish soap and some elbow grease to scrub the bugs clean in a traditional way.
- Scrub the areas with wet dryer sheets. This will likely take a number of sheets, but you'd be surprised at how well this technique removes the bugs and the bug residue from your vehicle.
- Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works in the same way as the dryer sheets. It gives just enough of a rough surface to remove each and every one of those bugs
- Using a spray bottle, applying a little bit of degreaser cleaning product to your windshield, and letting it sit for a minute will allow your windshield wipers to take those bugs right off of your glass with ease.
- If you mix baking soda with some warm water and apply to the bug splattered areas of the vehicle, you'll see a good majority of those bugs melt right off of your ride.
- Use cleaning products such as Simple Green, Super Clean, and Spray 'n Wash.
Lovebugs are just a part of the year. They come here for one reason, and that's to reproduce, so whether you like them or not, you're going to find them on your car one way or another. Use the tips above to make this season's cleanup much easier than you ever thought possible. Floridians, in particular, should be taking notes because the bugs are extremely bad in that area.
Hopefully, you can get some use out of these tips and keep your prized vehicle spotless until the lovebugs retreat for next year.
Car Cleaning Essentials
1. SoLID (TM) Spray Bottle (4 Pack,16 Oz)
2. 844300 Long Pile Microfiber Car Wash Sponge - Colors May Vary
3. Baking Soda (1 Gallon) Natural for Cooking, Baking, Cleaning, Deodorizing, & More by Earthborn Elements
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This post was originally published on May 28, 2020.