Something Good About Love Bugs

I live in Eastern Central Florida so that means that we get two hatches of love bugs each year.  When I first moved here I was told the old tale of how love bugs were a genetic engineering mistake, how they were designed to mate with mosquitoes to make them sterile. It's not true though. Funny that today as I was out removing a feral beehive, a young girl, perhaps 9-11 years old restated that same old tale. Love bugs are a species of march fly. The first documented discoveries in the US date to 1911.  Today they are mostly in states bordering on the Gulf of Mexico.  As we travel so much more, the localities will expand. When I used to drive back and forth to camp in Lake Wales, I remember seeing clouds of  love bugs on the highway. A lot ended up on my truck. They annoy us, their bodies are acidic and will play hell with a paint job, They get into EVERYTHING. If you leave your car door or window open for just a little while, the odds are they'll get inside. Fortunately they don't last too long, less than a week. So for this annoyance do they do any good? Actually they do. As beekeepers we really don't like the fact that they eat the same nectar that our bees want. But their appearance indicates the presence of a nectar flow. The one thing they do that is beneficial is in the larvae stage. They eat decaying vegetation. So yes there is something good about love bugs.