What are love bugs? Sorry, I've never heard of them.

Linda

Glad we don't have them! I found the following online:

Mix warm water with a citrus-scented detergent, like an orange or lemon dish soap. Add a splash of mouthwash to the mixture, and then shake it well. Put in spray bottle, and start spraying your plants and the walls of your house with it. Bugs will leave these areas alone.

Love bug don't like scented things. You can use menthol, lavender, lemon or citronella to deter them.

Make up a light spray and mist your plants. It won't kill them, but it'll take it so they don't want to be around them.

Hey guys, I have NO knowledge re love bugs etc. But if you're looking for something highly fragranced, consider an "orange" cleaner that contains D-Limonene. (Search "d-limonene" at Amazon.) It's certainly STRONGLY orange-scented. I spray it on big pine cones that I hang in my Christmas tree every year, to discourage my cat, and it certainly works. Starts out really strong, then gradually fades, but by then, she's trained: Christmas tree = no fun.

Be a little careful about spraying it directly on leaves though. My daughter tried this on her houseplants, to keep her cats from chewing on them, and burned lots of leaves by using something like a 1:2 part ration of d-limonene:water. Ow-y. Too much. If you want to spray it directly on leaves you'll have to use a dilute spray, and definitely first test it on only a leaf or two. For insects it's likely that only a very little will be perfectly adequate. Small critters and more discriminating.

This is pretty similar to what Robert and labradogs said. BTW, totally agree with the mouthwash suggestion. It's smelly stuff. That was part of an effective formula that I used as a nontoxic mosquito deterrent in an outdoors setting.

Good luck!

Joan

Sooo, fun fact: I live on Vancouver Island, BC Canada and we are not supposed to have love bugs here. Buut I have a whole bunch of them in my house all of a sudden. I’m assuming they came from a plant I bought at the nursery which was probably originally shipped from somewhere more southern. And now they’re hatching and invading my home! Wondering if nematodes will eat the larvae in the soil?

@HU-711375439, can you post photos of your invaders? You are correct, love bugs don't live up here in the chilly PNW and I'd suspect what you have is just a colony of lady beetles (aka ladybugs). They have a very common reputation for invading homes in winter to hibernate - I've experienced this myself several times. While a bit of a nuisance, they are harmless and too beneficial to the garden to destroy. Just gather them up - sweep into a paper bag - and take outside and release when the weather is mild.

And I'm not sure what all the fuss is about the love bugs. The adults are pollen and nectar feeders so do not "kill" plants and the larvae feed off of decaying organic matter so considered beneficial. The major issue is that they tend to 'swarm' or congregate several times a year and often in very large numbers. More of a nuisance than any kind of plant pest.

Actually, in my experience Love Bugs are ATTRACTED to strong chemical scents. Heaven help you if you are trying to do exterior painting during their season. They will also gather near sources of petro chemicals fumes. But I haven’t ever had them on plants...

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

I imagine it would be pretty hard to confuse ladybugs and love bugs as they look nothing alike.

I don’t see any damage being done to my plants I just don’t want these insects in my house and considering they’re not supposed to be here, I find it odd that they are here.

They are mostly hanging out on my snake plant but every morning I wake up, I end up squishing about 6-10 of them on my walls, windows, and on my plant. This has been happening each morning for about 4 days now .

I had a million of those around my Golden Rain tree. they were everywhere in the soil around that tree. never did any harm from what I could tell (the tree was recently removed, and come to think of it, I haven't seen one of those bugs)

Love Bugs don't harm plants from my experiences. They only annoy humans since they come in swarms.