From the Gainesville Sun


By Nathan Crabbe
Staff writer


Lovebugs have returned, and along with them the urban legend that the pests were created in a University of Florida laboratory.


As reported today in a story about the seasonal return of lovebugs, the insect came to Florida from Central America and spread slowly northward to about South Carolina. But judging from the tweets I’ve been reading in recent days, there’s a widespread belief that lovebugs were created by UF.


One Twitter user, using the “GoodIdeaGoneWrong” hash tag, wrote: “University of Florida genetically making lovebugs to kill mosquitos. They don’t work! At least you made Gatorade."


Snopes.com specializes in debunking urban legends. Its entry on lovebugs says the rumor is false that they’re the result of a genetic experiment gone wrong.


“Truth is, Mother Nature is far more to be feared than any mad scientist and is far more capricious,” the entry says. “In this case, she inspired some of her children to migrate to a new area, and in doing so prompted the creation of a number of rumors which attempt to explain why these critters came to take up residence in places where they weren’t found before.”