The bugs are back. But your windshield already knows this.

This year's rains have left Southern California awash with wildflowers. And bugs. If it seems you are swatting or driving into more flying insects this spring, you can thank the near-normal rainy season for creating a giant salad bar of grasses and other vegetation that serves as both food and shelter for all manner of bugs and beetles, entomologists tell the Riverside Press-Enterprise. 

Jose Serrano is not an entomologist.  He's a CHP officer in Riverside County. But he knows firsthand that this year's bug population is booming from the animal life that pelts his bike's windshield, including one bug that left a yellow splat the size of his hand.

"It's comical sometimes," Serrano said. "You're driving along and you just get hammered ... And they hurt."

This year's bug count is probably no larger than a normal year. It just seems bigger in contrast with last year's record-low rainfall, which supported little in the way of plant and insect life.  The skies and windshields should start clearing up soon as the vegetation dies back in the late spring and early summer. Not everyone will be happy to see the bugs go, however. Kris Kuzmanic, whose family owns the Temecula Hand Car Wash, said this year of bug-encrusted windshields and front-end grills has generated plenty of business.

"The more bugs there are, the more business for us," Kuzmanic said. "Bugs are our friends."

-- Jesus Sanchez

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[nikki]

whut bug is this i need to find out for my science project but it doesnt say can anyone help me out/?

[Sal B]

It's a mosquito.