what to use to protect from lovebugs?

[JeffH]

Hi,

I spent about two hours yesterday cleaning lovebug bodies off the front of my car. It occured to me today that I could have sprayed the front with either or both opticoat hyperseal, and/or Instant Detailer. I has done that, but not lately.

If I expect to be bombarded with lovebugs, should I just spray a coating of Hyper Seal on the front and not even buff off the excess? What works to repel these awful bug guts. They were all but laminated onto my car yesterday. It was brutal getting all that stuff off.

[Ron@Optimum]

Jeff, I feel your pain, lived in the Florida panhandle for 2 years and suffered through Lovebug Hell.  And this was before I was introduced to Optimum.  For cleaning the bugs, I recommend Power Clean at 1:3 ration or ONR as a pre-spray mix (1 oz to 16 oz) - let dwell then scrub and rinse.  Hyper Seal is your best coating, much more durable than Instant Detailer.  For long term, you might consider Gloss-Coat ceramic - easy to apply, makes removing bug carcasses easier (won't let bug guts to etch your paint), and has 2+ years durability.

[JeffH]

Hi Ron,

      I had a ceramic coating put on. It doesn't seem to have helped much on the plastic front end parts. 

I was wondering if spraying Hyper Seal on just before I go for a drive, without really wiping it down might work?

I wasn't sure if it would stay sort of wet for several hours before cleaning the bugs off. I was hoping a pre-treatment

of some kind might work. Thoughts?

thx

[Ron@Optimum]

Hyper Seal can act as a reload for ceramic coatings...but you still need to spread it, otherwise you'll get uneven coverage.  It cures very quickly and will not stay wet.  The best thing is to remove the love bugs as quickly as possible, not allowing them to bake on. 

[JeffH]

Ok, that's what I wanted to know. I'm still hoping to find a pre-coat of something that stays wet so that

the bugs will just wash off. There are some poorly rated pre-coat stuff, but I haven't seen anyone say to use

something that will not harm the paint or clear coat like wd-40 or baby oil, neither of which I would use.

Pretty odd.

 

[JeffH]

Seems good reviews for this. I guess you don't want to know of other vendor's products, but then

you don't really offer a preventative product and I'm at war with these danged bugs. The front of the car probably won't be as shiny as it usually

is with my optimum coatings, but I'll put all that back on after the love bugs go away. If you're curious

whether it works for me or not, I'll update this post.

Griot's Garage 10953 Bug Barricade 22oz

 

Thanks 

 

[Ron@Optimum]

You are correct, we don't test other companies products.  I've never heard of anything like you're looking for and can't imagine it's good for your paint.

[JeffH]

Sorry I mentioned it.

[darrvao777]

Ha, how timely, I just ran into a hailstorm of love bugs on my way home today

I don't think there is anything foolproof to 100% protect from lovebugs. Having a good coating or a good sealant like Hyper Seal will help minimize the damage but you're still going to hit the bugs and you'll still want to get them off ASAP.

I agree with Ron, my technique now is to just wash immediately upon coming home:

1) Rinse with hose

2) Foam Power Clean @ 1:3 dilution

3) Rinse with hose

4) Spray ONR @ 1:16 dilution

5) Proceed to standard ONR wash

6) If any bugs have survived the above, I'll apply some Power Clean @ 1:3 dilution onto a bug sponge and gently agitate

7) Rinse with hose one final time

8 ) Dry the car using a drying aid (I like Hyper Seal)

9) Look forward to doing this all over again tomorrow

I've honed this now so I can get this done in under 15 minutes (I drive a small hatch)

[JeffH]

Thanks. I have not yet tried ONR. The stuff I mentioned above does have some merit, but it's 

not an earth-shattering fix either. On the other hand, I've only tried it a couple times. I might put it

on a little thicker next time and see what happens. But it did noticeably help. Prior to using that,

I had put on a fresh coat of Hyper Seal on by itself and after a three hour drive and hitting hundreds, if not thousdands of love bugs,

I spent maybe two hours getting the stuff off using Turtle Wax Bug Remover. It did almost no good.  I had a really good opinion of that product

until love bugs. It does a good job with other Florida bugs, but it was a horrible two hours getting the love bugs

off and what I ended up doing out of desperation was to use the glass cleaner that I used on my windshield as

it seemed to have more readily melted away the bug guts off my windshield and I was running out of Turtle Wax stuff.

That glass cleaner is Sprayway 707. I don't know if it's horrible for the paint, but I needed something to get the bugs off.  

Today, I put a coating of the other stuff on prior to going downtown. when I got back there were some bugs on, but nothing

like the three hour trip, and I was able to easily power wash the bugs off with no scrubbing or anything other than water.

I don't power wash very close to the paint or at that high a pressure directly at the paint, but it did pretty easily remove the bugs

with that pre-coat stuff having been put on.