Whenever lovebug mating season comes around, so do the rumors about where they came from, how to prevent them and — of course — why they cause our cars so much damage. Some myths sound like plots to science fiction films, while others seem rooted in common sense, but what is fact and what's fiction? VERIFY spoke to Dr. Norman C. Leppla one-on-one to debunk the myths. He said he first got interested in lovebugs when he moved to Florida after graduating the University of Arizona for his first job in the mid-to-late 70s. "What could be better than to arrive with all of these insects flying around reproducing?" he said. OUR SOURCES Dr. Norman C. Leppla — University of Florida professor specializing in integrated pest management and biological control University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences 10 Tampa Bay Chief Meteorologist Bobby Deskins Texas A&M Forest Service Crowley Museum & Nature Center BACKGROUND: What even are lovebugs? "Lovebugs are little flies," Dr. Leppla said. "They're related to gnats. So they don't sting, they don't bite, they don't cause problems other than being a nuisance." Leppla said lovebugs are technically classified as nuisance pests, as opposed to the kind that damage crops and carry diseases. The lifecycle of a lovebug generally lasts half a year, as there are typically "two generations per year" with most of a lovebug's time being spent as larvae before emerging as adults just in time for mating seasons in April to May and then August to September, according to Dr. Leppla and 10 Tampa Bay Chief Meteorologist Bobby Deskins. As adults, lovebugs live for only a few days as they look to reproduce and lay eggs in the soil, setting the scene for the next lovebug season. MYTH 1: University of Florida scientists made lovebugs in a lab to kill mosquitoes "I have no idea how that myth or any other myth gets started, but it's amazing how it generates a life of its own" Dr. Leppla said. It's not clear where or how this rumor started. Some versions indicate that lovebugs were selected to be genetically modified to become mosquito killers; others claim that lovebugs were created by scientists through some sort of lab experiment. On the former, Dr. Leppla said: "Frankly, it's not likely or logical that you would select a lovebug as a predator. They're plant-feeding insects. They don't even have teeth." On the latter, the Crowley Museum & Nature Center said: "If science had advanced to a level of being able to completely create an organism that successfully feeds and reproduces, do you really think it would be a lovebug? Certainly not." So where did they come from? Researcher Lawrent L. Buschman published a paper in 1976 compiling reports of lovebugs throughout the southeast, demonstrating where and when lovebugs had been collected up to that point.