Love Bug Season Twice a Year: What It Does to a Rental

Twice a year Central Florida gets love bugs, and anyone whose rental has a screened lanai or a light-colored entryway finds out about it immediately. Two flights, roughly May and again in September, each lasting a few weeks. Then they are gone as suddenly as they arrived.

For a short-term rental the problem is not the insects. It is that they arrive in the middle of your booking calendar and make the property look neglected in photographs guests take on arrival.

Why they stick to everything

They are drawn to light surfaces and to heat, which is why they collect on white screen enclosures, pale exterior walls, and the front of any car that has been driven. They also gather at doorways where a light was left on overnight.

The part that matters is chemical rather than cosmetic. Their remains are acidic, and left in the Florida sun on a warm surface they begin to etch. On a car bumper that means paint damage within a couple of days. On painted lanai framing, screens and light exterior surfaces it means staining that gets progressively harder to remove.

Sooner is disproportionately easier

Removed within a day or two, they come off with warm water and gentle agitation. Left for a week in direct sun they need real scrubbing, and by then you risk damaging the screen mesh doing it. The difference in effort between day two and day ten is not incremental — it is several times over.

For a rental turning over every few days this is manageable, because the lanai is being looked at anyway. For a property sitting empty for a fortnight during a flight, it is worth someone stopping by regardless of whether there is a checkout.

What guests notice

Screens, the front door and its surround, outdoor furniture, and any light-colored exterior wall in sun. Guests forgive a lot about the outside of a property, but arriving to a screen enclosure covered in insect remains reads as a place nobody has visited in a while — and that impression carries into how they judge everything else.

Warning your guests helps

A line in your check-in message during the flights costs nothing and saves complaints: mention it is love bug season, that it is brief and normal in Central Florida, and suggest rinsing the front of the car rather than leaving it parked for a week. Guests who understand what they are seeing are far less likely to mention it in a review.

If a flight lands mid-booking and the lanai needs attention between guests, that is a visit worth scheduling rather than waiting for the next turnover. Call Orlando STR Cleaning on (689) 220-6567. We work Wednesday and Thursday evenings, 10 AM to 10 PM Friday and Saturday, and 10 AM to 3:30 PM Sunday — the hours short-term rentals actually turn over.