Pest du jour

In New York, we have cockroaches (note: we have em here too, only they are the size of your fist, found mostly outdoors, and pleasantly referred to as, palmetto bugs. Oh, come on. I don't care what the fuck you call it, if its big enough to blink at me and I can hear it chewing, it doesn't belong in my house unless it's shitting in a litter box).

Anyway, I've just discovered that here in Louisiana, the most popular pests are love bugs.

Don't be fooled by the dippy Disneyfication of their name. Love bugs are really kind of gross.

Upon first glance they appear to be two-headed fireflies. Examine closer and you will see that in actuality they are two members of the opposite sex copulating. Apparently, love bugs start out as larvae (or, ew, maggots, to the lay person), feeding on rotting vegetation, then grow to full size and spend the remainder of their lives screwing:

From the Wiki: The male and female attach themselves at the rear of the abdomen and remain that way at all times, even in flight. In fact, after mating, the male dies and is dragged around by the female until she lays her eggs.

Sounds horribly romantic, doesn't it?

And by romantic, I mean creepy and kind of depressing. How is it that even in the insect world, the woman is expected to carry around the dead weight of some dude whose only contribution is to donate sperm???