Medialink Features: Dragonflies, Grasshoppers and Lovebugs ... Oh My; Summer Driving Means More Gunk on Your Car

--They're summer highway casualties, victims of tragic hit-and-run accidents. But there's no need to pull over and exchange information, grasshoppers don't carry insurance.

As millions of Americans hit the road during summer driving season, countless dragonflies, grasshoppers and not-so-lovely lovebugs will meet their demise on millions of windshields across the country. They are collisions neither you nor the insects can avoid, but summer still signals every driver's battle to keep the windshield clean.

"From May until September, drivers see a heavy concentration of bugs on their windshields," said Dr. Mark Hostetler, wildlife ecologist from the University of Florida. "The Southeast is hit hardest May through September, and the rest of the country has their heaviest bug attack June through August."

While most people detest the gunk on their cars, Hostetler makes it his job to identify exactly what kinds of bugs splattered their yellowish-brown and milky-white guts across your front windshield. A self-proclaimed splatologist and author of "That Gunk on Your Car: A Unique Guide to Insects of North America," Hostetler -- also known as "Buggy" -- has a passion for investigating what ends up on your windshield and why.

According to Hostetler, most insects meet their auto doom searching for food, shelter and mates. Some species, such as lovebugs, are attracted to certain gases in automobile exhaust which emulate gases from swamps. Other bugs, such as moths, are lured by car headlights.

Whether you are fascinated by the splats like Hostetler or hate them like most people, you cannot escape the gunk, no matter where you live. Moths and butterflies leave the largest smears -- but in terms of numbers, mosquitoes and small midges leave the most abundant splat.

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