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Municipal workers in the South Korean capital region are responding to a summer infestation by spraying water, but residents wish they would break out the poison.
Video
By John Yoon
John Yoon braved clouds of lovebugs while reporting this article in Seoul and Incheon, South Korea.
July 3, 2025, 12:00 a.m. ET
They’re called lovebugs but nobody seems to love them. In fact, a lot of people in South Korea want them dead.
The thumbnail-size insects began swarming parts of Seoul and nearby cities in mating pairs last month. The infestation is expected to end by this weekend, and lovebugs pose no health risks to humans, so officials have opted for a gentle approach.
Municipal workers are mostly spraying water at them and officials have advised residents to do the same. “Lovebugs are not pests!” the Seoul government says in a promotional video. “Stop using pesticides and protect nature!”
But residents getting caught in the swarms, or scraping layers of lovebug carcasses from their storefronts, can’t understand why Seoul’s most annoying summer insect is getting off so lightly. They want officials to put away the garden hoses and break out the poison.
“There’s nothing beneficial about them,” Ahn Yeon-sik said this week as he hosed down lovebugs from the front of his bar in Incheon, a city neighboring Seoul where officials have also urged the environmentally friendly approach.
Nearby, a man trying to sit on a bench swatted the bugs with a piece of cardboard. A pedestrian ducked swiftly to dodge a pair bearing down on her.
