Rotten Insects, Viral Videos And Climate Change: S.Korea Battles 'Lovebug' Invasion
First identified in South Korea a decade ago, Seoul is now annually hit by a weeks-long infestation of the Plecia nearctica insect, a type of March fly nicknamed "lovebug" for their distinctive mating behaviour, which sees them fly around in coupled pairs.
Huge clouds of the insects, which are harmless to humans, blanket apartment walls and mountain trails and, after they quickly die, leave behind piles of rotting black remains and a foul stench.
Complaints about the bugs, which scientists believe came from southern China and have surged with rising temperatures linked to climate change, have risen sharply, Seoul city data showed.
Even K-pop BTS idol RM is seen seemingly cursing upon spotting the insects in a viral video, with fellow bandmember Jin separately seen casually blowing a lovebug out of his way mid-performance.
"In general, many insects tend to grow more rapidly in warmer temperatures," Ju Jung-won, a deputy researcher at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, told AFP.
"As for the lovebugs, it looks like the temperature and environment found in foreign regions where they are active are now taking hold in South Korea as well, allowing them to survive here."
At the peak of Gyeyangsan Mountain in Incheon, west of Seoul, public servants wearing makeshift protective gear struggled to clear piles of dead insects, as vast swarms of the bugs circled in the air, making it hard for people in the area to keep their eyes open.
At their worst, the piles of dead lovebugs in parts of the mountain were "stacked more than 10 centimetres (four inches) high," said Jung Yong-sun, 59, who was tasked with pest-control duties.
Walking through them, he added, "felt like stepping on something soft and cushiony."
The unpleasant odour took many by surprise.
"At first, I thought it was food waste... Turns out, it was the stench of dead bugs," said Ahn So-young, a 29-year-old hiker.
"I cried when I came up here. I was so scared."
Park Sun-jae, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Biological Resources, told AFP that the bugs were first reported in South Korea in Incheon in 2015.
"Since 2022, the population has begun to surge," Park said, adding that they were now "found throughout the greater Seoul metropolitan area".
This year, the infestation has been widely documented online, with content creators flocking to the worst-affected areas to cash in on the inundation.
One YouTuber collected a massive pile of the bugs and turned them into a "burger patty", mixing them into batter before frying and eating them on camera.
"It's not bad. It's really delicious," he said in the video, which has garnered more than 648,000 views.
On Gyeyangsan Mountain, content creators Kim Ji-young and Sam Jung intentionally dressed in white -- a colour known to attract the bugs -- and filmed themselves being swarmed.
"This is probably something I'll never experience again in my lifetime," Jung said, as his hat and clothes were crawling with the bugs.
But for many Seoul residents, the bugs aren't just a viral moment. They are disrupting daily routines.
In Daejo Market in Seoul's Eunpyeong district, restaurant owners had to constantly blow the bugs away to protect their ingredients.
Dead insects kept piling up on the floor -- putting severe pressure to the cleaners' workload.
"I want to be able to eat lunch without worrying about lovebugs landing on my face or getting into my food," business owner Chang Seo-young, 48, told AFP.
Lovebugs --- seen by South Korean officials as "beneficial insects" for breaking down plant matter --- typically disappear naturally by early July.
But scientists warn that given the unpredictability of the climate crisis, the possibility of insect species -- including ones more harmful than lovebugs -- invading the country cannot be ruled out.
"I worry that future generations will have to suffer so much," said Jeon In-hyeop, a 29-year-old visitor to Gyeyangsan Mountain, after surveying parts of the summit covered in bugs.
"I feel like our children might end up living in a much more unfortunate world." On Gyeyangsan Mountain, west of Seoul, at their worst dead lovebugs were 'stacked more than 10 centimetres high, says local official Jung Yong-sun, tasked with pest-control duties AFP The lovebugs have attracted YouTubers like Sam Jung (L) and Kim Ji-young who film themselves covered in swarms of the insects AFP While lovebugs are seen by South Korean officials as 'beneficial insects', scientists warn climate change could lead to an invasion of more harmful species AFP The swarms of lovebugs, which are harmless to humans, typically disappear naturally by early July AFP
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Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard with samples of fat taken from polar bears and tested using the new 'slice' method AFP French scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet examines bear cubs on the ice before taking biopsies and blood samples from their sedated mother AFP Infographic with a map showing the route of a polar bear following the sea ice, where seals are more frequently found, in Svalbard (Arctic) from April 2024 to April 2025, according to GPS data provided by the Norvegian Polar Institute AFP Polar bears are changing their diet and travelling further to eat AFP The Kronprins Haakon icebreaker carrying the scientists near Spitzbergen and its glaciers AFP A male polar bear attacks a walrus on the sea ice near Spitzbergen AFP Global warming has been happening in the Arctic three to four times faster than elsewhere AFP Only females are tracked with the collars AFP Expedition head Jon Aars changes the GPS collar of a female polar bear off Spitzbergen AFP Scientists carefully approach the sedated bear AFP The hangar of the Kronprins Haakon icebreaker off the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between Norway and the North Pole AFP
Int'l Business Times
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Skimming The Sun, Probe Sheds Light On Space Weather Threats
Eruptions of plasma piling atop one another, solar wind streaming out in exquisite detail -- the closest-ever images of our Sun are a gold mine for scientists. Captured by the Parker Solar Probe during its closest approach to our star starting on December 24, 2024, the images were recently released by NASA and are expected to deepen our understanding of space weather and help guard against solar threats to Earth. "We have been waiting for this moment since the late Fifties," Nour Rawafi, project scientist for the mission at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, told AFP. Previous spacecraft have studied the Sun, but from much farther away. Parker was launched in 2018 and is named after the late physicist Eugene Parker, who in 1958 theorized the existence of the solar wind -- a constant stream of electrically charged particles that fan out through the solar system. The probe recently entered its final orbit where its closest approach takes it to just 3.8 million miles from the Sun's surface -- a milestone first achieved on Christmas Eve 2024 and repeated twice since on an 88-day cycle. To put the proximity in perspective: if the distance between Earth and the Sun measured one foot, Parker would be hovering just half an inch away. Its heat shield was engineered to withstand up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,370 degrees Celsius) -- but to the team's delight, it has only experienced around 2,000F (1090C) so far, revealing the limits of theoretical modeling. Remarkably, the probe's instruments, just a yard (meter) behind the shield, remain at little more than room temperature. The spacecraft carries a single imager, the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR), which captured data as Parker plunged through the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere. Stitched into a seconds-long video, the new images reveal coronal mass ejections (CMEs) -- massive bursts of charged particles that drive space weather -- in high resolution for the first time. "We had multiple CMEs piling up on top of each other, which is what makes them so special," Rawafi said. "It's really amazing to see that dynamic happening there." Such eruptions triggered the widespread auroras seen across much of the world last May, as the Sun reached the peak of its 11-year cycle. Another striking feature is how the solar wind, flowing from the left of the image, traces a structure called the heliospheric current sheet: an invisible boundary where the Sun's magnetic field flips from north to south. It extends through the solar system in the shape of a twirling skirt and is critical to study, as it governs how solar eruptions propagate and how strongly they can affect Earth. Space weather can have serious consequences, such as overwhelming power grids, disrupting communications, and threatening satellites. As thousands more satellites enter orbit in the coming years, tracking them and avoiding collisions will become increasingly difficult -- especially during solar disturbances, which can cause spacecraft to drift slightly from their intended orbits. Rawafi is particularly excited about what lies ahead, as the Sun heads toward the minimum of its cycle, expected in five to six years. Historically, some of the most extreme space weather events have occurred during this declining phase -- including the infamous Halloween Solar Storms of 2003, which forced astronauts aboard the International Space Station to shelter in a more shielded area. "Capturing some of these big, huge be a dream," he said. Parker still has far more fuel than engineers initially expected and could continue operating for decades -- until its solar panels degrade to the point where they can no longer generate enough power to keep the spacecraft properly oriented. When its mission does finally end, the probe will slowly disintegrate -- becoming, in Rawafi's words, "part of the solar wind itself."
