TAMPA, Fla. — A Bay Area woman says her boat was taken over by a swarm of lovebugs, and the entire takeover was caught on video.

In a video that’s been viewed about 2 million times, lovebugs are seen covering the boat Dana Ericson is on with her husband and friend.

“It was disgusting,” Erickson said. “They were everywhere. In the cabin of the boat. They were in our seats, under the seat mats, in our towels, in our shoes. Everywhere. My bathing suit.”

Erickson said she was used to seeing lovebugs on cars.

“The boat you’re out in the element. In the car you’re inside the car so it was just as bad to clean the boat as it would’ve been the car, but at least you’re not eating them … they’re not getting in your drinks and they’re not in your hair, you’re in the car. So that’s the big difference,” she said.

Never did she think their boat would be covered with the pesky insects three miles off Sarasota Bay.

“We found a good spot, we anchored the boat, threw the anchor, and then all of a sudden every few minutes they just kept coming and coming and coming, and coming,” she said. “And we looked around at the other two boats and the same thing was happening to them, and we were just going crazy.”

Erickson said after about 30 minutes of feeling like bait to these lovebugs and only catching two small fish, they decided to head back to shore.

She thought if they sped up the boat the lovebugs would fall off. That didn’t happen.

“We drove it was like probably 40 miles an hour trying to get back in, and they were not coming off the boat until we actually got into shore. We threw the anchor in the beach, and I jumped overboard and got them all off of me,” she said.

Erickson said it took two hours and a pressure washer to clean all of the lovebugs off of the boat once they got home.

She said if there was any lesson learned it would be, knowing when lovebugs are out. We checked and researchers say those annoying lovebugs are out in full force for about four weeks beginning in April through May and again during August through September.