Ocean City braces for its yearly influx of 'June bugs'

Often unruly 'Senior Week' tourists bring big challenges, but also big business, officials say

OCEAN CITY —— The infestation has only just begun.

There were only a few of them on Ocean City's boardwalk Thursday night, but within a week, the incident reports will start to spike, and so will the alcohol citations for minors. Buses will become crowded again. Traffic will swell with unreliable drivers. The June bugs will have arrived.

An average of 4 million people come to this resort town every year — an estimated 200,000-250,000 this past Memorial Day weekend — but the crowd that local businesses and the town brace themselves for are the graduating high school seniors who, in a ritual exercise in excess, take over for several weeks in June.

"We've had years that are pretty hellacious," says Lee Gerachis, owner of Malibu's Surf Shop on the boardwalk. "I mean trouble. Each year is a different set of problems. Some years they all think they're UFC fighters, some years they think they're all hippies."

Loath to discourage any kind of business, especially after a soft 2009 summer, city officials and businesses welcome the young with doubled police presence, plainclothes officers checking in on clubs and bars, free PG-13 events for the entire month of June and foam parties instead of keggers.

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