Bugs were front page news today. Well, I guess it was more like a feature article than news, but it was on the front page of the Hartford Courant. It was an article about using biological controls to fight invasive species - using non-native species to attack other non-native species. In some cases they use bugs to kill plants (a beetle introduced to control purple loosestrife), in some cases they use bugs to kill other bugs (a beetle introduced to kill the scarlet lily beetle, wasps introduced to kill the emerald ash borer), and in one case they introduced a fungus to kill an insect (the dreaded gypsy moth caterpillar). It's a tricky proposition, because the thing you introduce can turn out to be a problem as well if it decides to go after something other than the target it is brought in to eradicate. Extensive testing is now done to be sure that won't happen - the wasps meant to attack the emerald ash borer are tested to make sure they won't kill native insects as well. It can also take a long time to determine if it is working - it's been about twenty years since the beetles were brought in to eat the purple loosestrife, and scientists say it is working, but the plant is still around (I have noticed a lot of it this summer, which is the first time in a long time I have seen it). Still, they say it has weakened, and now the native plants are better able to compete with it. It was an interesting article, and it made me geekily happy to see bugs presented as heroes, even if at the same time other bugs were made out to be the villains. (Hey, I lived through the gypsy moth scourge of 1981. Sometimes bugs ARE villains).
Today was a hot one, and I procrastinated until the temperature got down to 89ºF before going out to do my bug walk. The backyard was pretty shady by then, so even though it was still hot, at least the bugs and I weren't baking. The heat wasn't the worst thing though; the worst thing was when I looked down to see that I was standing in poison ivy. And I had just been kneeling. Yay. Hooray for Technu, the poison ivy cleaner (You don't clean poison ivy with it, you clean things and people who have been kneeling in poison ivy).
I moseyed down to check out the sumac again and when I got there all at once a swarm of bees and wasps, all different sizes and colors, lifted up off the flowers and flew away. It was an amazing site, but unfortunately it left few wasps behind for me to see. I walked away and came back, and so did some of the bugs, including today's Backyard Bug of the Day:
A wasp with beautiful blue wings!
My investigations in the bug books are inconclusive, but it could be a blue mud dauber.
Most of the pictures I took were out of focus, like this one, but this one is included here because it shows the color of the wings the best.
A minor theme in the world of backyards bugs today was Bugs That Tried To Get In The House Attached To My Husband:
Plume moth on his face from when he went out to check on the status of the vegetable garden. He didn't even know it was there; I saw it and made him stand still for a picture.
Caterpillar on his shirt after he had been doing some yard work.
Fun Fact: Caterpillars have really, really tiny hooks on their feet. This makes it difficult to remove them from a t-shirt if they don't want to let go. (This is a really zoomed in crop of a picture - my lens isn't THAT good. Also, this shot was taken after the caterpillar was no longer on the t-shirt).
Caterpillar Close-up
Finally got the caterpillar off the shirt, and it landed on the ground at the bottom of the porch steps. A dangerous place to be if you are squishable.
Finally managed to convince it to hold onto a stick so I could carry it to a safer location (and then it wouldn't let go of the stick. I left it on the stick in one of the garden beds).
Caterpillare Close-up - check out those eyes.
Came upon these eggs I saw last week:
They have changed from white to dark gray. I am pretty sure it is what is inside the eggs that has changed, though, and that change is visible through the egg. The egg 'shell' is probably the same.
Zoomed-in version. You can kind of see the things inside.
Who's On the Milkweed Today?
Do you remember that recently I posted pictures of some baby assassin bugs that had just hatched from eggs on the side of the house? This could be one of them.
Cleaning its antennae with its front legs. With those legs I would be a bit worried about getting them near my face, in an Edward Scissorhands kind of way, but this bug didn't seem to have a problem with it.
I know, you've seen a million of these here. But I have generally seen them on bittersweet vines. This may be the first time I've seen one on milkweed.
Drop of honeydew caught in its fluff.
Yes, I know, you've seen plenty of plume moths, too, but look how many of them are on this plant! There's at least ten on the flower head alone!
Little ants carrying a big ant
Random Bugs:
Frowning flower?
Nope, looper caterpillar
Smiling now
The balloon flowers are blooming. Inside is a bee, but there's something else on this flower, do you see it?
How about now?
A thrips
No idea
A few hoppers:
This probably should have been BBotD. I have been trying for years to get a decent picture of this kind of bug, and this is even a species I don't think I have seen before. Oh well.
Arachnid Appreciation:
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This looks like a skull...
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