The Bugs in the Backyard: Proper Equipment

This has been my week for getting new gear for my backyard bug studies (If I can call what I do bug studies). First I got a new camera. Then I got a butterfly enclosure, in case I find any monarch caterpillars to adopt this year (it's not looking good so far), and I got a new pair of insect repellent pants. My old pair of insect repellent pants were getting quite threadbare, but they are a necessity for bug hunting like I do. Before I started wearing insect repellent pants for my bug walks, I used to get between six and ten tick bites every year. That can be dangerous with all the tick-borne diseases we have around here. But since I got the insect repellent pants, I only get one or two bites a year, and they are never from doing my bug walks. I do take other measures to protect myself from ticks; even wearing the pants I do frequent tick checks while on my walks, and I shower afterward instead of before to help get rid of any that managed to grab me anyway. I am, of course, aware of the irony that I wear insect-repelling pants when I go out looking for insects, but they seem to work only on insects that make contact with them. The new ones haven't been tested yet, but I have seen ticks hurl themselves off of the old ones (although not so much lately; I think their power was wearing off). Ticks have been horrible this year (until this last week, when I haven't seen any–and now I have probably jinxed myself and will find a dozen of them tomorrow). The new pants I bought are different from the old ones in a very significant way–last time I bought a pair of pants that was treated with insect repellent. This time I could not find a pair of treated pants I liked, but I found a company that will treat items of clothes that you send in to them. So, I bought a pair of pants that was the kind I wanted for my bug walks, and sent them in to be treated. I also sent in a pair of my husband's jeans because I think he is the reason for most of the tick bites I have had in the last couple of years–he works out in the yard, brings ticks into the house, and they end up on the couch or in the bed and that is how I get bitten. He gets quite a few tick bites every year, too, so he needs that protection also (and he has had Lyme disease and another tick-borne disease before). (I am not sure if I am supposed to mention this on the blog, but the company is called Insect Shield. Sometimes their ads show up on the sidebar of this blog. I am not shilling for them, though, I am just letting you know in case you want to have your clothes treated–they repel mosquitoes, too. If you're into the outdoors, camping, hiking, whatever, it's handy to have them).

Yesterday I mentioned that I had not seen any butterflies all week, and today I saw three swallowtails! Also, one skipper. I didn't get pictures of any of them. But they were here!

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Some kind of leaf hopper nymph. It's probably hard to tell from this picture, but it blended in really well with the new leaves unfurling at the end of this vine. I did a double take, and a triple take, and had to look really close to decide if it was a bug or a leaf.

Today was much less buggy than the last few days have been. Here's what was out there:

This is the chrysalis I found a couple of days ago. I "adopted" it, so I could find out what was inside it, and today I noticed that most of it has turned a darker color than it was before, which means it is probably going to eclose soon.

Fun fact about chrysalides–they can react to stimuli. This one got annoyed about something and started writhing around.

The good news: I found eggs on the milkweed!

The bad news: they're not monarch butterfly eggs. I was thinking at first that they are stinkbug eggs, but I think they are something else. Perhaps assassin bug eggs.

I think this is a fly that has succumbed to a fungus infection. Nature is sometimes a bit like a horrifying sci-fi movie. I have seen a few like that, lately. Which reminds me, I may have seen a couple of gypsy moth caterpillars that were killed by fungus. There are still plenty of healthy ones, that I have to squish every day, but maybe the fungus will start taking care of that problem now.

Sweat bee on dame rocket

Long-legged fly

I saw some frass on one of the milkweed plants, which is a sign that there is a caterpillar on a plant, but I could not find one. I then looked up at the tree above that milkweed plant, and saw that there was some leaf damage on the tree's leaves, another sign of caterpillars being present. So I looked around the tree's leaves, and finally found this caterpillar pretending to be a leaf stem.

Same caterpillar later on

Some caterpillars can blend in quite well.

I don't know what happened to this one...

Note the droplet of honeydew that this plant hopper nymph is excreting... that landed on my hand just after this picture was taken. The other bit of fluff toward the top right is another nymph.