Ick

We had a drought for about the last two years, which I lamented for a number of reasons, including the fact that it appeared to me that there were fewer bugs in my backyard as a result of the unusually dry months. Another important factor of the drought was that it contributed to the gypsy moth outbreak, according to scientists. So you would think that this wet spring would make me happy, after all that complaining. And I am happy that we are getting so much rain (for now. This could end up very dreary at some point, and there is such a thing as too much of a good thing). But there are definitely drawbacks. The wet weather this spring has been the cause of a horrible infestation of ticks (according to scientists. But I swear that every year, no matter what kind of weather we have, scientists say, "This is going to be a very bad year for ticks." By which they mean, it will be a great year for the ticks, and a bad year for everyone who wants to go outside and not be bitten by them). And when I was outside today, I was getting bitten constantly by mosquitoes, which come along with wet weather. And then there's the gypsy moth caterpillars, which were supposed to be killed off by that fungus that was allegedly going to thrive if we had a lot of rain in May, and, well, it hasn't. There are still SO MANY gypsy moth caterpillars in my backyard, thriving, and chowing down on my trees. I wore my lawn mowing hat today while I did my bug walk, because I could hear the frass (caterpillar poop) raining down from the trees (my lawn furniture is covered with it), and there were so many of the vile creatures descending from the trees on their silk threads. THAT is exactly what freaked my out when this happened back in the early 1980s and I declared that I was never going outside again. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes people hate bugs. Those three things right there, ticks, mosquitoes, and gypsy moth caterpillars form a trio of ick that makes it horrible to be outside right now.

Except it's still beautiful outside. There's just a lot of ickiness you have to be dodging while you're out there right now.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Pretty little gnat

Other Bugs:

 Some kind of Hemiptera nymph

 Tiny beetle

 Rove beetle?

 Every year I see these tiny flies doing some kind of semaphore routine with their wings. Today I saw several of them together doing it, and scrapping with each other. I assume this is all mating behavior.

 Assassin bug

 Crane fly

 Hover fly

 Another tiny gnat/fly

 Moth

 And speaking of moths that look like bird droppings...

 Weevil

 Squash bug, or leaf footed bug?

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Jumping spider

Crab spider