Category Archives: Insects

Report This Bug!

Insects, Spotted Lanternflies
Spotted lanternfly: What To Look For (image from Penn State Extension)

6 May 2021

Now that the trees have leafed out and bug season is firing up in Pennsylvania, it’s time to watch for and report the spotted lanternfly.

Spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) are invasive planthoppers native to China and Vietnam whose favorite food is the invasive Ailanthus, the Tree-of-Heaven. If they ate only Ailanthus it would be OK but their sharp mouth parts pierce the stems and suck the sap of grapevines, hops, apple trees, peaches and hardwoods including oaks and cherries. They’re bad news for agriculture and forests.

Lanternflies are making quick progress across Pennsylvania because they’re aided by human transportation. First discovered in North America in Berks County, PA in 2018 the bug spread through eastern PA for two years. In early 2020 it was found on rail cars at the Norfolk Southern railyard in Conway, Beaver County. Soon after in Allegheny County. Early this year it completed an unbroken path through the lower third of the state by adding Westmoreland and Cambria Counties. What’s on this path? The Norfolk-Southern Railroad.

map from PA Dept of Agriculture via Penn State Extension

The lanternfly travels easily from September to May as flat gray egg masses on rail cars, trucks and automobiles.

  • Adult near egg masses: New = mud in foreground, Exposed = lumpy in background (photo by Lawrence Barringer, PA Dept of Agriculture, Bugwood.org)

The eggs hatch from spring through summer so now’s the time to watch for black or red spotted nymphs, especially in the unmarked counties above.

Spotted lanternfly early stage nymph (photo by Lawrence Barringer, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bugwood.org)
Spotted lanternfly late stage nymph (photo by Lawrence Barringer, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bugwood.org)

If you see spotted lanternflies in any life stage report them at this easy-to-use Penn State Extension website: Have You Seen a Spotted Lanternfly?

We won’t see adult lanternflies until July to November. And frankly, we really don’t want to.

(photos and map from PA Dept of Agriculture, Penn State Extension and Bugwood; click on the captions to see the originals)

Wrangling Honey Bees

Insects
Honeybee swarm (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

16 April 2021

In late spring you may find a swarm of insects gathered in a tight cluster on a structure or tree. No matter what they are, stand back and leave them alone. Safely try to identify them.

If they’re wasps they’re dangerous. If they’re spotted lanternflies you have a problem. If they’re honey bees (Apis mellifera) they’re good news and relatively docile. Here’s what they’re up to.

Swarming is a honey bee colony’s natural means of reproduction. In the process of swarming, a single colony splits into two or more distinct colonies.

Swarms settle 20–30 m (65-100 ft) away from the natal nest for a few days and will then depart for a new nest site after getting information from scout bees. Scout bees search for suitable cavities in which to construct the swarm’s home. Successful scouts will then come back and report the location of suitable nesting sites to the other bees.

— Wikipedia: Swarming (honey bee)

Honey bees are valuable pollinators and should not be killed. Beekeepers want the bees.

Most beekeepers will remove a honeybee swarm for a small fee or maybe even free if they are nearby.  Bee swarms can almost always be collected alive and relocated by a competent beekeeper or bee removal company. Extermination of a bee swarm is rarely necessary and discouraged if bee removal is possible.

— Wikipedia: Swarming (honey bee)

Swarming season keeps beekeepers very busy!

Beekeeper collecting a swarm (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

They usually suit up and remove the bees without a lot of fanfare as in this video by Donald Porta who removed the bees in 27 seconds (after he got set up).

There are also flamboyant bee wranglers such as Yappy Beeman who don’t wear protective clothing. YappyBeeman, below, competes on YouTube with JPtheBeeman, DirtRooster and Mr. Ed.

video from Yappy Beeman on YouTube

p.s. If you have questions about honey bees contact local beekeepers for assistance. See the list of Pennsylvania State Beekeepers. Check Burgh Bees in the Pittsburgh area.

Not sure what bug you’re looking at? Here’s a helpful guide from the Connecticut Beekeepers Association: Honey Bee Hive vs. Wasp Nest: How to Identify the Difference.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons, video from Yappy Beeman on YouTube)

These Busy Bees Aren’t Bumbles

Insects
Carpenter bee on redbud (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

12 April 2021

On sunny April days you may see a big bee hovering in the open, chasing other bees, or patrolling near a wooden structure. It looks like a shiny black bumblebee, but it’s not.

Carpenter bee hovering (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Eastern carpenter bees (Xylocopa virginica), like bumblebees, are solitary and docile. They don’t build hives and rarely sting. In April and May carpenter males compete for mates and the females look for wood where each will drill a gallery and lay her eggs.

You can tell the difference by sight. Carpenter bees (left) have black abdomens that shine in sunlight. Bumblebees (right) have fuzzy black or yellow abdomens that don’t reflect light.

Carpenter bee vs bumblebee (photos by Chuck Tague)
Carpenter bee (left) versus bumblebee (right), both in Pennsylvania (photos by Chuck Tague)

Here’s what a female sounds like as she examines a wooden railing. She is so docile that the person can get quite close to film her.

video from @MyBackyardBirding on YouTube

The female is looking for bare or distressed wood — not painted or treated — where she will drill a hole as described in this video. She doesn’t eat the wood. She just drills it.

video from @NCNaturalSciences on YouTube

Carpenter bees put fallen logs to use. Here they are in their natural setting. I have never seen this many bees near a human structure.

video from @DNALearningCenter on YouTube

So … paint your house and carpenter bees will leave it alone. Meanwhile if you see carpenter bee holes in unpainted wood, this video from Clemson University tells you what to do: Carpenter Bees — Millie Davenport, Clemson University.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Chuck Tague; videos embedded form ouTube, click o nthe captions to see the channels)

What’s Changed In 7 Years?

Climate Change, Fish, Frogs, Insects, Migration, Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Ruddy duck in breeding plumage (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

8 April 2021

About once a week I look back seven years to highlight an old blog post that is still interesting today. This morning when I looked back, I was stunned at how different spring is now in southwestern PA compared to April 2014. A lot has changed in seven years. Migrating ducks, singing frogs and flowers are showing up earlier in 2021. For instance …

Have you seen a lot of ruddy ducks lately? Seven years ago the bulk of their migration through Moraine State Park began on 5 April 2014. This year it started almost a month earlier on 11 March 2021 and is basically over now. Here’s the 2014 blog post that caught my attention: Ruddy Bubbles. Click on the hotspot icons here to see this year’s ruddy duck activity at Moraine.

Have you heard spring peepers or wood frogs calling lately? Seven years ago they were loud on 6 April 2014 (Jeepers Creepers) but this year their peak was on 12 March 2021 at Racooon Wildflower Reserve: Sights and Sounds of Early Spring. When I returned to Raccoon twelve days later the frogs were quieter. They were silent on 4 April 2021.

Spring peeper calling in the Ozarks (photo by Justin Meissen via Wikimedia Commons)
Spring peeper calling in the Ozarks (photo by Justin Meissen via Wikimedia Commons)

On 31 March 2021 I found bloodroot and hepatica blooming at Cedar Creek: Before The Freeze. Seven years ago they bloomed a couple of weeks later on 12 April 2014: It Was Fun While It Lasted.

Bloodroot blooming at Cedar Creek Park, Westmoreland County, 19 April 2014 (photo by Kate St. John)
Bloodroot blooming at Cedar Creek Park, Westmoreland County, 12 April 2014 (photo by Kate St. John)

What’s changed in seven years? The climate is warmer. Nature is responding.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

(photos from Wikimdeia Commons and by Kate St. John)

Annual Spray Your Clothes Day

Insects
It’s Spray Your Clothes Day (photo by Kate St. John)

7 April 2021

We missed a celebration when it snowed on 1 April so I’ve moved a very important annual event to right now. Today is Spray Your Clothes Day.

Pennsylvania is a hot spot for Lyme disease, a debilitating illness caused by a parasite transmitted by black-legged ticks. Many of us are spending more time outdoors than usual because COVID-19 has made indoor gatherings unsafe. If you’ve taken up gardening, hiking, birding, etc., you’ll want to spray your outdoor clothes with permethrin to repel black-legged ticks.

Black-legged ticks lurk in Japanese barberry, leaf litter, bush honeysuckle, weeds and tall grass, especially in moist environments. When you work with leaf litter in the garden, or brush past weeds nodding over the trail, or step off the path to let someone pass, a black-legged tick may latch on for a ride. If it sucks your blood for 24 hours you could get Lyme disease.

To avoid fumes and protect kids and pets, spray your clothes outdoors on a windless day. Read and follow label directions! I sprayed my clothes last month so I’m good to go. If you haven’t done so yet, consider this your annual reminder. Learn more at Today Is Spray Your Clothes Day.

p.s. Don’t assume you’re safe if you only go to Pittsburgh’s large city parks. A 2015-2016 study found there are black-legged ticks in the city parks and 20-50% of them are carrying Lyme disease. This is typical in Pennsylvania.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Sights and Sounds of Early Spring

Fish, Frogs, Insects, Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Weather & Sky
Sun pillar at sunrise, 6 March 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)

14 March 2021

Spring is coming! Our native trees are slow to bloom but cultivated flowers and amphibians are already active. There’s a lot to see and hear.

Above, on 6 March we were greeted by a sun pillar caused by ice crystals slowly falling through the air at sunrise.

A shagbark hickory lives up to its name in bright sunlight.

Shagbark hickory, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 12 March 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)

American basswood now has bright red buds that are still cautious about opening.

American basswood buds, Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 12 Mar 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)

Cultivated European white willows have bright yellow twigs in March.

Cultivated willows turn yellow in early spring, Homewood Cemetery, 9 Mar 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)

Non-native crocuses are blooming so I hoped to see native snow trillium at Raccoon Wildflower Reserve on Friday, 12 March 2021. I did not find any, not even leaves. Was I too early or did the deer eat them?

However I was rewarded with the sound of frogs! Spring peepers and a few wood frogs called from the first vernal pool.

Peepers calling at Raccoon Wildflower Reserve, 12 March 2021

Wood frogs quacked in the second pool joined by a few solo peepers (hear that slow “creeeek” sound). In the video you can see the surface of the water moving with so many wood frogs.

Get outside while the sun’s shining. There’s more spring to come!

(photos audio and video by Kate St. John)

Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears

Fish, Frogs, Insects
Butterflies drinking turtle tears (screenshot from Phil Torres YouTube video)

17 February 2021

In 2018 in the Peruvian Amazon Phil Torres of The Jungle Diaries filmed colorful butterflies fluttering around turtles at the edge of the Tambopata River. He explains what the butterflies were doing:

Learn more about this phenomenon in Phil Torres’ video: Butterflies drinking Turtle Tears!?

One commenter wrote: “So if I cry, will butterflies come to me?”

(screenshot from Phil Torres Jungle Diaries video)

Jumping Spiders Sing and Dance

Insects
Adult male jumping spider, Phidippus mystaceus (photo by Thomas Shahan via Wikimedia Commons)

29 January 2021

Did you know that jumping spiders sing and dance?

Well, only the males do. They have to put on a show to distract the ladies. Otherwise their chosen mates will eat them!

Watch how this works in the PBS video below featuring Habronattus clypeatus jumping spiders native from the southern Rocky Mountains to the northern Sierra Madre Occidental and Sonoran Desert.

So does the male Phidippus mystaceus (at top) sing and dance? This paper on jumping spider sex indicates that courtship dances are common among all jumping spiders, so I think it’s safe to assume he dances, too.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

p.s. For those of you who quest for particular birds or bugs, you’ll enjoy the story that accompanies the Phidippus mystaceus photo. Click here and scroll down to read how, after 3 years of searching, Thomas Shahan finally found him. It begins: “It’s quite difficult for me to put into words just how long I have been wanting to find an adult male of this species!”

Like a Furry Robot

Insects
Jumping spider on a human finger (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

If you have ever approached a tiny spider that jumped suddenly far and fast you’ve probably seen a jumping spider (Salticidae), one of 6000 species on Earth.

Jumping spiders are harmless to humans and can be identified by the position of their eyes. They have four pairs(!) with the largest front and center. As for jumping, they use their back legs.

Jumping spiders’ well-developed internal hydraulic system extends their limbs by altering the pressure of their body fluid (hemolymph) within them. This enables the spiders to jump without having large muscular legs like a grasshopper. Most jumping spiders can jump several times the length of their bodies.

— Wikipedia: Jumping Spider

When not jumping I’ve seen them move in a jerky fashion.

Like a furry robot.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

The Virus That Kills Birds

Doves & Chickens, Insects, Musings & News
  • Ruffed grouse (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

23 November 2020

As we struggle with a nearly out-of-control coronavirus pandemic I was stunned to learn there’s an equally deadly virus among birds. The discovery came when I found the answer to Craig’s question: “Kate, why is the ruffed grouse population in decline in Pennsylvania? Habitat destruction?” No, West Nile Virus is killing them off.

West Nile Virus arrived in North America more than 20 years ago and spread across the continent in just five years, killing native raptors and songbirds in its wake. When it struck Pittsburgh’s bird community in 2002 it was fairly common to find dead crows. That was a long time ago and I don’t see dead crows anymore so I thought birds were now able to survive the virus. Instead a 2015 study found that West Nile Virus is still wiping out birds in North America. It affects each species differently.

Some such as wild turkeys, chickens and house sparrows had a die-off when the virus arrived and then recovered with apparent immunity. Others never developed that resilience. The virus ravages their bodies so quickly that they die without reproducing.

The birds in the slideshow above are some of WNV’s most devastated victims. Every year their populations decline in a downward spiral. Greater sage-grouse and yellow-billed magpies have such restricted ranges that WNV may push them to extinction. This explains why I haven’t seen so many warbling vireos, purple finches and American goldfinches as I did a decade ago.

In 2016 the PA Game Commission studied the plight of the ruffed grouse and found that infected grouse never before exposed to WNV had only a 10% survival rate. This 9-minute video tells the whole story.

It’s ironic that we worried so much about West Nile virus when it’s actually a bird disease. Read more about West Nile Virus In Birds at kenyon.edu.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons, J. Maughn, Steve Gosser and Chuck Tague,)