Most of the time we ignore Asian lady beetles until now when they become desperate to enter our houses.

Asian lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis) specialize in eating aphids and scaled insects so they were considered a beneficial insect.  Over and over they were unsuccessfully introduced in the U.S. before they miraculously — and perhaps without our assistance — gained a foothold near New Orleans in 1988.  Successful introductions followed in Europe and the Americas.

Too successful.  Now they’re everywhere.

One beetle would be cute but this many are a pest when coupled with these distasteful traits:

• In October they prepare to hibernate indoors, insinuating themselves by the thousands into every crack in our structures.
• They emit an unpleasant odor when frightened or smashed (hah! like stink bugs).  This is a real problem when they get mixed up with grapes at wineries or you frighten the thousands inside your house.
• They out-compete native ladybugs.
• If they run out of aphids they eat the eggs and larvae of native ladybugs, butterflies and moths.
• When they’re really hungry they bite people to see if we’re edible.  Ow!

During last Wednesday’s warm weather I ate my lunch on Heinz Chapel’s steps where I couldn’t help but notice that the pavement and walls were dotted with Asian lady beetles.  The beetles flew around and landed on every surface, including me.

I did nothing to upset them but it didn’t matter.  Some of them bit me, even through my clothing!

How annoying!

(photo from Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the photo to see the original)

Did you know that bumblebees purposely vibrate flowers to release their pollen?

Bumblebees collect both nectar and pollen to feed their young.  For the most part they travel from flower to flower and quickly gather what they need, but when a good food source is uncooperative they may resort to force.

When the flower entrance is nearly sealed, as in closed gentians, the bumblebee forces her way in. 

When the flower’s anthers won’t release pollen, the bumblebee shakes them.  She does this by grabbing hold of the flower and vibrating her flight muscles — that’s what makes her buzz — so the technique is called buzz pollination.

A small percentage of plants must be shaken to release pollen but others benefit from it including shooting stars (Dodecatheon) and the Solanum genus: tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant.

Thus, bumblebees are often hired to pollinate greenhouse tomatoes.

Grab hold and shake!

(photo by Chuck Tague)

I had such a great time birding at Maine’s Popham Beach on Wednesday (Sept 5) that I went back the next day.

On Thursday the weather was warmer with much less wind.  By mid afternoon I’d tallied three Best Birds: a merlin, an American golden-plover and a pectoral sandpiper.

When I was ready to leave I dawdled in the parking lot with the car doors open while I stashed my gear and ate a snack.  Then I hit the road for South Portland more than an hour away.

I shouldn’t have dawdled.

Halfway between Bath and Brunswick I felt a sharp burning pinprick on the skin near my ankle.  A pause… and then another pain right next to it.  A pause… and then a third pain on my shin.

This was happening to my driving leg, the leg that was maintaining a steady 50-55 mph on Route 1, the leg responsible for applying the brake, the leg sheathed in a hiking sock and long pants.  The leg I could not even look at until I found a place to pull off the expressway.

I remember wondering:  Is something wrong with my leg?  Had my nervous system developed a strange pain syndrome?   Three more pinpricks!!  What is causing this!??

And then a large mosquito flew up from the area near the gas pedal and headed slowly for the back of the car.

This was not a mosquito I was prepared for.  This was no ordinary Pennsylvania woodland mosquito, the kind you can escape if you just keep moving, the kind that can’t cope with wind, that bites you almost painlessly, that can’t bite through clothing and would just as soon bite your neck as your ankle.

No, this was a salt marsh mosquito, a persistent and repetitive biter, the kind that flies with you as you walk, that bites right through your clothing, that prefers to eat your ankles and legs, that ruins many a day at the beach.

I was outraged!  How dare she!

When I reached Brunswick the expressway ended.  I pulled over and parked in a fast food parking lot.  I looked in the back of the car and saw her resting on the wall near the back window.

Carefully, I opened the back passenger door.  And then in one swat I killed her.

She will NEVER bite me again!

(photo of the salt marsh mosquito, Ochlerotatus sollicitans via COJ.net. Likely from the University of Florida Medical Entymology Laboratory. Click here to see FMEL’s mosquito identification page.)

These flowers look beautiful and innocent, visited by butterflies and bees, but there are assassins in their midst.

I should have known there would be predatory insects in this setting but I was surprised to learn about assassin bugs.

There are over 4,000 species of them, all characterized by a short 3-segmented curved beak that lies in a groove between their raptorial front legs.  They eat by sucking liquids.  The beak is their killing tool.  Their victims are insects, caterpillars and bees.

After grabbing his victim with his front legs an assassin bug brings his beak forward, stabs his victim, and injects enzyme-filled saliva that paralyzes the victim and liquifies his insides.  The assassin bug then sucks the liquified innards out of his prey.

Ewww.

You can see the deadly beak curled under the head of the assassin bug pictured below.  There are graphic photos of these bugs eating insects, but I’ll spare you.

Most assassin bugs are active hunters on trees, bushes and weeds but one group, aptly named ambush bugs, lies in wait on flowers.  They’re camouflaged by yellow, orange or red body parts so their victims can’t see them.  Then they pounce.

This ambush bug matches the black-eyed susan and wears pollen as a disguise. He even appears to be smiling for the camera.  Don’t be fooled.

Fortunately the vast majority of assassin bugs are uninterested in mammals and won’t bite humans unless mishandled.

I shouldn’t be surprised by that either.   Never mishandle an assassin.

(photo credits: flowers by Kate St. John.
Assassin bug (UGA1435167) by Clemson University, USDA Cooperative Extension, Bugwood.org
Ambush bug (UGA2106054) by David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org)

I don’t know about your neighborhood but where I live we had very little insect song during the hottest, driest parts of June and July.  I was starting to get worried.  I missed the happy sound of field crickets.

This has been a confusing year for insects.  Many of them emerged in March when temperatures were 20^o-30^o above normal.  I heard a couple of field crickets that month.

I also heard a few begin to sing on a normal schedule in early summer but they soon fell silent.  June and July were very hot, very dry, and a little spooky without insect sounds.  I wondered if the crickets were alive.

Probably not.  Field crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus) eat mostly plants including crabgrass, English plantain, switchgrass, common ragweed and chicory.  The plants were suffering.  So were the crickets.

Ten days ago it began to rain in Pittsburgh.  Thanks to almost daily thunderstorms our 2012 rainfall deficit turned into a 1/2″ surplus yesterday.

We have chicory.  We have mud!  And though there aren’t as many as usual, I now hear the happy sound of field crickets.

Sing on!

(photo of an adult male field cricket by Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org)