Comments for Insects in the City

Comment on Start vegetable pest control early by Indoor Herb Garden

Indoor Herb Garden — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:02:45 +0000

One of the benefits of having an Indoor Herb Garden is not having to deal with pests or other insects that destroy your garden. I would highly recommend using an Indoor Herb Garden. Thanks for the post….

Comment on Ants by Licy

Licy — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:15:09 +0000

Wow, I thought that all ants are the same, lol add me on Facebook for a chat about ants

Comment on Bed bugs: Do-it-yourself control options by Jason

Jason — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:46:10 +0000

Thanks for publishing this article Michael. Without a doubt, bed bug extermination can be very expensive, and some peple just don’t have the money to spend on getting rid of their pests. I can confirm that, while these methods won’t always work, they can be a great way for someone to try to control their costs. If someone tries these methods and is then unsuccessful, then they should consider hiring a pest control company.

Comment on Oak gall midges by m-merchant

m-merchant — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:01:37 +0000

Stephanie, no. Midges are midges, a type of fly. Ants are ants. The two problems are unrelated, though they could occur year after year concurrently if these two species are keying in on similar environmental clues for their activities.

Comment on Oak gall midges by Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:00:41 +0000

We have something like this happening with our oak tree. Do these midges grow into tiny ants? Every spring for 5 years now, we have had a problem with these falling on our car, then about a week or so later, tiny little ants (at least what looks like ants) are crawling by the hundreds all over inside the car.

Comment on Bugguide.net innovator profiled by m-merchant

m-merchant — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:09:38 +0000

Thanks for the correction Beatriz. And apologies to Troy Bartlett. I’ve changed the title of this post appropriately.

Comment on Bugguide.net innovator profiled by Beatriz Moisset

Beatriz Moisset — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:45:35 +0000

“Bugguide.net inventor profiled”. Not so, the creator of Bugguide was Troy Bartlett, not John VanDyk.
John deserves a lot of credit but he did not invent Bugguide. So, please, give credit for that to the true inventor of Bugguide: Troy Bartlett (http://bugguide.net/user/view/7)

Comment on Natural poses of moths by Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:57:25 +0000

Great post, I hadn’t thought about how field guides could be misleading. I guess that’s part of the identifying intrigue, comparing a flat (pinned) specimen to a moving, three dimensional creature. Ro Wauer, butterfly specialist and former NPS director, spoke at the Brazos County Master Gardener program last night, and gave us some good insights into identifying Lepidoptera.

Comment on Bugguide.net innovator profiled by Michael Merchant

Michael Merchant — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:00:56 +0000

Just a little more information about BugGuide. BugGuide has become a significant source of authoritative information about insects and spiders on the Internet. BugGuide.net had over 809 million hits in 2010, about 26 hits a second. There are currently about 384,000 images in the guide and almost 34,000 written pages. This represents about 23 percent of the estimated insect species in North America." Click here for more info.

Comment on Ah, for the midgy days of summer by m-merchant

m-merchant — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:55:44 +0000

Cynthia, Bti is selective for dipterous insects–that is for flies. It doesn’t appear to have any effects on fish, including young, nor on dragonflies. The only aquatic insects it could affect would be other species of flies (Diptera). I can’t say for sure whether or not the monomolecular film might have an effect on other aquatic insects like mayflies or dragonflies, but I suspect not. The polymer film should not affect fish.