Author Archives: p-porter
Mosquito and bed bug webinars
If you’ve never participated in a webinar (seminar on the Web), two good opportunities are coming up shortly. This Friday, June 7, the Don’t Bug Me Webinar Series is hosting Dr. Dini Miller to explain how to get rid of bed bugs. Dini, an entomology professor at Virginia Tech University, is one of the top field researchers with bed bugs. She’s always entertaining, so this opportunity is not to be missed if you have an interest in bed bugs. If you miss the program, the Webinar Series homepage… Read More →
New pest of lilies in Texas
While on a garden tour in Tyler, TX this week, Smith County Horticulture Agent Keith Hansen was alerted to a new pest of lilies in town. Some visiting Louisiana scientists pointed out signs of the daylily leafminer, Ophiomyia kwansonis, on daylilies in the Tyler Rose Garden. This new invasive leafminer fly was first confirmed in 2011 from Apopka, Florida during a nursery inspection, though daylily growers and collectors were aware of unusual leafminer damage since at least 2008, and the first possible picture of it was reported from… Read More →
Honey bees at center of controversy
What could present a more peaceful, bucolic image than the scene of beekeepers tending their bee hives? Beekeepers are traditionally seen as the gentlest of agriculturalists, not killing for food but merely reaping the labor of an industrious insect in exchange for nurture and protection. Yet there is little peaceful about the verbal and political battle swirling about beekeepers and honey bees at the moment. You may have seen the headlines in recent years proclaiming the doom of the honey bee. The domestic bee industry in the U.S…. Read More →
Pollinator Garden to open in Lewisville
Got the gardening blahs? Need some fresh inspiration? Consider a visit to the new pollinator garden at the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area (LLELA). This Saturday will be the grand opening, beginning at 9:30 am. I will be one of the speakers, sharing what I know about insect pollinators. But Ken Stiegman, LLELA director will also be there giving a butterfly walk and Rosemary Carrizales, volunteer coordinator for the garden will answer questions about planting your own pollinator garden. The garden, of course, is open all the time,… Read More →
Monarch tracking by cell phone
By all accounts, this is not turning out to be a great year for monarch butterflies. The NY Times reports the smallest overwintering populations in Mexico in at least two decades, and the cold spring weather is not helping matters. An interesting animated map is available through the group Journey North showing how this year’s migration compares to the last few years’ migrations. This kind of data is made possible through ordinary people with cell phone apps that allow anyone to report a monarch butterfly sighting. GPS based… Read More →
It must bee spring
Despite a winter that just won’t seem to let go, spring is definitely here. I know this because the honey bees are swarming, and local callers are reaching out to Extension offices for help coping with the sudden bee invasion. According to Shelly Spearman of the Rockwall County Extension office, her office is getting one to two calls a day about bees. “We’re getting a lot of calls about bees hanging out in trees,” she said. So why are bee mobs suddenly invading our trees and landscapes? And… Read More →
An odd “pest”
Even when not an insect, if an object is small and mysterious, it will often be called a “bug” and end up on the desk of an entomologist. Such was the case with a specimens I received last week. They were described by a pest management professional as “tiny bugs” that appeared on the south side of a customer’s house every year. No mulch or trees or shrubs were reported nearby. I thought at first that these tiny (1.3 mm length) objects might be spores from the artillery… Read More →
Good grooming makes good pest control
Thanks to Wizzie Brown for alerting me to the recent, very cool video on cockroaches by NPR’s Science Friday. Like cats that lick their feet and fur, cockroaches continually groom their feet and antennae. I’ve watched cockroaches groom themselves, but never in magnified HD with a lucid narration by North Carolina State University entomologist Coby Schal. Dr. Schal reports on recent research by his laboratory to answer the question about why cockroaches groom, and he’s well worth listening to. One thing the video does not mention is that… Read More →
What’s the most dangerous insect?
Ask people what the most dangerous insect or spider and you’re likely to get a variety of answers. Brown recluse spider…ANY spider, bees, scorpions, hornets, ticks, army ants… the list goes on. But few entomologists or medical experts would likely dispute that the tiny mosquito is probably the most dangerous arthropod on the planet. To underscore this with just one of many mosquito-borne diseases, the World Health Organization has declared April 25th World Malaria Day. While no one can fully know the historical impact of malaria, the incomplete… Read More →
Mosquitoes to make first showing of 2013
Spring rains and warmer weather usually spell mosquitoes. To prove this to myself, I’ve been watching my backyard fountain slowly fill with recent rains, leaves and catkins from nearby oak trees. Last week I was rewarded(!?) with my first mosquito wigglers. “Wiggler” and “tumbler” are informal terms for the larval and pupal (immature) life stages of mosquitoes. Mosquito wigglers live in water, and as soon as temperatures get warm enough to drive their development, they quickly mature and emerge from pools and containers wherever they may be found…. Read More →
