Category Archives: News
Time for repellents
Yesterday the Texas Department of State Health Services announced the first 2015 case of West Nile virus in Texas. Coincidentally, Dallas County Health and Human Services issued a health advisory reported the first positive mosquito pool of the year was collected Wednesday. And to add insult to injury, this week my wife and I both got our first chigger bites of the year. All of this is a good reminder that summer is around the corner, and that insect repellent is our best defense against the less savory… Read More →
Wild about insect photography
Last week renowned insect photographer Alex Wild gave a webinar (web delivered speech) on insect photography for Entomological Society of America members. Anyone interested in insect or macrophotography stands to get a lot out of this hour-long video. If you’re thinking I don’t have a good enough camera to get into insect photography, the talk focuses on five principles that will help anyone with any digital camera, including a cell phone. The principles include: Keep it simple Consider the light The Center’s not the Center Tell a Story… Read More →
Kern’s flower scarab
I’ve received several reports this week from worried gardeners concerning an attractive (yes, bugs can be pretty!) beetle feeding in flowers. The Kern’s flower scarab, Euphoria kernii, is a medium-sized (8-11 mm-long) beetle reported to feed on pollen of a number of different species of flowers ranging from roses to irises to certain grasses. Coloration and markings of this beetle is also variable, ranging from all black to nearly all yellow with black markings. There are several species of Euphoria found in Texas, but the one that seems to… Read More →
Tent caterpillars without the tent
Forest tent caterpillars are one of the most widespread and abundant of the tent-making caterpillars. Like their close cousins the eastern tent caterpillars, forest tent caterpillars feed primarily on trees; but unlike their cousins, and the common fall webworm, the forest tent caterpillar doesn’t make an actual tent. Instead the caterpillars aggregate between feedings on a silken mat which they spin on some area of the trunk or on large branches of the host tree. Forest tent caterpillars are relatively easy to recognize. Besides their distinctive aggregation behavior, caterpillars can be… Read More →
Cankerworm caterpillars hit Texas trees
This week I’m receiving reports about spring cankerworm infestations in counties west of the Fort Worth, Texas area. Spring cankerworms (actually caterpillars, not worms) feed on a wide range of trees, and can defoliate trees in early spring. Although cankerworms are present in low numbers every year, periodically conditions are right for widespread outbreaks. The last time I remember this happening in the Dallas area was about 11 years ago. If the reports are correct, this might be another “year of the cankerworm”–at least in some Texas counties. And… Read More →
For Monarchs not all milkweeds are equal
Graceful and beautiful at the same time, the sight of a Monarch butterfly never fails to lift my heart. In Texas, Monarchs are harbingers of both spring and fall. In the spring, Monarchs are seen traveling north to exploit the emerging crop of milkweed plants favored by their caterpillars. In the fall, Texas serves as a flyway for southward migrating butterflies, as most of the U.S. eastern population of Monarchs heads toward their overwintering habitat in Michoacan State, in the Sierra Madre mountains west of Mexico City. In recent years, however,… Read More →
Borer gets a little closer
What’s shiny and Godzilla green, easily fits on a penny, and has resulted in the death of tens of millions of trees over the past dozen years? If you’ve been paying attention to this blog, you might guess the emerald ash borer (EAB). Over the past few years my colleagues and I have been involved with a monitoring project designed to detect the first EAB entering north Texas. During this time I’ve watched the beetles inch closer to Texas–moving from its initial point of invasion in Michigan throughout the Ohio River valley and… Read More →
Getting cities ready for mosquito season
After the horrible year for West Nile virus in 2012, many Texas cities woke up to the need to devote more people and health department resources to mosquito management. To assist cities in training employees in the area of mosquito abatement, Dr. Sonja Swiger with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension has begun offering workshops covering the basics of mosquito identification, biology and control. This year we will have workshops in nine cities, including Dallas. Dates and links to brochures and registration information are listed below. If you work… Read More →
Save the date for Ento-Specialist Training
If you’re a Master Gardener or Master Naturalist with a fascination with insects, you may want to save the date for the 2015 Master Volunteer Entomology Specialist (MVES) Training. This year’s training will be held in Conroe, Texas at the Montgomery County Extension Office, and will be organized by Harris County IPM Extension Agent, Dr. Paul Nester. Entomology Extension Specialist training was first offered in 2003 and has run most years since. The training is designed to provide an in-depth exposure to the world of insects. No, this doesn’t mean… Read More →
Losing a good friend
Pardon me for this personal note, but many of you from Texas who read this blog knew Dr. Jim McAfee, retired turfgrass specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife. Jim passed away Saturday morning, Jan 31, in Richardson, TX. Dr. McAfee was a great friend to many, and a great teacher and mentor for anyone interested in turfgrass and weed management. Jim retired in 2013, but his career spanned four decades of service to the Texas A&M University System. He also worked for TrueGreen/ChemLawn in both Texas and Georgia. If you… Read More →
