Last night felt like an invasion. Like that horror movie, The Birds. The house was under attack by June Bugs, an army of outsiders trying to get in. It was precarious opening a door. When the pups had to pee I went to the front line to swipe them away from the porch floor to avoid stepping on them. I hate to kill things and the crunch is sickening, sending shivers up and down my spine so I practice prevention to try to spare them. They were hanging from the screen on the door, dozens of them, others are buzzing about my head and I’m ducking these lively brown ping pong balls so they don’t get in my hair. Their legs are barbed so if they land on the head they get tangled. It’s like a mad circus trapeze; they fly this way and that and crash into me and stick to my clothes. I am so worried one will land on one of my pups and scare the wits out of them, traumatizing them for life, making it difficult to go outside and pee.
They seem worse than last year, well maybe worse isn’t the right word, it’s not like they’re some sort of scourge, they don’t hurt us, but they do seem greater in numbers. In previous years I don’t recall fretting to go outside as much. I’ve never had to turn up the radio to drown out their bodies beating against the windows as hundreds take shot after shot at the panes to get inside. The pups hear the noise and think we are under attack and bark endlessly so I turn up the volume to drown them out, the bugs that is, not the dogs.
They cover the back deck chairs and cushions and target the porch lights so I switch them off but then they focus on the lights inside the house and beat themselves silly against the windows. So many of them, thousands clinging to and buzzing around outside of the house but then in the morning, like vampires they are all gone, hiding under the deck, in dark places, under the soil, waiting once again for the night.
Always curious, I Googled ‘June Bug’ to help understand their manic attraction to lights but there was no explanation. But they do say that late May and early June is mating season, they have only weeks to reproduce and then die, so that might explain their frantic actions.
June Bugs spend most of their lives underground. The white grub-like larva lives in soil for up to three years. They love nice green lawns, and thousands of them are gnawing on the roots of your grass right now.
The adult bug has an extra set of wings, but they can’t fly worth a darn, only one of the pairs provides what scientists call lift. Given their manic attraction to light, June bugs quickly exhaust themselves and collapse belly up in the yard. Bugs that crash to the ground become an important source of food for birds and mammals, including crows, blue jays and raccoons.
June bugs are members of the vast and diverse group of insects we call beetles. They have been around for 230 million years, longer than the dinosaurs. They are prolific; one in four of all animals now living is a beetle.
After mating, females dig a few inches into the soil and deposit their eggs. The grubs live underground for 1-4 years, feeding on plant roots and descending much lower into the soil in the winter. When fully grown, in late spring, the larvae pupate for a few weeks, within a small cavity in the soil. They emerge as adults but stay underground for another year until the following spring, when they crawl to the surface to fly, mate and lay eggs. And the cycle begins again.
They seem worse than last year, well maybe worse isn’t the right word, it’s not like they’re some sort of scourge, they don’t hurt us, but they do seem greater in numbers. In previous years I don’t recall fretting to go outside as much. I’ve never had to turn up the radio to drown out their bodies beating against the windows as hundreds take shot after shot at the panes to get inside. The pups hear the noise and think we are under attack and bark endlessly so I turn up the volume to drown them out, the bugs that is, not the dogs.
They cover the back deck chairs and cushions and target the porch lights so I switch them off but then they focus on the lights inside the house and beat themselves silly against the windows. So many of them, thousands clinging to and buzzing around outside of the house but then in the morning, like vampires they are all gone, hiding under the deck, in dark places, under the soil, waiting once again for the night.
Always curious, I Googled ‘June Bug’ to help understand their manic attraction to lights but there was no explanation. But they do say that late May and early June is mating season, they have only weeks to reproduce and then die, so that might explain their frantic actions.
June Bugs spend most of their lives underground. The white grub-like larva lives in soil for up to three years. They love nice green lawns, and thousands of them are gnawing on the roots of your grass right now.
The adult bug has an extra set of wings, but they can’t fly worth a darn, only one of the pairs provides what scientists call lift. Given their manic attraction to light, June bugs quickly exhaust themselves and collapse belly up in the yard. Bugs that crash to the ground become an important source of food for birds and mammals, including crows, blue jays and raccoons.
June bugs are members of the vast and diverse group of insects we call beetles. They have been around for 230 million years, longer than the dinosaurs. They are prolific; one in four of all animals now living is a beetle.
After mating, females dig a few inches into the soil and deposit their eggs. The grubs live underground for 1-4 years, feeding on plant roots and descending much lower into the soil in the winter. When fully grown, in late spring, the larvae pupate for a few weeks, within a small cavity in the soil. They emerge as adults but stay underground for another year until the following spring, when they crawl to the surface to fly, mate and lay eggs. And the cycle begins again.
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