Howdy, BugFans, 2025 – almost two decades ago, when the BugLady was working on a phenology project in the Bog, she encountered multitudes of mosquitoes and she made a deal with them – she wouldn’t bite them if they wouldn’t bite …
Note: All links leave to external sites. Greetings, BugFans, The dragonfly season is starting – migrant Common Green Darners and Variegated Meadowhawks are filtering into the state, and visions of sugarplums (in the form of Chalk-fronted Corporals, Baskettails, and Eastern Forktails) …
Howdy, BugFans, It’s the last post of June and the final “do-it-yourself” BOTW for a while. Here are some stories about some of the seamier aspects of bugs. OK – this is like watching a train wreck. Enjoy the video …
The goldenrods in the BugLady’s field are exuberant, with new, brilliant yellow flowers opening daily. Goldenrod blooms late, produces a bonanza of pollen (there’s not much nectar there), and is the embodiment of the insect enthusiast’s credo—“Looking for insects? Check the flowers.”
If the first rule of looking for insects is “check the flowers,” then wild geraniums(Geranium maculatum) are the flower to watch right now. Insects perceive UV light differently than we do, and the transparent veins that lead them across the petals to the payload at the center of the flower (they’re called “nectar guides”) are far more conspicuous to them.
There are a lot of mosquitoes—about 3,500 species worldwide, 150 in North America, and 50 in Wisconsin. Their eggs develop in wetlands but also in birdbaths, puddles, pails, flower pots, old tires, and the dog’s outside water dish. Some mosquitoes include humans on their list of possible donors; others restrict themselves to birds, reptiles, amphibians, or non-human mammals.
