Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, For years, BugFan Tom has sent pictures from the Deep South of Black widow spiders that he encounters while conducting research in southern thickets in the dead of night. Thanks for… Read More

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, As usual, the BugLady’s “Bugs in the News” folder runneth over, so here’s a collection of articles to chew on. Many come from the wonderful Smithsonian Daily Newsletter, which not only… Read More

Note: Some links leave to external sites. Greetings of the Season, BugFans, Wow! The 10th annual installment of The Twelve (or Thirteen) Bugs of Christmas! The Bugs of Christmas features shots, taken throughout the year, of insects and spiders who… Read More

Note: All links leave to external sites. Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady has written several times about the big orb weaving spiders that either delight or alarm people in the waning days of summer. Because there may be several hundred eggs… Read More

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, From July into September, the Creeping Juniper Nature Trail at Kohler Andrae State Park is ruled by grasshoppers, and the BugLady had lots of fun chasing them around this summer (she… Read More

Note: Some links below go to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, The general rule of thumb is that if you want to find insects, look at flowers. Even though summer is fading, there are still flowers in bloom. Some Liatris/blazing stars… Read More

(Note: All links below are to external websites and leave the UWM website.) Howdy, BugFans, While we’ve been quietly going about our business during this way-too-long pandemic (you know things are bad when you fantasize about going to a board… Read More

May is American wetlands month, so we’ll end it in the swamp, in the company of Marsh Marigolds, the flowers that turn newly thawed wetlands a riotous yellow from the last days of April through much of May. Skunk cabbage and pussy willows may whisper the arrival of spring, but marsh marigolds crank up the volume. The BugLady should have started this project two weeks ago when the marsh marigold was at its peak, but the truth is that despite the masses of flowers it produces, she seldom sees many insects on it, and the ones she sees are as likely to be resting as dining.

The BugLady likes spiders, and she can even hail a number of species by name when she meets them, but she’s never applied herself to their taxonomy, and she jokes that maybe she shouldn’t be identifying them all by herself (to which BugFan Mike graciously replied that maybe nobody should be).