Maybe I’m slower than others in my neighborhood, but I finally saw lightning bugs this week. Thousands and thousands of them.  When one accidentally gets in the house - unlike flies, mosquitoes, crane flies, or other bugs - I don’t swat them.  I try to catch and release these winged wonders.  I think they’re beautiful.  But my cat thinks they’re delicious.

Here’s what Aunt B. said about lightning bugs,

Last night, we sat out in the hammocks, catching up, and watching the lightning bugs. I’m still not convinced, completely, that they are lightning bugs. Their lights stayed on for too long and none of them seemed too interested in each other.

But in the end of her post she talks about the loss of a teenaged son of a friend.  Had it not been for the Internet, I would’ve never heard about it.  Instead, we’re connected and share somehow the Mom’s grief across the nation.

I hope a summer night watching lightning bugs will somehow someday someway help bring some peace to his mother.

Photo by DaveDeHetre via flickr creative commons.

The disappearance of  the honeybee population continues to BEE a problem and no real solution is immediate in addressing the problem.  According to Discovery.com, there may be more than one reason the bees keep dying,

We obviously think it’s more complicated than we first believed as in we don’t believe that we’re looking for a single virulent pathogen, although that can’t totally be ruled out. At first we were thinking that we’d find a single causative agent, a virulent pathogen sweeping through the bee population, and that doesn’t appear to be the case.

If these kinds of bees are of the honey nature, the population seems alive and well in spring tree,

When I heard a peculiar buzzing noise the other day, I looked up and saw there were hundreds in the tree.  I left quickly because 1) I’m a chicken, and 2) I was scared.  But the bee in my pink tree photo looks a lot like the honeybee in the article.

What do you think?

I just love TheoGeo and her new house (and now new lawn).  She shares a love letter to her lawn with us,

I sat on the porch and I watched. Red wasps and bumblebees were inspecting the flowering weeds. It took me a minute to stop freaking out about them flying around me, because I am insane. I tried to be all zen about it and not go fetch the Raid. My assumption is — always — that winged stinger-equipped beasts ALWAYS want to sting me, even if it means certain death for them. But I decided to just sit still, even when a hornet buzzed past my head. I cussed at it and then felt silly, like some paranoid Gulliver who thinks he’s under attack by a sprawling tiny army, but actually isn’t.

Magnificent!

Her photo via flickr creative commons.

It’s that time of year in the South where temperatures are beginning to fall.  At night, we are just kissing freezing - with frost warnings aplenty.  Along with these cooler temperatures is the bug phenomenon.  These little creatures do not like the cold any more than we do, so they’re moving from your yard to where it’s warm - YOUR HOUSE.

I’ve seen an abundance of black beetles this year and I don’t like them one bit.  We’ve also been invaded by lady bugs.  So far - at least at my house - we haven’t seen any brown recluse spiders.  But my friend has and her doctor confirmed it this morning.  She’s been bitten.

Photo after the jump (look out, it’s not pretty and not for the faint).

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I had never seen a black widow until we moved to our “country’ish” house that sits on 1.5 acres.  There’s a tree right in the middle of the yard and when my husband was cleaning up all the baby trees under it, he found one of those little Momma’s with the red hour-glass on her belly.  He put her in a jar and about 452 baby spiders hatched two weeks later.  Just the thought of those little monsters still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Bill Bird over at Sacramento Vegetable Gardening doesn’t much like them either,

The Black Widow spider is something to be feared — despised and eliminated. I’m not sure why I feel that way. I’m fortunate in that I’ve never been bitten by one. I know people who have — everyone does. But it’s a gardening experience that I do not want to share at this time thank you. If you didn’t notice — the Year of 2009 was a pretty big one for Black Widow Spiders.

I suppose even black widow spiders offer some sort of benefit in nature.  But if I see a black widow, I’m going to stomp it just like Bill.

Photo by ewen & donabel’s photo stream via Flickr Creative Commons.

I found this really cool blog written by a 40-something year old would-be farmer. He had an awesome post dedicated to the beauty of certain insects.

Evidently, Steven was hoping to get some pics of the butterflies but wound up photographing this Mantis…..

"I discovered this beautiful Mantis. It’s about five inches long and it
picked a pretty good spot to hunt since the Sedum is swarming with
bees, butterflies and other insects."

I just love this time of year. My kids and I have seen several of these Mantis like bugs around lately and they are so fun to watch and be amazed at how they blend it with various plant life.

Now that the weather is cooler where I live, it is actually enjoyable to be outdoors and not sweat to death. The evenings have become brisk and we watch as nature takes it turn toward the winter season. Just beautiful.

by kristen munson

When I lived in Oregon, Yellow Jackets were a huge problem in the summer. You almost could not eat outside for fear of biting into one that was enjoying your own hamburger. Back then, our friend, Norbert, would set out his own personal bee catchers made out of a glass jars. He would fill it with orange juice and those bees just loved it! I’m not sure how they got in but I know they could not get out!

Fly and Bee catchers have come a long way compared to the homemade contraptions and hardware store set ups of only a few years ago.

Smith & Hawken has come out with what I think is a stylish outdoor Fly & Wasp Catcher that hangs from the branch of a tree and just looks good. Imagine the reflection of the moonlight off these glass jars every evening while flies and bees struggle to get out. Ahhhhh…. the relaxing days of summer.

via Apartment Therapy

It sounds like a horror movie and believe me, if you’ve ever seen a Cicada, they look like creatures from a horror movie!

First let me say, that I love living in the Midwest. We have some of the most fierce and phenomenal thunderstorms ever recorded and I love them. The power, the danger, the extreme nature of tornadic weather gets me all excited. But when it comes to bugs…well let’s just say…this season, I may need to increase my dosage due to the fact that billions of these horrific creatures are getting ready to emerge in the Midwest after a long 17 year nap. 

Frankly, I wish they would just stay sleeping, but Cicada Brood XIII is expected across northern Illinois, parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana from now until mid-June. They only live for about 30 days as adults and their main goal is to mate. They don’t harm people in any way but are clumsy and disgustingly ugly. Birds, squirrels, and pets love to eat them and they are quite high in protein. And if you want to know what they taste like just check out freelance writer, David Hammond’s website, a Chicago-based culinary chat site. Hammond is planning on frying the little buggers and serving them up with salsa and/or dip. OK, that is just gross. 

If you haven’t heard, they are very noisy creatures. Their shrill mating noise can reach 90 decibels which is equal to the sound of a kitchen blender. Apparently, some wooded areas may expect to house as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre and some experts agree that this is one of the greatest insect emergences on Earth.

Over the next 6 weeks, you may want to rethink any outdoor events such as weddings, fairs and festivals if you live in any of the areas mentioned because as soon as the soil temps reach a consistent 64 to 65 degrees these bugs will emerge. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, back in 1990, an ice sculpture company had delivered a swan sculpture to a wedding and as soon as the ice sculpture was set down the cicadas swarmed it. Nadeau Ice Sculpture owner, Jim Nadeau said, "Literally, it was a moving sculpture".
The best place to see and hear the cicadas will be forest preserves, golf courses and any land that has older trees where the soil has been undisturbed since 1990. Unfortunately for me, I live on 3 acres next to a wildlife preserve so I am thinking that a vacation in Aruba sounds good right about now. What do you think?