I met Cindy Meyer at her OSU Extension, Butler County, office yesterday to take pictures of a bloodsucking conenose (Triatoma sanguisuga) that had been collected by a concerned homeowner.  This is the second time I've taken pictures of this "kissing bug" species in Ohio.  The first time was in 2010 when I found a specimen crawling on the outside of my home in Butler County.  According to a paper published in the Ohio Journal of Science in 1960 titled, "Arthropods of Medical Importance in Ohio," the bloodsucking conenose is found in southern Ohio.  So, finding the...

A mystery that has bedeviled me for several years was finally solved this past Monday thanks to participants in the Southwest Ohio BYGLive! Diagnostic Walk-About and my Walk-About partner, Julie Crook.  As I reported in my July 1, 2016, BYGL Alert! (Coneflower Calamities:  Round 1), Sunflower Head-Clipping Weevil (Haplorhynchites aeneus) females clip the flowers of coneflowers as well as members of the Silphium genus.  Indeed, the weevil is sometimes called the "Silphium weevil" owing to its strong association with plants in this genus.

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One of the challenges of plant problem diagnostics is that Nature is sometimes less tidy than we might wish. Pests do not confine their damage to plants one at a time, and also the different stages of an insect may cause different types of damage (symptoms).  Oak shothole leafminer (Agromyza viridula) adult flies damage oak leaf buds with their ovipositors. The holes from this damage expand as the leaf expands, causing the characteristically parallel holes on either side of the unfolding leaf.  Later larvae of this insect cause leaf-mining damage shown as browned areas in the...

While spending some time earlier this week at Sharon Woods Metro Park, one of the Columbus and Franklin County's Metro Parks, I had the opportunity to capture some shots of a downy woodpecker flittering about in an small alder tree. I was playing around with a new camera and was 'zoomed' in rather far when as I took the pictures. It wasn't until I returned to the office that I realized the downy woodpecker was doing much more than 'flittering about". It was actually feasting on woolly alder aphids!

 

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March through September is the active time for bats in Ohio.  Ohio’s 11 species spend their summer hours like every other species in Ohio – feeding and reproducing.  There is no question Ohioans benefit from the feeding of bats – a single bat can consume over 1000 mosquito-sized insects in one night. 

The reproduction side of things however, can sometimes cause an issue…especially if the result is a colony of bats in the home.  Two Ohio bat species will commonly share living space with humans; the little brown bat and the big brown bat.  The females of both of these species form...

My wife and I live in the country in Wayne County in northeast Ohio, and enjoy the sights and sounds of wild-life.  Coyotes provide their weird series of moans, whistles, yips, and howls – truly cool.  Equally cool we have a turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) hen and two poults that waltz through our yard periodically this summer. This is much to our delight, except for areas of the lawn (such as it is with our dry period this summer) that they ruffle up, presumably in their omnivorous belief that “We Have The Meat” (insects and millipedes) and vegetables (acorns, roots, almost...

Annual dog-day cicadas (Tibicen spp.; family Cicadidae) are emerging in southwest Ohio.  Like periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.; family Cicadidae), these cicadas also develop underground with the nymphs sucking juices from tree roots.  However, periodical cicadas require 13 or 17 years to complete their development with adults emerging en masse in the spring, usually beginning around mid-to-late May and ending in June.  Indeed, eastern Ohio, parts of West Virginia, and the extreme southwest part of Pennsylvania experienced the emergence of Brood V 17-year periodical...

This past Friday, I observed heavy damage on black locust caused by the locust leafminer beetle (Odontota dorsalis) along State Rt. 50 in Ross and Vinton Counties.  The captivating reddish-brown leaf coloration caused by this beetle is often a familiar sight to travelers motoring on Ohio's interstate highways.  Indeed, black locust may be identified at highway speeds because they are the "flamed" trees in the tree lines bordering the highway.

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I received a report over the weekend of Green June Beetles (Cotinus nitida) (GJB) buzzing a wedding in a park in southwest Ohio.  These large, metallic green beetles tend to emerge en masse.  Their large size, coupled with an audible "buzzing" sound, and low-level flight plan (cruising at about 2-3'), may induce panic with individuals unfamiliar with this insect.

Round 1 of the Periodical Cicada:

The emergence of Brood V of the 17-year periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) lived up to all expectations within the "cicada zone" in eastern Ohio, parts of West Virginia, and a very small part of southwest Pennsylvania.  Adults emerged in huge numbers, they climbed trees or flew to new trees, males serenaded cicada females with cacophonous songs only appreciated by the females, and mated females inserted eggs into stems.  The cicada adults are now dead and gone.

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