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During this week’s BYGL Zoom Inservice, Beth Scheckelhoff (OSU Extension Putnam County) showed pictures of Sunflower Headclipping Weevil females initiating the slow decapitation of purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea, family Asteraceae) in a mass planting on the OSU Ag campus. Reports of this weevil on coneflowers in Ohio have become an annual event.

Common bagworms have been with us for a while. Overwintered bagworm eggs began hatching in southwest Ohio at the end of May (see “Bagworm Eggs are Hatching: The Game’s Afoot!,” June 1, 2022). However, it’s amazing how long these general defoliators can continue to crawl below our radar as they chomp on evergreens and deciduous trees and shrubs before their cumulative damage and size finally make them apparent.

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This is the time of the season when the characteristic chlorotic leaf spot damage (= stippling) from Lace Bugs (order Hemiptera; family Tingidae) that feed on deciduous woody ornamentals as well as a few herbaceous perennials becomes very evident. These small plant-sucking insects are so named because of the lace-like pattern of the veins and membranes in their wings which are held flat over their body.

Newly emerged insects are often ghostly in color, having reduced or absent pigment. This change in the recognizable color may confuse budding entomologist who have never caught an insect mid-molt before, and is why we're here discussing MOLTING today!

What's buzzing and blooming in your garden this week? Take a stroll through your vegetable garden and see if you can pick out the female and male cucurbit flowers.

Infestations of Spotted Lanternfly in Cuyahoga, Lorain, and Jefferson Counties have been Scouted and Treated for Spotted Lanternfly. This invasive insect has been hitchhiking on trains coming from Pennsylvania. So why trap on an island in the middle of Lake Erie? One word…..Campers.

Beth Scheckelhoff (OSU Extension Putnam County) reported she observed large numbers of Green June Beetles (Cotinis nitida, family Scarabaeidae) buzz-bombing the OSU Ag campus yesterday. The behavior of the adults and larvae (grubs) of this North American native makes this beetle a legitimate summer oddity.

During this week’s Tuesday morning BYGL Zoom Inservice, Curtis Young (OSU Extension, Van Wirt County) reported that he heard the first Annual Cicadas (family Cicadidae) this season singing in northwest Ohio over the 4th of July Weekend.  Likewise, I heard my first cicadas in the southwest part of the state this past Friday.

 

Annual cicadas share several behavioral traits with their periodical cicada (Magicicada spp.) cousins.  The nymphs of both types of cicadas develop...