Male mason bees are the first to emerge each spring and as females make their appearance, the mating game begins!
Now that’s a lot of pollen!
After a somewhat dreary and rather chilly end of winter, the ides of March arrived with temperatures in the 60s and 70s here in the DMV. As in years past, this triggered the emergence of this season’s vanguard of mason bees, awakened from their winter slumber just in time for the first day of spring. Several years ago, I established a colony of mason bees by purchasing about 30 hollow cardboard tubes from a purveyor of bee paraphernalia. These tubes were rapidly colonized by grateful hordes of bees and now the colony occupying my car port numbers in the hundreds. Mason bees are solitary bees, meaning they lack the well-known social structure of honeybees where a queen mother rules the colony. In the world of my mason bees, every female is a queen tasked with providing food for her own daughters and sons. Although each female is solely responsible for raising her own young, they are gregarious and will happily live in close proximity to one another, sometimes establishing colonies of hundreds of bees each with her individual nest.
Watch as a male horned-face mason bee emerges from his bee-tube-nursery and takes his first steps into the sunlight. Next on the agenda, find a mate.
Mason bees fill each tube with glorious yellow pollen cakes, food for their developing offspring.
The food each female provides consists of pollen cakes, nutritious balls of pollen and nectar gathered from Mother Nature’s first blossoms of spring. Mason bees provide the valuable ecosystem service of pollination. High on their list of favored plants are some of my favorites as well, apples, cherries, and blueberries. In a fascinating study, Drs. MacIvor, Cabral, and Packer found that in addition to insect pollinated plants, some Canadian mason bees collected significant pollen from wind-pollinated trees including oaks and birches, and the ubiquitous lawn weed, white clover.
This is what my carport looks like on springtime mornings when mason bees are busy collecting pollen.
Mason bees are remarkably energetic during daylight hours but I was curious to see what they did at night. Who wouldn’t be? One way to find out, grab a flashlight and have a look. In the middle of the night, mason bees rest near the entrance to their brood chamber. Their abdomen faces outward and is flexed downward, creating a formidable barrier barring access to the pollen cakes and brood beyond these hard-working mothers. Like many other bees we have met in Bug of the Week, mason bees are gentle and not at all interested in stinging humans. Nesting materials for mason bees can be purchased commercially and I highly recommend creating habitats for these industrious and fascinating pollinators.
At night mason bees rest, rear ends facing outward perhaps to block intruders from entering their galleries. With the morning sun, the colony springs to life with brown horn-faced bees and blue orchard bees shuttling pollen from blossoms to their brood chambers. Check out the mason bee almost dead center at about one minute and thirty seconds in the clip as it enters a brood chamber head first, then performs a 180-degree pirouette, before reentering the chamber rear end first. After unloading pollen, it’s off to collect another load.
References
The interesting article “Pollen specialization by solitary bees in an urban landscape” by J. S. MacIvor, J. M. Cabral, and L. Packer Singer was used as a reference for this episode.
Learn About the Theory That Claims Omicron Variant May Have Originated From Mice or Rats
Scientists theorize that the Omicron variant may have come from a rodent — most likely a rat or mouse.
While SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 has multiple evolutions, the most dominant strain to date is Omicron, leading researchers and epidemiologists around the globe to focus on pinpointing its origins.
Unlike the mutations of other coronavirus strains, those of Omicron are extremely rare in humans, making it odd that the strain is currently the most easily transmissible among people.
In addition to Omicron being rarer in humans than other COVID-19 strains, it also has the most mutations — a total of over 50, many of which have never been seen before in humans by experts.
These facts are leading scientists to believe Omicron couldn’t have started from a people-to-people transmission, but rather by way of a rodent-to-person spread.
Of the existing Omicron mutations, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China in December 2021 confirmed that 45 closely resembled sequences found in a virus common in mice and rats.
Regardless of if the COVID-19 strain evolved in rodents before humans acquired it or not, it’s important to understand the risks wild mice and rats pose to people as well pets and to know when to seek help from professionals who can safely deal with an infestation of the disease-carrying varmints.
Omicron Mutations in Mice: Started with B.1.1
The incredible speed at which Omicron changes and produces new mutations is similar to the evolution of viruses seen in animals infected with COVID-19, especially mice.
According to the study conducted by the experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one of the first Omicron mutations — a point mutation or base variant referred to as B.1.1, may have been transported from a mouse to a person midway through 2020, eventually evolving and spreading to another person by the end of 2021.
Another factor that hints to mice being the primary source of Omicron is that the spike proteins — or proteins responsible for injecting viruses in the cells of its host — in mutations of the COVID-19 strain appear to be very closely related to those inside the cells of infected mice.
Spike proteins of RNA viruses such as coronavirus normally change the RNA sequencing in humans from G to U, yet Omicron’s cause a switch from C to A.
Such alterations are common in rodents, but do not typically occur in people, further suggesting rodents, particularly mice, as the culprits behind Omicron.
In the same study, the senior author Dr. Wenfeng Qian revealed that of the 25 mutations in the Omicron spike proteins in humans, 18 were not found in lab mice, indicating to experts that the strain probably originated from wild mice.
How Rodents Directly & Indirectly Spread Diseases
Rodents can spread diseases to other organisms like wildfire, which makes the pests a threat to public health if they go unchecked in areas inhabited by humans.
Because rats and mice tend to frequent unsanitary places such as dumpsters and sewage systems in order to hide from predators, reproduce, or attain food, the critters tend to pick up viruses as well.
Once infected, rodents can transport the sickness to humans either directly by way of its feces, urine, and saliva or indirectly through parasites — namely fleas and ticks.
Unfortunately, rats and mice are ubiquitous, with cities such as Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut facing higher populations of the pests.
But ultimately, no matter where you are situated rodents can appear and getting an infestation of the disease-spreaders is incredibly challenging for non-professionals to resolve — not to mention dangerous.
Aside from being the potential originators of Omicron, simply coming into contact with rodent excrement can cause pets or people to become infected with Hantavirus, which impacts the pulmonary system, rabies, and salmonella among other RNA viruses.
Although not always deadly, the negative effects of contracting such diseases can be long-lasting, resulting in permanent respiratory issues and nerve damage.
For the inexperienced, confronting a rodent infestation is not just risky but unsafe and oftentimes unsuccessful.
Do-it-yourself methods are generally impermanent solutions, making reinfestation inevitable.
Additionally, without the proper technology, experience, or training, non-professionals put themselves and others in harm’s way.
Should you suspect rodents such as rats or mice on your property, call for a certified pest management technician to design a secure and enduring solution that ensures everyone’s safety.
Contact Catseye Pest Control for Rodent Control & Removal
There are few scenarios as unpleasant as struggling with a rodent infestation and properties with a mouse or rat problem generally require expert help.
By enlisting support from professionals such as those at Catseye Pest Control, homeowners or business owners can feel at ease and assured that their pest issue is in good hands.
As leaders in the pest management industry, our technicians are certified to be rid of rodents on the property by way of our professional Rodent Plus Program.
Effective in protecting residences or buildings against mice, rats, squirrels, and chipmunks, this service uses EPA-regulated, controlled solutions and strategies to eradicate the critters from the area.
And to keep the premises pest-free year-round, clients are encouraged to enroll in our Cat-Guard Exclusion Systems service.
By installing custom-made barriers in all access areas throughout the property, our licensed pest control specialists can reinforce your business, office, or home against disease-transmitting nuisance wildlife for the long-term.
Relieve yourself of unwelcome invaders and recruit the best pest experts in the field by contacting us to schedule a free inspection of your property today.
People ask, “How will I recognize the Jorō spider?” The large web and striking color patterns of this very large spider make it pretty easy to identify. Image credit: Mary Nouri
A fascinating new study by entomologists Andrew Davis and Benjamin Frick at the University of Georgia produced a firestorm of interest in the Jorō spider over the past week or so. Jorō is a native to eastern Asia (Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan). Although it has been known in Georgia since 2013, it is now spreading rapidly in southeastern states to many counties in Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Jorō joined its cousin the golden silk spider, Trichonephila clavipes, which has been in the US for more than a century and now occupies parts of Florida, several other southeastern states, and even rarely makes an appearance as far north as Pennsylvania. The golden silk spider, a native of Central and South America, has remained mostly bottled up in the south likely due to its inability to tolerate cooler temperatures further north. However, the recent study by Davis and Frick found Jorō spiders to have a higher metabolism, supported by a faster heart rate, and a better ability to tolerate freezing temperatures than their warm-loving cousin. These traits combined with more rapid development enable Jorō to complete its life cycle rapidly, before chilly temperatures bring its seasonal development to an end. Davis and Frick suggest that this suite of adaptations may enable Jorō to escape the relative warmth of the south and expand its range northward along the eastern seaboard, whereas the golden silk spider may remain largely trapped in warmer southern states.
While these findings support the potential for a northward range expansion, there is much yet to be learned about how successfully Jorō will survive northern winters. But as our nation and world warm, we have seen several southern species of insects expand their range to higher latitudes and altitudes. We also don’t know how rapidly range expansion will occur. In nature the typical mode of dispersal of many spiders, including Jorō, is by aerial dispersal of spiderlings. They balloon on strands of silk like Charlotte’s babies in the book ‘Charlotte’s Web’. By the way, ballooning likely has given rise to the more spectacular moniker for Jorō, the “parachute spider”. No, they really will not rain down on you from airplanes. Long distance transit by Jorō probably depends on human assistance. Adults and their spawn are good hitchhikers. Jorō may have entered this country as an inseminated and gravid female or as an egg case stowaway in a cargo container from Asia. Their arrival in the DMV is likely to take several years by natural means, but a new introduction at a local port or a human assist in vehicles from the south could accelerate their arrival.
The bite of Jorō will be terrible and painful, right? Nah, according to expert Rick Hoebeke, the risks to humans and pets are small due to the puny size of Jorō’s fangs, which are unlikely to pierce our skin. I have visited Joro’s cousin, the golden silk spider, up close and personal in the rainforest of Costa Rica and found the large females to be completely non-aggressive. These spiders are passive hunters that build enormous webs, larger than a meter in diameter, to capture prey snared by silk.
In the rainforests of Costa Rica and landscapes in the southeastern United States, golden silk spiders build webs exceeding a meter in diameter. Hair tufts on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th pairs of legs distinguish golden silk spiders from Jorō spiders. Watch as a female manipulates the remains of an unrecognizable victim while a male golden silk spider observes from a safe distance.
The underside of the Jorō spider has striking red markings. Image credit: Sarah Morgan
For arachnophobes, Jorō spiders may be scary but for arachnophiles these are beautiful spiders which may provide important ecosystem services, including biological control of crop pests such as brown marmorated stink bugs or spotted lanternflies, with which they have an ancient association in their native range in Asia. Jorō spiders may be like Hannibal Lecter “having an old friend over for dinner” when they meet the stink bug or lanternfly for the first time here in the US. Large spiders like these may also become juicy prey items for feathered and non-feathered reptiles. As with all non-native species that arrive on our shores, it is difficult to predict what impact they will have on our ecosystems but experts suggest that beyond their somewhat scary mien, and maybe giving our indigenous large orb weavers like the black and yellow garden spider a run for their money, any direct impact on humans and pets will be minimal.
One final tidbit about Jorō: in Japanese folklore Jorō is a shapeshifter known as Jorō-gumo. Jorō-gumo turns into a beautiful woman, seduces men, binds them with silk, and devours them. Yikes, sounds like a bad date to me.
Acknowledgements
Bug of the Week thanks Rick Hoebeke for identifying Jorō as it arrived in the US and for providing insights into the ways of these large beautiful spiders. We also thank Mary Nouri and Sarah Morgan for sharing their great images of Jorō. Fascinating studies entitled “Physiological evaluation of newly invasive jorō spiders (Trichonephila clavata) in the southeastern USA compared to their naturalized cousin, Trichonephila clavipes” by Andrew K. Davis and Benjamin L. Frick, “Nephila clavata L Koch, the Jorō Spider of East Asia, newly recorded from North America (Araneae: Nephilidae)” by E. Richard Hoebeke, Wesley Huffmaster, and Byron J Freeman, and “The Life Cycle, Habitat and Variation in Selected Web Parameters in the Spider, Nephila clavipes Koch (Araneidae)” by Clovis W. Moore provided the inspiration for this story and details surrounding the stars of this episode.
Learn About Organic Squirrel Repellents that can Temporarily Stave Off an Infestation
Squirrels can make a mess of any yard, lawn, or garden, but keeping them away is an involved chore.
Whether the furry critters are littering a property with caches or small holes to store food such as nuts, chewing away at the siding or eaves of a home or building, stripping the bark off of trees, or terrorizing bird feeders and flower beds, squirrels are a nuisance that no one wants in their yard.
As a year-round pest, squirrels can be a challenge for any property owner. Dealing with an infestation of the nut-gatherers is not only time-consuming, but also impossible for a non-professional to completely resolve on their own without the help of a certified pest control technician.
Although not a failsafe solution to the problem, inexperienced individuals should rely on safe, natural squirrel repellents to stave off the tree-climbers until experts can arrive.
Odorous Sprays
Squirrels have incredibly powerful noses. Through its olfactory apparatus — the nasal cavities that connect to the brain in order to interpret smells, a squirrel can detect those within its scurry or family.
Homeowners and business owners alike can use this strength against the critters by dousing the property in scents that squirrels hate.
Spices
The ingredients required to concoct a natural squirrel deterrent can be found inside of the typical spice cabinet, including:
Cinnamon: A generous amount of ground cinnamon or cinnamon oil mixed with cayenne extract or peppermint oil and warm water must be applied to affected areas to ward squirrels away. And as elements such as rain can wash away the scent, reapply the perimeters at least once a week or as needed to get the best results.
Garlic: The smell of fresh garlic is abhorrent to squirrels but a downside to using a garlic-based sprays is it fails as a long-standing solution. For those who choose to create an organic squirrel spray made of chopped garlic, pepper and vinegar, be aware that constant reapplication is necessary for it to be effective.
Pepper: From white and black pepper to paprika and jalapenos, squirrels despise this seasoning. To keep squirrels out of a birdfeeder or other parts of a yard, spray the property with a mixture of tabasco sauce and water or sprinkle ground pepper throughout the area. This can also work for crawlspaces and attics, although if applied as a liquid solution, it may discolor hardwood surfaces.
Apple Cider Vinegar: Most homemade squirrel deterrents created from spices tend to also include some amount of the condiment vinegar, but apple cider vinegar alone can dissuade squirrels from infiltrating. It can be sprayed directly onto hard surfaces or applied to old towels which can then be stuffed inside crawlspaces to keep squirrels from nesting there. This is not a good solution for outdoor areas as pure vinegar can harm or kill plants.
For untrained individuals without the expertise or tools to handle infestations of squirrels and other nuisance wildlife, deferring to homemade repellents can help control the problem in the short-term.
But no homemade concoction can compare or produce the long-term results that come with expert pest specialist intervention.
Residents and property owners should always consider calling trained technicians to come up with permanent solutions — ensuring squirrels are eradicated from the area for good.
Laundry Products
If the spice cabinet is empty or an alternative strategy is required, non-experts without the training to be rid of a squirrel infestation on their own can also look to their bathroom or laundry room for deterrents.
Supplies such as dryer sheets, laundry soap, mothballs and even deodorants all have distinct scents to keep squirrels from overstaying their welcome.
Mothballs are particularly detested by squirrels because the material contains naphthalene, which also happens to be the by-product of burning objects.
As a result, squirrels mistake the smell of mothballs for the odor of smoke from a forest fire and are enticed to run away from the scent to avoid danger.
The effectiveness of mothballs and similar products only lasts as long as the odor lingers. Once the scent fades or is lost, the squirrel infestation will most likely reoccur unless a pest control expert intervenes.
Scents of Predators
Squirrels also use the power of smell as an indirect defense mechanism against predators.
A squirrel can pick up the scent of a predator, such as a badger, weasel, coyote, fox, raccoon, or bobcat, and interpret it as a warning to stay away.
Any product with a smell that mimics the odor of animal urine can be weaponized against squirrels.
A popular approach is to sprinkle fox urine granules around the premises to create a natural barrier of the scent.
The downside of this method is that these granules have an incredibly strong and unpleasant odor that permeates throughout the air so anywhere it’s applied becomes virtually uninhabitable.
Herbs & Flowers
Those with a green thumb can pivot their talents towards growing herbs and flowers that keep squirrels at a distance.
Among the list of squirrel-repellent plants are mints like peppermint and spearmint, and rosemary. Conveniently, such herbs can be infused into essential oils as well.
Squirrels are also disrupted by the intense odor of a thiol — the liquid produced from the anal glands of skunks.
Curating a garden or flowerbed around plants that produce a similar scent can shield the rest of the vegetation.
Crown imperials, spider flowers or cleomes, and skunk cabbage all emit a skunk-like odor.
It’s important to note that because squirrels do not hibernate, planting such strong-smelling herbage is not a long-term nor year-round solution.
Sensory Scare Tactics
Scented deterrents are safe bets when fighting off a scurry of squirrels, but other tactics can produce similar results.
A squirrel has sensitive paws and dislikes touching surfaces that are difficult to dig or chew through, so spreading inorganic mulch, gravel, and even coffee grounds on the ground or around a garden can dissuade a squirrel from trespassing.
And much how like a dog can hear frequencies that are inaudible to human ears, squirrels can also detect sounds above the regular frequency range.
This discovery has led scientists to develop efficient ultrasound devices that produce unpleasant sound waves — causing squirrels to run out of hearing range of the device.
As a last resort, visual decoys can sometimes work against the tree-climbing nuisances.
Statues of predatory birds such as owls and hawks may frighten off a handful of squirrels while objects such as baffles can shield birdfeeders and similar structures from the fluffy-tailed critters.
But as with all do-it-yourself tactics, there are limitations to these strategies or may succeed in repelling just a couple of squirrels. If a property is struggling with an infestation, a professional needs to be called.
Cat-Guard Exclusion Systems: The Ultimate Solution Against Squirrels
Squirrels are agile, intelligent, and resilient creatures.
It’s rare that homemade efforts would be enough to deter a scurry let along an infestation of them from settling onto a property.
The most failsafe answer to a squirrel problem is to seek custom-made solutions provided by experienced professionals in the pest management industry, like those created through Catseye’s Cat-Guard Exclusion Systems.
No matter if the nuisances are entering the property by way of overhanging branches, utility lines, poles, or rooftops, Cat-Guard specialists have the means and training to design barriers that are guaranteed to protect.
After performing a free, in-depth inspection of the area, our technicians can then pinpoint all of the vulnerable places where squirrels are getting in and create tailored defenses to bar them from re-entry.
Those enrolled in this program are also entitled to annual inspections, so clients can rest assured their property is pest-free all year round.
Keep Squirrels Out with Catseye Pest Control
If squirrels are terrorizing your property, regain control with help from the best pest management experts in the industry.
Our methods are not only safe and effective but also executed in an environmentally friendly way.
For more information regarding our programs and services or to schedule a free inspection, contact us.
Some good news as western monarch butterflies make a comeback in the winter of 2021-2022.
Last August we recapped some dire news concerning the plight of migratory monarch butterflies, particularly the scary decline of monarchs on the west coast of the US. In 2014, Bug of the Week communed with thousands of western monarchs in Pacific Grove, CA, also known as “Butterfly Town, USA”. Six years later in 2020, the annual winter monarch count in the west plunged from tens of thousands to a shocking 1,914, a decline of more than 99.9% from historic levels. Many believed it might be too late to save the western migratory monarchs. Attempts to have monarchs declared an endangered species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service failed in December of 2020 as resources were needed to focus on “higher-priority listing actions” according to agency officials. In a remarkable and not fully understood turnabout, populations of western monarchs have increased more than 100-fold to almost 250,000 overwintering butterflies reported in the current annual winter monarch census completed in January 2022. This is really encouraging news and Emma Pelton, conservation biologist with the Xerces Society, called the upswing “magnificent”.
In the winter of 2021-2022 the Monarch Sanctuary in Pacific Grove had an encouraging complement of 10,000 overwintering monarchs.
But what is behind this remarkable “bounce” in the western monarch population? Alissa Greenberg of NOVA provided a fascinating peek into possible explanations for this phenomenon in her interview with experts of monarch biology and ecology. Several potential hypotheses were advanced. Drs. Louie Yang and Art Shapiro of UC Davis and Elisabeth Crone of Tufts University propose that a series of “fortunate events” may have conspired in the spring and summer of 2021 to boost populations of monarchs throughout their range. These include a fortuitous match of the spring arrival of monarchs to high quality patches of milkweeds in peak condition to support the growth and development of monarch caterpillars. High food quality translates into higher survival of robust caterpillars that develop into fecund adults, which boost monarch populations. Dr. Shapiro adds that drought in the west may have reduced planting of many crops, thereby reducing attendant pesticide applications harmful to monarch butterflies and their young. An additional hypothesis advanced by entomologists and conservation biologists posits a population supplement of migratory butterflies as urban and suburban monarchs spawned on milkweeds planted by butterfly enthusiasts joined those from natural and rural settings. Yet another possibility advances the notion that some peripatetic monarchs from the larger eastern migration hopped across the country to join their western counterparts. As author Greenberg points out, further research is needed to confirm or infirm these ideas and it is likely that several mechanisms acting in concert underlie this remarkable “bounce” in populations of western migratory monarchs.
Along the California coast monarchs cluster on pine branches and rest during cool, moist mornings. As the morning mist clears, monarchs bask in the mid-day sun to warm their bodies. By afternoon with flight muscles sufficiently warmed, they take wing to visit nearby blossoms. In 2014 when these monarchs were filmed in Pacific Grove, western monarch populations were similar to those in the winter of 2021-2022. This spring why not plant some milkweeds to feed monarch caterpillars? Milkweeds also provide a nectar source for adults.
So, what can be done to help save these unique and charismatic migratory creatures? Globally, mitigating climate change, reducing unnecessary pesticide use, and conserving resources and habitats for wildlife will help. Locally, providing milkweeds for monarch caterpillars and nectar plants for adults can facilitate reproduction and survival of monarchs. Regional references for milkweed plants can be found at this link https://xerces.org/milkweed and references for monarch nectar plants can be found at this link https://xerces.org/monarchs/monarch-nectar-plant-guides For great tips to create your homegrown monarch habitat, click on this excellent story about University of Kentucky entomologists Adam Baker and Dan Potter, who evaluated several elements of garden design to better support the needs of monarchs: https://news.ca.uky.edu/article/uk-research-shows-how-build-more-effective-monarch-butterfly-gardens
Be sure to consult a reference to learn what milkweeds work well in your geographic region. Here in Maryland, species including common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, and butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, are good choices. In the waning weeks of winter, monarchs will depart their winter redoubts on the west coast and abandon the montane fir forests of Mexico to begin their long journeys northward. With days getting longer, it is time to plan your gardens and include appropriate milkweeds and nectar plants to support the monarchs. We have a role to play in conserving these remarkable wanderers.
Stink bugs like this four-humped stink bug may enter homes with firewood.
To differentiate four-humped stink bugs (left) from brown marmorated stink bugs (insert right) look at the shoulders. Four-humped stink bugs have spiny shoulders while shoulders of brown marmorated stink bugs lack spines.
In a previous episode we visited a domestic invasion by the nefarious brown marmorated stink bugs. This winter a different six-legged stinker has graced my kitchen, where something seems magical about the kitchen counter. On a chilly morning a few weeks ago, I was greeted by another member of the stink bug clan prancing across the kitchen counter, the four-humped stink bug which also goes by the name of rough stink bug. No, four-humped does not refer to some strange mating behavior nor does rough allude to rude conduct in polite company. These common names refer to some Bactrian camel-like adornments on the back of the stink bug and rows of spines at the margins of its “shoulders” just behind the head. Four-humped stink bugs are predominately arboreal, dining on a wide variety of trees, shrubs and vines from more than a dozen plant families. Apparently, sometimes they stray from the vegan plan and snack on juicy caterpillars. Who wouldn’t? In addition to my kitchen, they range throughout much of North America and are found in Central America, Africa, and Oceania according to Wikipedia.
Back to the mystery of why Mister Four-humped wound up in my kitchen. Scientists have discovered that in the more natural world, Brochymena spends the winter nestled beneath the bark of trees much like its cousin the brown marmorated stink bug. Not too many dead standing trees occupy my home, but frigid temperatures and a dead furnace recently necessitated a steady stream of firewood entering the house to be combusted in an attempt to keep the pipes and family from freezing. While gathering wood the other day, my spouse turned over a bolt of firewood and snuggled between two logs was a pair of four-humped stink bugs. Apparently, a stack of firewood is a suitable location to spend the winter if you are a stink bug. No doubt during this unusually chilly January and early February many stink bugs hitched a fatal ride into the woodbin and ultimately joined their kin in the afterlife following a toasty visit to the fireplace. For the lucky stink bug that awoke from its winter torpor and sidled across the counter, well it was just like Cooper Kupp going to Disney after the winning the Superbowl. The stink bug won a reprieve. As I placed it beneath a log in my neighbor’s abandoned woodpile, I thought I saw the bug smile. But hey, stink bugs have sucking mouthparts and no lips so it could not have smiled, just my imagination, right?
Stink bugs often wind up inside homes in winter. Three years ago, I discovered a brown marmorated stink bug on my coffee cup early one morning. They are well-known home invaders. Recently, a four-humped stink bug raced across my kitchen counter. Discovering other four-humped stink bugs nestled in my firewood cache outside likely explains how they ultimately appear inside.
A detailed account of the biology of the four-humped stink bug entitled “Life History and Laboratory Rearing of Brochymena quadripustulata with Descriptions of Immature Stages and Additional Notes on Brochymena arborea (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)” by J. P. Cuda and J. E. McPherson was consulted for this episode.
Learn What Attracts Spiders & How to Get Rid of These Pests
A basement is generally intended to store your items, not spiders.
Except the dark, moist, and cluttered or rarely cleaned environment of most basements is particularly attractive to the eight-legged insects.
Spiders are not uncommon in New England residences or buildings. Fortunately, most indoor spiders are harmless to people and pets.
But, if left unchecked – and under the right conditions – a few can turn into an infestation.
The possibility of amassing a large population of the creepy crawlers, known as a cluster, is enough to make any homeowner or property owner shudder.
To prevent the basement or cellar from becoming home to a thriving cluster of spiders, property owners should learn what attracts spiders to basements and how to keep an infestation from intensifying until expert help can arrive.
Darkness
Basements tend to get overtaken by spiders because there is an abundance of dark, quiet corners for the pests to inhabit.
Spiders are natural introverts that prefer isolation. As a result, poorly lit, undisturbed areas of a home or building seem inviting to the creatures. Spiders are also nocturnal, being most active at night.
From an evolutionary standpoint, darkness is a key aspect of a spider’s survival strategy. Under the cover of night, the insects can remain hidden from predators such as birds, bats, and even wasps.
But most house spiders have adapted to life indoors, never needing to leave the cellar of a home or business.
Once a house spider moves in, the insect becomes a lifelong roommate. So long as it is allowed, a house spider will continue raising generations of its kind inside the property.
Installing LED lights throughout an underground den or room can momentarily discourage spiders from hunting, mating, and spinning webs out of fear of being detected by predators.
LED lights are more cost-effective as well as brighter than regular halogen lights.
Until a professional can be enlisted to deal with a spider cluster or infestation, setting up some LED lighting fixtures in the affected areas may succeed in keeping the pests at bay.
Clutter, Dirt, & Dust
For spiders, clutter offers added protection from predators and a framework for female spiders to weave cobwebs, which the insects create to trap prey, travel, encase or shield egg sacs and spiderlings.
Female spiders typically store egg sacs in dark spaces to ensure the survival of their offspring.
It is not uncommon for a single female house spider to lay up to 4,000 eggs in her year-long lifetime or multiple egg sacs each containing 250 or more eggs.
Only female spiders build webs, so if a basement is covered in the cobwebs, it is a sure sign that the property will start attracting male spiders as well.
Cluttered or neglected cellars also collect dust. This attracts other pests, including carpet beetles, small flies, and tiny mold-eating pests such as booklice — all of which are incredibly appetizing to spiders.
While a space that has already been infested with spiders requires more than a routine cleanup to address the issue, homeowners or business owners can stymie the problem from expanding to other parts of the property by:
Vacuuming cobwebs
Organizing or removing clutter
Moving items such as firewood and gardening supplies outside
Spraying natural spider repellents — namely peppermint, citrus, and eucalyptus — around the area
Although not a failsafe solution, these precautions can be integral to undermining a spider infestation while waiting for pest control technicians to get involved.
Moisture
Buildings that struggle with ventilation issues may experience increased humidity and moisture in the basement. To spiders, a moist space can serve as a continuous source for both food and water.
Damp cellars promote mildew and mold growth in the pipes, cracks in the walls or flooring, dysfunctional dehumidifiers, and inside drainage systems.
Bugs such as psocids and drain flies feed on the mold, mildew, and biosolids that form in moist basements — making prey even more accessible to spiders.
It’s essential to remove excess moisture from an affected space.
Aside from the health complications that come with inhaling mold or mildew particles, such as respiratory problems, an overly humid cellar supports the ecosystem that spiders and other pests require to flourish.
Other necessary measures include sealing cracks and crevices in the walls and floors with caulk. Such gaps, however small, are entry points for household insects of all types.
Remove Spiders From Your Basement with Catseye Pest Control
Even though spiders can act as nature’s pest controllers by eliminating disease-transmitting house pests such as filth flies, letting a cluster containing at least several hundred spiders inhabit a single space is unsightly and unsettling.
Eradicating spiders from a basement or an attic starts with getting rid of the primary food sources for the pests — other insects.
Our licensed pest management technicians can customize a plan that addresses all aspects of the problem, from destroying the spider cluster’s habitat to installing tailormade barriers that can prevent reinfestation.
Get back your basement and your sanity with help from the leading experts in commercial and residential pest and nuisance wildlife control. Contact us to schedule a free inspection today.
Identifying Common Spiders In New England Homes & Businesses
Having a couple of spiders around a home or building can keep other pests at bay — but a population or cluster of spiders is not just excessive, it’s eerie.
While this may seem like an exaggeration, a single female house spider can give birth to several thousands of spiderlings during her lifetime — approximately one to two years depending on the species.
So, the possibility of a family of spiders overtaking a basement, attic, or crawlspace is not as far-fetched as property owners would hope.
In New England states — specifically Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut — non-lethal house spiders are a common nuisance:
American House Spiders
Cellar Spiders
Wolf Spiders
Jumping Spiders
Due to its adaptable nature, a house spider can live out its entire life indoors once it takes up shelter in a manmade structure. There may be several factors driving the insect inside, most notably access to food in the form of other pests like odorous house ants and water caused by excess moisture.
The last struggle any homeowner or business owner wants to face is a spider infestation moving in — permanently. To avoid this scenario, New Englanders should keep vigilant watch for signs of an infestation and know how to identify the types of spiders invading their property — as well as who to contact to resolve the issue.
1. American House Spider
The common or American house spider is a web-building indoor arachnid that hides itself in the dark or isolated corners or eaves of basements, attics, garages, and sheds.
Female American house spiders usually grow larger than males. In size, the arachnids can be compared to that of a nickel.
Coloring can range from brown with a slightly bespeckled abdomen to yellow, especially in females. If the legs of the spider have an orange tint, it is most likely male.
Another telling detail is the dark brown rings or bands encircling the joints of the legs — such markings are found on both male and female American house spiders.
Because of its similar appearance, it can be easy for non-experts to mistake the American house spider for a brown recluse.
The key difference between them is that an American house spider lacks a specific pattern on its bulbous body — a dark brown fiddle-shaped spot, which is a defining feature of a brown recluse.
Another identifier is if the arachnid is rarely seen off of its web. Should this be the case, it is probably an American house spider and not a recluse.
American house spider webbing can be difficult to spot as the silk strands are thin, resembling a tangled mess of string rather than a patterned web like those created by orb-weaving spiders.
The American house spider uses webs to travel and to cocoon its eggs or egg sacs.
Within the couple of years that it is alive, a female American house spider can birth up to 12 egg sacs, each containing upwards of 300 individual spiderling eggs.
Like many other species of spiders, the mating season isn’t reserved to a specific time of year, but it reaches a peak in late autumn. Soon after, an egg sac follows and a week later the spiderlings hatch.
For those with arachnophobia, a cluster of several hundred little spiderlings is nightmarish.
Signs of an American House Spider Infestation
The American house spider is a frequent unwelcome guest in many residences and businesses across the United States. Indicators of an American house spider infestation to look out for include:
Cobwebs: Homeowners or business owners who start to notice an abundance of cobwebs in the corners of window frames, beams, and dark corners can be more easily seen over time as the sticky strands attract dust or hair as well as prey.
Egg Sacs: Distinguishing between a dusty, neglected space and an actual American house spider dwelling can be tricky if the spider is not present. But almost always there will be a ball or cocoon of silk on a web — this is an egg sac.
Bites: These indoor arachnids are not life-threatening but will bite if alarmed or feeling unsafe. Those who occasionally find themselves waking up with tiny red bite marks may have a growing cluster of the pests on the property.
Noticing any of these signs may be a cause for concern — and easily addressed with help from a licensed professional.
2. Cellar Spider
Cellar spiders are arguably the most identifiable of the arachnid species due to its gangly body structure and extremely long legs.
Attracted to humid areas, cellar spiders tend to be found in damp spaces, whether that be in a sink cabinet or, as its name implies, in a cellar. When alarmed, this insect will bounce or vibrate on its web.
Signs of a Cellar Spider Infestation
Unlike American house spiders, cellar spiders won’t recycle or clean previously its previously used webs.
Instead, the pests will simply build new webs that overlap with the old ones, spinning a conspicuous cobweb in the process.
Female cellar spiders, which can live for approximately two years, lay three egg sacs total, holding anywhere between 10 to 60 eggs at a time.
A female carries the egg sac in her mouth while waiting for the offspring to hatch.
Seeing loose, haphazardly spun webbing around the isolated sections the home or business? This could imply that a growing population of cellar spiders is on the property.
3. Wolf Spider
With its dark brown, hairy body and intimidating size, the wolf spider resembles a tarantula.
Wolf spiders are hunters and sprinters, not web spinners. The arachnids burrow underneath objects such as leaves, sticks, or piles of clutter to both hide from predators and lure or capture prey by ambush.
Using its impressive strength, a wolf spider will hold the prey between its legs before injecting the victim with paralyzing venom through its powerful fangs.
Signs of a Wolf Spider Infestation
Indoors, wolf spiders tend to inhabit warmer areas. Houseplants are a favorite for this pest because they are often placed under sun lamps and offer soil for burrowing.
Wolf spiders are rather territorial — if a wolf spider is disturbed or feels threatened, it will bite. However, its venom isn’t toxic to people.
Female wolf spiders can live for several years — quite a long lifespan in comparison to other types of arachnids, and three times as long as its male partners.
A wolf spider infestation may not be immediately apparent as the eggs overwinter until early summer but addressing the issue before the spiderlings hatch is highly recommended.
Those who suspect a wolf spider infestation should contact a pest control expert to confront the arachnids because although not harmful to humans or pets, its bites can sting and — in rare cases — cause acute irritation or swelling.
4. Jumping Spider
Jumping spiders are the tiniest arachnids listed in this article, at only half of an inch in length.
In the U.S., there are around 300 species of jumping spiders but thankfully New England is home to just three:
Zebra Jumper: As its name suggests, the zebra jumper has stripes covering its body.
Bold Jumper: The body of a bold jumping spider is mostly black with white stripes on its legs and a white dot on its back.
Tan Jumper: Tan jumping spiders are light brown, with darker markings along the abdomen.
The mating habits depend on the species of jumper, but in general jumping spiders mate during the spring and summer months before the female gives birth to an average of 200 offspring.
Signs of a Jumping Spider Infestation
Jumpers are hunters. Rather than produce webs to ensnare insects, a jumping spider uses its swift reflexes to catch smaller bugs. It can leap up to 20 times the length of its body.
To keep itself stable when jumping far distances, these spiders will deploy a silk thread known as a dragline before taking off, essentially acting as a safety net for the pest.
Draglines can be incredibly difficult to spot but should near-invisible strands of silk thread be plastered to the counters or other surfaces throughout a home, it can be a sign that a jumper is nearby.
Another possible clue of a jumping spider on the property is seeing remnants of molten skin, as the arachnids will shed during its development into a full-grown spider.
But as this type of arachnid does not leave behind webbing, the most obvious indication of an infestation is seeing the spider(s).
It tends to station itself near windows and doors, awaiting other insects to fly by.
Confront Your Spider Problem with Catseye Pest Control
Despite the integral role spiders play as natural pest controllers, keeping them in-check is important to both your property and sanity.
Residential or commercial buildings that are struggling with a spider infestation typically lead to the discovery of other significant issues — such as growing populations of household bugs or insects throughout the property.
But the professionals at Catseye Pest Control have the expertise and experience to find the root of the cause. Through our Spider Control service, clients can put their concerns to rest.
Our licensed technicians will inspect the affected areas and design a customized treatment plan that is safe for everyone on-site and leaves your property pest-free.
Take back your home or business and contact us to schedule a free inspection today.
A very large walkingstick appears to rest on the wall of a NASA building at the Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C. Image credit: Larry Coy
In October of 2008, The Natural History Museum of London headlined the discovery of the world’s longest insect, Phobaeticus chani, a giant stick insect from the rainforest of Borneo. This behemoth checked in at 22 inches in length and displaced the former record holder from Indonesia, Phobaeticus serratipes, another giant at 14 inches. Recently, Bug of the Week received a remarkable image of a walkingstick that make these gargantuans pale in comparison. The northern walkingstick in our feature image is at least 40 feet long. Yikes! Well, the clever photographer who took this crazy image assured me the camera magic that captured both the walking stick on a nearby window and the reflection of the NASA building behind him was not a trick of post-production. Whew, what a relief, but humans were never really in danger of being attacked by giant walkingsticks. They are vegetarians.
Walkingsticks are also known as stick insects or leaf insects in various parts of the world. Our local walkingsticks, northern walkingsticks like the one in our image, don’t quite measure up to those Asian giants, but at almost four inches these rascals are among the longest insects found in Maryland. They make their living eating foliage of trees and shrubs. In some years they are quite abundant and actually defoliate patches of trees, especially along rocky ridgetops. Although lacking the tough armor of beetles and evasive flight of butterflies, they have perfected the art of crypsis, that is, they have an uncanny resemblance to features of their environment. This ruse of looking like branches of the trees on which they feed helps them avoid detection by hungry predators.
In addition to having greatly elongated body regions and appendages matching the colors and textures of twigs, walkingsticks move and pose in ways designed to fool sharp-eyed predators. As walkingsticks search for leaves, they sway slowly back and forth, mimicking the movement of a branch in the breeze. When not feeding or actively moving about, they assume a branch-like position with the front pair of legs extended directly forward. Their ability to hold an unflinching pose for hours is the envy of every mime. Unlike many adult insects, northern walkingstick insects never develop wings and nymphs and adults are quite similar in appearance. Some species of stick insects lay eggs on plants while others simply deposit them on the ground. For the northern walkingstick, winter is spent in the egg stage. A southern cousin of northern walkingstick, the two-striped walkingstick, is the longest insect in the United States and measures about half a foot. When camouflage fails to fool a hungry predator, walkingsticks may have another trick up their twig. Some species, including two-striped walkingsticks and elegant phasmatids, a.k.a. Chilean chinchimolles we met in previous episodes, have evolved glands on their thorax that emit foul-smelling, irritating chemicals to foil attacks by their enemies.
Acknowledgements
Bug of the Week thanks Larry Coy for providing the remarkable image of the northern walking stick featured in this episode. We also thank Dr. Audrey Grez of the University of Chile for identifying the chinchemolle. The following references were used in preparation of this episode: “4-Methyl-1-hepten-3-one, the Defensive Compound from Agathemera elegans (Philippi) (Phasmatidae) Insecta” by Guillermo Schmeda-Hirschmann, and “Defensive spray of a phasmid insect” by Thomas Eisner. Dr. Shrewsbury boldly modeled the rather large walking stick hair accessory in the Costa Rican rainforest.
This docile German yellowjacket queen made an early appearance inside a home.
Last weekend while dining with family in their rural New Jersey home, we were thoroughly entertained by the aerial antics of a rather large wasp. This yellow and black beauty made several sorties from an undisclosed location in the kitchen and swooped about the chandelier suspended above the table. While zooming wasps might be disconcerting at some dinner parties, for bug geeks and their kin, a visit from hymenopteran royalty in the dead of winter is a welcome reminder that spring is not all too far away. To discover exactly who this fancy flier was and what she was doing at our winter repast, we turned to esteemed colleagues Drs. Nancy Breisch and Al Green, world authorities on six-legged creatures found indoors. Here is what the experts had to say. “You have captured the image of a beautiful queen of the German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica, and you are correct, she has mistakenly become active months before she should have. The first invaders to the U.S. (1970s) spread extremely rapidly because the overwintering queens, foundresses of the annual spring colonies, searched for voids in vertical facades (mostly building cavities), unlike the typical behavior everywhere else in the world where they concentrate on finding hollows in the ground to begin their nests. This meant they weren’t competing as much with our native Vespula species. All Vespula are cavity nesters and can nest almost anywhere but our natives are usually in the ground and for the first 10 to 15 years after invasion, V. germanica was usually in a structural void. When Vespula strikes it rich with a nice pre-existing void location, all the effort of enlarging the cavity (almost every worker leaving a ground nest has a mouthful of dirt) is channeled instead into making carton so their nests have much larger and thicker envelopes. By the 1980s, U.S. German yellowjacket populations began to display a higher incidence of the more characteristic ground nesting behavior. We found our first ground nest of V. germanica in a grassy area behind the long-lost Maryland Book Exchange (College Park, MD) in the late 1980s. Every year we collected for Johns Hopkins allergy research we could count on a nest in the dairy barn wall, and after that structure was torn down we got them year after year from a nest in the hay loft of the sheep barn.” A German yellowjacket queen, now that’s cool.
What could be better than dinner and a show? This pretty German yellowjacket queen emerged prematurely from her winter rest, fooled by the warmth of a home. After entertaining diners with aerial acrobatics and spending the night in a fruit bowl, she was relocated in a tool shed outdoors to chill-out and await the return of warm weather.
While making breakfast the following morning, we discovered the redoubt of our royal yellowjacket, who was hiding beneath an apple at the bottom of the fruit bowl. With her hibernal rest unwittingly ended too soon, she was not interested in any sort of aggressive behavior and we were able to admire her up-close and personal. After glamming for a few minutes, the queen grew a bit restless and after taking a poll, we decided to relocate the royal. The new residence for the queen would be a nearby tool shed. Hopefully, she will settle in this unheated structure and await the arrival of true spring when she can initiate her colony and produce workers. Workers will help rid our plants of soft-bodied insect pests and assist in the awesome task of pollination. Wasps and wasp nests also provide a nutritious source of food for mammals including bears, raccoons, and skunks, and several species of birds. Yellowjackets will, of course, heroically defend their nest, which sometimes require extirpation if humans or pets are imperiled.
Bug of the Week thanks Gordon and Sheri for providing the backdrop for this week’s episode in their dining room, and colleagues Drs. Nancy Breisch and Al Green for the remarkable account of V. germanica.
