nymphal Box Elder Bugs

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

I don't have a record of when the leaves on the Manitoba Maples in our
shallow-soil "Negundo Grove" turned brown and died, but it was around
the 12th of August when the nearby Black Locust saplings are recorded to
have shed their leaves. This also killed a big crop of seeds on the
female trees, and we're seeing what seems to be a consequence of this
among the Box Elder Bugs doing their pre-hibernation gatherings on the
doorposts of the woodshed about 30 m away from the trees - 10% of the
assembly are immature nymphs, which must have walked from the trees
rather than flown.

These bugs, which are new to eastern Ontario in the past few decades,
grow on the Manitoba Maple seeds, hibernate in places like houses (often
inspiring amazing revulsion among their human hosts), and then lay eggs
on the female flowers in the spring.

I suppose some of these nymphs will molt into small adults, and that
others will die when it gets cold, but we'll have to wait and see how
things go.

fred.
===================================================

[I Macaulay]

I have a film from earlier this year of a wave of these beetles on a garden path in North Gower.

I will post it if I can find where I put it.

ian

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM

45.2397 N long: 76.0991 W Elv 137 M UTM
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