Weird bugs in the yard more and more

[RomanAnthonysMama]

Wow those are some weird looking bugs! The other day, I saw this weird beetle-type bug on our kitchen floor and it had this odd white design on it's back. I then saw the same bug near the garden on our porch railing. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it!

 

[ChanellG]

Wow those are some weird looking bugs! The other day, I saw this weird beetle-type bug on our kitchen floor and it had this odd white design on it's back. I then saw the same bug near the garden on our porch railing. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it!

You should do a Google images search for it and see if you can identify the beetle. It's always good to know if a bug is a friend or a foe. You've just reminded me I meant to check on this one red and black one I saw this morning that looked like it might be a type of ladybird beetle.

 

[dconklin]

LOL, I guess because each situation was more or less isolated it doesn't worry me. Right now I am more concerned with the wasps in my yard. There is at least one that has been after my monarch caterpillars. It attacked one while I was redoing the habitat and has kept coming back since. I've found one inside the enclosure several times now, but it looks like the last caterpillar finally pupated, thankfully.

Depending on how bad the wasps are, I would leave them alone if you have tomato plants. If there are a real lot of them, I can understand wanting them out tho! I am not sure how to keep them out of the habitat tho.

Supposedly wasps are natural enemies of the green hornworm so the wasps are not really too bad to have around when growing tomatoes. I was told to introduce wasps into my garden one year when I had hornworms all over my tomato plants - those things are such a pain!

 

[ChanellG]

Supposedly wasps are natural enemies of the green hornworm so the wasps are not really too bad to have around when growing tomatoes. I was told to introduce wasps into my garden one year when I had hornworms all over my tomato plants - those things are such a pain!

Oh, I squelched those hornworms weeks ago. The wasps never had a chance to lay eggs - thank goodness because I don't like the way that looks. I still find the occasional cutworm back there, but I'll either spray them with soap or relocate them to a bin where I dump "weeds" trimmed plant parts and deadheaded flowers that don't fit in the compost.

I had been giving them all to a friend's turtle, but they are few and far between now, thank goodness!

 

[elysebpink8686]

So recently I found a saddleback caterpillar in the yard (though I didn't identify it until just now) and just a couple days ago one of the weirdest moths I have ever seen was on the front door. Just found out it's a saddleback - wouldn't be surprised if it was the adult of the larvae I'd recently seen in the yard.

Today it was an Io moth caterpillar... Where are these things coming from? I also found two different wasp nests (different types) and while one is out of the way, the other (larger one) is in a tree I was trying to prune. As far as I can recall I have never been stung by anything. This morning my hand brushed the Io (eye-oh) while I was pulling down a nuisance vine.

I didn't even realize I had been stung until I saw the caterpillar sitting atop the trash can where I'd been placing all the plant material I cleared (yeah, I know, but the compost is full and I don't want those vines in there).

I just shared the cat photos in another thread, but I'll post them here again with their moths:

That saddleback moth is just creepy, lol. I couldn't get a good photo of my own the other day, but the one above gives a good idea of what it looks like.

A good source of info on these: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/medical/saddleback_caterpillar.htm

Oh my!! Makes my skin crawl LOL I've never seen anything like this before. That is so strange.

 

[ChanellG]

Found another IO caterpillar this past Friday.

...I was told to introduce wasps into my garden one year when I had hornworms all over my tomato plants - those things are such a pain!

Just because I said I had them under control...

Fortunately I haven't seen another one, but look at the size of that thing!

 

[Trellum]

That initial post was getting long so I decided to continue with the Io in a separate post. Found an image that shows all of it's stages on the deviant art web site: http://lepidopteralife.deviantart.com/art/IO-Moth-Lifecycle-189771728

The site didn't have any info though, just the image. The moth is actually kind of pretty and the caterpillar feeds on that nuisance vine (you should see it chomping away!) There's just not a lot of benefit (so far) for me to want to keep either around. (No, I didn't kill it.)

This one ranks really high on lists of stingers to avoid!

Hey!! I found a dying one a while ago, they call it ''io moth'' over here! They are so gorgeous once they reach adulthood! The males have very interesting antenae! I have never come across with the caterpillars tho... I heard they are nasty!!! Amazing that such a nuisance morphs into such a beautiful thing, specially the male:

He is gorgeous and he knows it

The one in your pictures is a female, the one I found in my yard was also a female, very friendly She allowed me to pet her, lol. I actually took pics of that, but haven't uploaded them.

 

[claudine]

Hey!! I found a dying one a while ago, they call it ''io moth'' over here! They are so gorgeous once they reach adulthood! The males have very interesting antenae! I have never come across with the caterpillars tho... I heard they are nasty!!! Amazing that such a nuisance morphs into such a beautiful thing, specially the male:

He is gorgeous and he knows it

The one in your pictures is a female, the one I found in my yard was also a female, very friendly She allowed me to pet her, lol. I actually took pics of that, but haven't uploaded them.

It's really gorgeous, it looks like an exotic flower I'd love to see it fly. Butterflies are amazing creatures. I wish it was possible to keep them at home as pets I'd buy one and teach it to sit on my hair and we would walk together in a park

 

[Trellum]

It's really gorgeous, it looks like an exotic flower I'd love to see it fly. Butterflies are amazing creatures. I wish it was possible to keep them at home as pets I'd buy one and teach it to sit on my hair and we would walk together in a park

This one is really beautiful i have only seen the female so far, but I hope I can get to see the male one day, he is just gorgeous! They are only out at night, so it was kinda odd I found that one outside in the middle of the day!

 

[ChanellG]

Hey!! I found a dying one a while ago, they call it ''io moth'' over here!

It's called that over here too, which is why I referred to it that way, lol.

Th moths are certainly more attractive than the larvae, but I'm not interested in having either hanging around in my hard. All the more reason to keep that nuisance Virginia Creeper vine under control!

 

[ChanellG]

I wish it was possible to keep them at home as pets I'd buy one and teach it to sit on my hair and we would walk together in a park

Well, you could create a vivarium to nurture larvae to adults, but as for training something to sit on your hair, you're on your own there.

This one is really beautiful i have only seen the female so far, but I hope I can get to see the male one day, he is just gorgeous! They are only out at night, so it was kinda odd I found that one outside in the middle of the day!

You also could raise the larvae and hope to see a male adult emerge...