ot .. Have bugs bugged out?

ke8wo

Member
I'm a farm boy but off the farm for 50+ years. Used to be summer driving would result in many bug splats on your windshield. But the past few years in SW Ohio .. not so much. Even a drive to and from Myrtle Beach a few weeks ago left the windshield mostly unscathed. Way back when you'd sometimes see bug shields over a cars front radiator area. But not now. Is it just me, or have the bugs bugged out?
 
Friend made that comment several years ago. He built a light plane some years ago and his comment was that the spraying of pesticides in Iowa had killed most of the bugs.
 
First thing to come to my mind is BT corn. The splats could be corn borers. BT takes care of corn borers and And also root worm if it is a double stack variety. Now that BT corn has been around awhile we don't come home at night with a plastered windshield in July and August like we have in the past. We don't spray all that many insecticides here in Iowa. In areas with bean aphids the bug killer is used but it isn't all over the state by any means. We are using more fungicides but that is a different chemical that does not kill bugs.
 
May I invite you all to come on down to Tennessee? The ticks are especially bad this year. You cannot go anywhere near any tall grass or Cedar trees without getting some of them on you. The Japanese beetles are devastating fruit trees and berry patches all around me. Moths are a plague in the early evening hours. Spiders and ants are invading enemies seeking moisture and cool temperatures. Etc.

Bugs are always bad in the South, and this year is no exception.

Tom in TN
 
Bugs I notice most on vehicles here in ND anymore are the honey bees. Bee keepers set up hives along the highway about 50 feet off the right of way. In a 45 mile trip yesterday, there must of been a few hundred splatted on the windshield of my truck. Used to be grasshoppers years ago.
Dick ND
 
Do you have to brush against the stuff for the ticks to get on you, or do they drop onto you if you are below them? I walked near, like 2' from some tall grass a couple weeks ago and got one on the center of my shirt on the back. From what I have seen, they don't move very fast or jump like a flea will.

Ross
 
We're also in SW OH, on farmland, and last wk I made the same comment to my wife. Have seen a lot fewer june bugs (beetles) for the past few yrs and have seen only 2 or 3 so far this yr. The number of fireflies out at night also seem to be fewer last year and especially so this yr. Number of cicadas has also dropped off past couple of yrs but we haven't yet hit the season for them this year. Skeeters and wasps are about the same as always. We're seeing more & more bumblebees each yr, which is good (true bumbles, not carpenter bees).

Since I was a kid 50 yrs ago, the number of large moths has crashed. It's been about 20 or 30 yrs since I've seen a cecropia or luna at night, used to see them regularly when I was growing up. Used to also see a lot of very large beetles - with pincher mouth parts and such - but it's also rare to see those anymore.

As for ticks, we're seeing about an average year. not the worst I've seen. But, we never ever saw ticks around here until 26 yrs ago and they're thick now in comparison. One bug we've seen a bunch more this yr is deer flies. Dang things are thick in some places around us; DEET keeps them at bay. We and our pup hope their season is over soon. We've also seen way too many of the emerald ash borer.

Hard to figure what might be affecting the bugs. It's not the winters, we used to have lots of bugs even when we had a week+ of -20F in the winter, and as you know, our recent winters have been mild. Over the years, one big change in farming around us is a lot more use of aerial crop spraying, but I can't say that is making the difference.
 
RBoots,

I've never seen one jump from place to place, but they do crawl rapidly and they do drop out of trees onto you if you walk under the tree. I have about 6 or 8 tick bites on me right now. It normally takes about 2 or 3 weeks for any particular bite to heal up. They itch and become inflamed.

Also, we have lots of wasps and yellow jackets around here. I normally get stung 5 or 6 times each summer. I have a couple of small bottles of ammonia strategically located in my out buildings. When I get stung, I try to get to the ammonia as soon as possible. It really relieves the sting in short order.

I absolutely hate cold weather, but I must admit that it is nice to escape the bugs for a while.

Tom in TN
 

No lack of bugs here in southwest Iowa. Gnats, horseflies, deerflies, mosquitos, etc., etc. They are all well represented.
 
We had a very dry spring here and that keeps the skeeter and black fly hatches pretty low. The deer flies haven't been too bad yet either. If we get a wet spring, we are usually up to our eyeballs in bugs.
 
I think that late cold night in the low 20s around here killed the first generation of bugs. There are noticeably fewer of all kinds. I am not complaining about it either. LOL
 

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