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insects

By adamg - 6/8/24 - 1:29 pm

WBUR lights the way, suggests you maybe not try to trap any fireflies you find in old pickle jars because you'll be depriving them of what little time they have on this earth.

By adamg - 10/4/23 - 8:41 pm
Mantis at Millennium

Mary Ellen got a close up of a mantis at Millennium Park in West Roxbury the other day.

By adamg - 9/9/23 - 1:52 pm

Mary Ellen spotted this American Copper - a tiny, little butterfly, she reports - in West Roxbury the other day.

By adamg - 7/9/22 - 11:03 am

Cambridge Day brings us up to speed on roly-poly little pill bugs, which aren't actually bugs but are instead the only crustaceans that live on land (with gills, even).

By adamg - 3/5/22 - 1:34 pm
Burning trees to kill moths

In the 1890s, Massachusetts residents fought the caterpillars in part by burning infested trees.

The Entomological Society of America has decided to rename the tree-munching menace formerly known as "gypsy moths" as "spongy moths."

By adamg - 10/15/21 - 1:34 pm
Emerald ash borer

Evil menace lurking in a tree and flaunting itself. Photos by USDA Forest Service.

The mayor's office today declared a war that could last several years against the invasive and voracious emerald ash borer. Residents will see the first major evidence of the battles to come this winter, when Boston arborists chop down several hundred "dead, dying, or significantly damaged" ash trees across the city. Read more.

By adamg - 7/29/21 - 9:23 am

The Suffolk County Mosquito Control Project reports it's scheduled some anti-biter spraying in the area of Orient Avenue, Boardman Street, Andrew Road and Horace Street after dusk on Aug. 3 (with a rain date of Aug. 4). Read more.

By adamg - 7/28/21 - 8:11 am

The Boston Public Health Commission reports crews will be spraying Fowl Meadow on the Milton line on Thursday because all the rain has meant an explosion in the number of mosquitoes in the marshy area. Read more.

By adamg - 7/12/21 - 10:00 am

NPR reports the Entomological Society of America is looking to change the name of gypsy moths because the current name is "very hurtful to the Romani people." Read more.

By adamg - 7/9/21 - 10:53 pm
Butterfly in Millennium Park

Mary Ellen reports that after the rain stopped, she headed over to Millennium Park in West Roxbury - and found this eastern black swallowtail enjoying the local flora.

By adamg - 6/26/21 - 1:33 pm
Spotted bug in the South End

John Hanzl, who earlier introduced us to the South End's googly-eyed bugs, yesterday spotted this unusual insect on East Dedham Street. Read more.

By adamg - 6/23/21 - 10:48 pm
Damselflies on a stalk jutting out of the Charles River

Mary Ellen captured a couple of damselflies on a stalk in the placid water of the Charles River's Cow Island Pond stretch off Rivermoor Street in West Roxbury.

By adamg - 6/7/21 - 9:50 pm

This afternoon, Dr. Mark Lindsay posted a couple of photos of what was left of the bug that climbed up his daughter's leg, then seemed to have bitten her before succumbing to death by smashing, and he wondered what exactly was - especially after she developed small wheals on her leg and hand and he started thinking it looked like one of the "kissing bugs" that spreads the potentially fatal Chagas disease. Read more.

By adamg - 6/4/21 - 5:01 pm
Bug with googly eyes

John Hanzl spotted Googly McGoogleeyes here skittering across a sidewalk in the South End and wondered what exactly it is. Read more.

By adamg - 2/21/19 - 5:15 pm
Spotted lanternfly

From the Penna. Dept. of Agriculture, which knows its spotted lanternfly.

The state Department of Agricultural Resources reports a dead spotted lanternfly turned up nestled in a poinsettia in a Boston home, part of a shipment of poinsettias from Pennsylvania, where the bugs have become a threat to a variety of native flora. Read more.

By adamg - 9/6/18 - 9:47 am

Wicked Local Roslindale reports UMass pest experts are seeing a decline in the number of pesky winter moths thanks to a longterm program to import flies that kill the moths. Read more.

By adamg - 6/11/16 - 12:03 pm
Black and white spotted bug in Somerville

LadyLazerJ spotted this leopard moth at Beacon and Calvin streets on the Somerville side of Inman Square the other night.

Copyright LadyLazerJ. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

By adamg - 9/20/15 - 11:25 am
Preying mantis in Somerville

LadyLazerJ couldn't help but notice this praying mantis on her Somerville porch railing yesterday.

Among her tags for the photo: Read more.

By adamg - 11/24/14 - 7:40 am

Jennifer Forman Orth, our go-to guru for invasive species, predicts:

With temps expected to be in the 60s today, we're probably going to see a big emergence of winter moths today/tonight.

And just in time for the emergence of zillions of sex-crazed male moths (the females all just laze about on trees, awaiting suitors), the state has posted its winter-moth survey for you to report the presence of these bugs.

By adamg - 8/23/14 - 8:56 am
Praying mantis in South Boston

Suldog forwards this Thursday-evening photo by Joe Burke, explains:

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