Insects and Spiders Archives - Heartland Safari

The Barred Owl Sculpture stands among bare trees, near the old shed on Owl Acres. The first snowfall of the new winter season fills the air and covers the ground.

Winter Survival: Bees

Updated November 29, 2025

Winter is setting in. The forecasters are suggesting highs of 3 degrees above zero. In the prairie garden, the stalks of flowers and grasses are dry and brittle. Seeds cling on to feed the birds and the mice and voles. The hard frost has killed off the mosquitoes, for which we are grateful. But what […]

Insects and Spiders

Spotted Orb Weaver

Updated November 23, 2025

Earlier this fall, a yellow garden spider set up housekeeping beneath the morning-sun-facing window of my study. She has vanished, and in her place for a while another species of spider called a spotted orb weaver chose that same location to build her orb webs. Apparently that location is good for catching insects. Our newest […]

Insects and Spiders

Photo by Author Alt Text: A tiny black insect clings to a wall. The camera can’t zoom in close enough to get much detail. We submitted the photo to an AI-powered insect identification app to see what it might tell us. We were not disappointed.

Guess who: AI Identifying Insects

Updated October 23, 2025

In the news here at the beginning of October, we’ve been hearing about the tiny flying, biting insects we call no-see-ums. Minute pirate bugs and biting midges have been flushed from the fields by the harvesters and are looking for a warm place to winter. They’re so small (1 to 3 millimeters long) that you […]

A few dozens of Bryan’s hundreds of chigger bites decorate his calf, ankle and foot. Even though the chiggers came from Virginia, Bryan is one of the creatures who lives on Owl Acres, so this counts.

Phantom or Real: Chiggers

Updated March 16, 2026

When I was a little girl, I could still see some, and I absolutely loved the fireworks. We would go as a family to a park in my home town, sit in the grass, and watch that beautiful display of color. I’d go home happy, and in the next couple of days, I’d start itching—the […]

Insects and Spiders

A deep red, fat larva (Mouse Bot Fly) wriggles free from near the anus of a dead mouse, which has been the bot’s host until today. The larva is not ready to pupate and will die also. This bot is one of at least three that were inside the mouse’s body. A second bot can be seen exiting beneath the mouse’s hind foot.

A Little Horror Show: Mouse Bot Fly

Updated September 11, 2025

The other day Bryan was out in the shop patrolling for mice. He discovered that one of the traps he had set contained a white-footed mouse. As he watched, a deep red creature wriggled its way out of the mouse. The mouse’s abdominal wall was also pulsating as something tried to escape. It was the […]

Late summer extravagance in the prairie garden. Stiff goldenrod stands tall, its dense cluster of tiny yellow flowers promises (and delivers) feast for all.

Late Summer Extravagance: Goldenrod

Updated September 11, 2025

As summer slides into fall, the array of flowers in our prairie garden and along the ditch shifts to yellows. One notable species is the stiff goldenrod (Oligoneuron rigidum). This late bloomer is native to North America and holds a versatile and important place in our landscape. First of all, because it blooms in late […]

A large black and yellow spider stands menacingly on the strands of her web attached to the red siding of the house. Yellow Garden Spider has been here for weeks, gathering resources to produce the next generation.

Master Weaver: Yellow Garden Spider

Updated August 31, 2025

An itsy bitsy spider climbed onto the hose faucet handle just under my study window. A small brown and gray creature, he had most likely spent his life savings on one fling with a nearby lady, and now had little or no energy left. He fell to the ground when Bryan touched the faucet handle. […]

Insects and Spiders

This is the creepiest image we could find. A close-up of the face of American Wood Cockroach. Brown and shiny, its antennae sprout from the triangular head and go out of the frame. The compound eyes occupy two corners of the triangle above the antennae attachment points. The mouth forms the bottom point.

Creepy Cleaners: American Wood Cockroach

Updated July 27, 2025

The thought of cockroaches gives me the willies. They were a fact of life in our apartment in Maryland, and I worked very hard not to bring them home with me. And we didn’t. But those little German horrors are only one species of cockroach, and some of them, it turns out, aren’t bad at […]

Insects and Spiders

Chrysalis of Cabbage White Butterfly. Green and knobby with black dots, the pupa tapers to a point at each end. It emerges the last time the caterpillar splits its skin.

Magic or Just Biology: Metamorphosis

Updated July 27, 2025

As I am discovering more about the insects on Owl Acres, I’ve learned that insects follow one of two basic lifecycles—either incomplete metamorphosis or complete metamorphosis. The approach that’s easiest to understand is incomplete metamorphosis. This scheme has the egg hatching into a nymph—a miniature version of a cicada or grasshopper. The nymphs grow and […]

Insects and Spiders

A Cabbage White Butterfly stands on the flower stalk of Blue Vervain in the prairie garden, its triangle-shaped wings held in rest posture like a sail above the animal’s body. The single spot on the forewing identifies this as a male.

Mustard Anyone?: Cabbage White Butterflies

Updated July 27, 2025

In our prairie garden, little white ballerinas dance their way from flower to flower. They’re only about an inch and a half from wing tip to wing tip, tiny compared to their monarch cousins. They dip and swerve in their aerial dance evading the birds and bigger insects that would have them for dinner. They […]

Insects and Spiders