Insects and Spiders Archives - Page 3 of 4

Close up of head and face of a cricket. Shiny black, large compound eyes, segmented antennae attached between eyes, leather-like texture of head plate.

Garden Champion: Field Cricket

Updated July 24, 2023

In the garden space outside my study window, a little brown cricket has been singing his heart out, wishing, hoping, begging, for the ladies to hear him. At the same time, he’s warning his brothers to stay away. This is his turf. He will sing for the rest of his life, chirping that oh-so-familiar song […]

Insects and Spiders

Light green, bulbous insect with tiny head, black eyes, and rakish, black-tipped antennae swept back over its head, sits on a green leaf surface. Soybean Aphid

Homeric Life Story: Soybean Aphids

Updated July 10, 2023

One morning in mid-July, I was having coffee on the screened-in deck, enjoying the beautiful summer day when a loud single-engine airplane swooped over my house. It sounded way too close for comfort. It zoomed around the soybean fields that surround Owl Acres, coming and going, making several passes over the fields before flying away. […]

Insects and Spiders

A stout green insect with veined, crystalline wings and wide-set, compound eyes, rests on a twig. Scissors Grinder Cicada

Racket or Rebirth: Cicadas

Updated July 3, 2023

Supper on the deck is one of the summer pleasures these days. We sit as the sun goes down and watch the hummingbirds tank up for the night. We listen to the world of noisemakers from sleepy birds to wind in the trees. Because it’s July, the boom and crackle of distant fireworks accent the […]

Insects and Spiders

Stop motion photo of a flying lightning bug. Elytra (modified forewings) carried high and forward to clear space for the hindwings to work. Insect is aligned 45 degrees from vertical. Black compound eyes forward and light organ at tip of abdomen.

Fireflies or Lightning bugs

Updated June 26, 2023

The lightning bugs are out, lending their own special magic to a June evening. We used to chase them and catch them in a jar when we were kids. We wondered how they could light up like that, and hoped to watch them do it in the jar. I’m afraid our little captives didn’t fare […]

Insects and Spiders

A hapless June bug swims in a blue wading pool, just before the dog eats it.

Clumsy Fliers: June Bugs

Updated June 22, 2023

Years ago I found myself at a gas station just over the Missouri line. It was around 2:00 in the morning, and we needed gas. The driveway of the gas station was literally covered with a writhing mass of June bugs. When we opened the car door, the bugs started coming in, and my dog […]

Insects and Spiders

Sesame-seed-shaped, brown dog tick walks on a person’s finger

Little Vampires: Ticks

Updated May 18, 2023

When I was a little girl, we had a huge lilac bush in the yard. It was big enough to play in, hide under, and explore. And whenever we came in from that play, Mom started searching in our hair for ticks. When she found one, which she often did, she lit a cigarette, kept […]

Insects and Spiders

Large yellow and black Bumblebee sits on a bright yellow flower. The hairy bee is peppered with yellow pollen grains.

Buzz: Bumblebees

Updated May 4, 2023

I’ve always discounted bees as nuisances, little demons wanting to sting me. My closest encounters have been with bumblebees and sweat bees, but there are between 300 and 400 different species of bees in Iowa alone. Worldwide the number of species is in the ten thousands. Bees branched off from wasps some 120 million years […]

Insects and Spiders

Sleek, high speed insect rests on a concrete surface. Northern Paper Wasp has 4 smoke-colored membranous wings and abdomen marked with prominent yellow bands, connected to its thorax by a threadlike petiole, inspiring the term “wasp waist.” 6 yellow-brown legs, yellow face stripes and curved-end antennae complete the ensemble.

Finding the Balance: Northern Paper Wasps

Updated March 16, 2023

One day last March, when the weather teased us with a note of spring, we took advantage of the day to sit out on the screened in porch. It was a sunny day, with a promise of warmer days to come. In the corner were 15 or 20 reddish-brown insects with yellow rings around their […]

Insects and Spiders

Pea-size purple berries hang individually from leafless twigs. Hackberry fruits.

Teeming with Life: Hackberry

Updated February 9, 2023

On a frigid evening in late winter, I love to sit in my favorite chair beside a blazing fire in the fireplace. Dave lies on my feet, and I revel in the warmth, and the popping, fizzing, roaring, chuckling, murmuring of the fire. The wood we’re burning is a mix of things gathered from downed […]

Large black ant stands on a white surface

Super Women: Carpenter Ants

Updated February 6, 2023

One day last fall, we were making a batch of apple wine from apples we’d harvested from our tree. We mixed the must, put in the apples, and set the buckets on the basement floor where it’s cool and out of the way. Within minutes, a column of ants was lined up to harvest the […]

Insects and Spiders