Two Hoppers and Two Flies

Top photo: American bird grasshopper. Insects are with us throughout the year whether as eggs, pupa, or in some species, adults. But it’s spring and summer when we start seeing them in numbers. Many of the adults that you’re seeing now have spent the cooler months safely tucked away and are just emerging as adults after an entire season below ground, embedded in wood, or in eggs cases attached to last year’s plant growth. American bird grasshoppers (top photo) overwinterRead more

Green Stripes

Alerted by the frass at my feet, I looked up into the maple tree branches over my head. It didn’t take me long to locate the source of the frass. Two green-striped mapleworms. Frass is caterpillar poop. If you enjoy finding caterpillars it’d be wise to keep an eye out for frass. If there’s frass on the ground, there’ll be a caterpillar, or a group of caterpillars, feeding above. Green-striped mapleworms are the caterpillars, or larvae, of rosy maple moths.Read more