Mosquito Larvae control
August 3, 2010 2:05 pm
I love your website and am a huge insect fan and I know that you are against the kill of insects but I am not sure how you feel about mosquitos. We have storm drains in our backyard to prevent flooding of our yard and basement. we just returned from a trip to Florida and I have noticed there are mosquito larvae in the storm drains in some water in the drains. I am curious, is there a natural way to dispose of the larvae without polluting the water in the storm drains or hurting killing other insects in the area? Would dish detergent added to water then dumped in the drains do the trick or are more drastic measures needed? any info you can provide me with is greatly apprecatiated and please keep up the great work. i try to preach to friends and family not to squish every bug the see but I feel like I am fighting a losing battle
Ryan Hoffman
Mosquito Larvae
Hi Ryan,
Your situation poses some interesting challenges. In warm weather, Mosquitoes can mature in a very short span of time. Obviously, draining the water is the ideal solution because without the stagnant water habitat, they will not proliferate. Mosquito Fish are used as vector control in many places where there are ponds and other bodies of standing water, but your storm drains do not sound like they would be conducive to supporting vertebrate life. In lieu of not having any natural predators that can eliminate the infestation, we believe your idea to use a mild dish detergent solution should help the situation. As an aside, we are including a photo we recently took of Mosquito Larvae captured in our bird bath. We feed them to our freshwater aquarium fish who gobble them up eagerly, but they must be netted at the source for that to be of any benefit.
Host specific Bacteria to target Mosquito Larvae
mosquito dunks…
Hi Daniel,
Just FYI for the person wanting to kill the mosquito larva…there are mosquito dunks that have a host specific bacteria in them (bti) that feeds on the larva of mosquitoes, but not other beneficial insects. They can be used in ponds as well to keep the mosquito population under control.
From the Valent BioSciences Corp website…
VectoBac®/Bactimos® – VectoBac and Bactimos, naturally occurring larvicides based on Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, control certain pests from the order diptera. Around the world, VectoBac and Bactimos are routinely used to control populations of mosquito and black fly larvae, which are primarily nuisances in the U.S., but also transmit life-threatening diseases like encephalitis, malaria, dengue and onchocerciasis (river blindness) in other parts of the world. VectoBac and Bactimos have the ability to eliminate 95-100% of all black fly and mosquito larvae – quickly and effectively.
VectoBac and Bactimos are Bti larvicides sold by Valent BioSciences Corporation. Biological testing has shown VectoBac and Bactimos to be two of the most ecologically friendly insecticides in use today. These products kill larvae of mosquitoes but do not adversely affect other wildlife or beneficial insects, or more importantly, people or pets.
Liz
LUNCH TIME FOR LONG LEGGED FLY (?)
Location: TONASKET WA, NEAR THE CANADIAN BORDER
August 3, 2010 4:14 pm
I WAS TAKING PICTURES OF THIS BEAUTIFUL METALLIC GREEN FLY AND JUST AS I WAS FOCUSING, HE JUMPED AND GRABBED HIM(HER)SELF LUNCH! I’M THINKING IT’S SOME SORT OF LONG LEGGED FLY, BUT COULDN’T FIGURE OUT WHICH ONE. I FOUND ONE ON YOUR WEBSITE, WHICH LED ME IN THE DIRECTION TO GO, BUT THE WING PATTERN WAS DIFFERENT. I LOVE YOUR SITE AND AM IN AWE OF HOW MUCH YOU DO. ALBEIT, I HAVE DIAL-UP, BUT I CAN HARDLY KEEP UP WITH YOUR POSTING, LET ALONE PERUSE THE REST OF THE 1300 SOME PAGES. OH YEAH, THE FLY IS ABOUT 1/2” LONG AND WAS TAKEN ABOUT JULY 25TH, ON A SUNFLOWER LEAF.
CATHY
Long Legged Fly
Hi Cathy,
You are correct. This is a Long Legged Fly in the family Dolichopodidae. BugGuide has very good representation from nine different subfamilies. Our amateur guess is that this lovely metallic green Long Legged Fly is in the subfamily Sciapodinae and the genus Condylostylus, based on images posted to BugGuide. We do not rue the day we abandoned dial-up for a short stint on DSL before moving to cable internet.
Long Legged Fly with Prey
Hoverfly Syrphid
Location: Lexington NC
August 5, 2010 6:46 am
This little fella was loud and fast..
Landed and posed on my arm 
Rick Nelson (SCWIDVICIOUS)
Hover Fly
Dear Rick, AKA SCWIDVICIOUS,
However did you manage to get such clearly focused photographs shooting one handed? We believe your fly is Meromacrus acutus after looking at numerous images on BugGuide.
Hover Fly
I have a lot of practice shooting our gorgeous little friends, many that are much smaller than him. Lots of experience in macros, so he is a rather large target. He really did just land on me and pose. I already had the camera, got 3 shots of him before he buzzed off. That’s a great compliment, thank you.
¶ Posted 05 August 2010 § ‡ ° Identify a Wasp with a white face?
Location: Fairfield, Maine
August 3, 2010 7:45 pm
I found this on some goldenrod along with dozens of paper wasps. I seemed very camera shy or very busy, so I was only able to get this one picture. I looked through a lot of the potter wasps but did not find anything with the same markings and colors. Is this even a wasp at all?
Thanks!
James R
Unknown Syrphid Fly
Hi James,
This is not a wasp, but a fly that mimics a wasp. We suspect it is in the family Syrphidae, the members of which are called Flower Flies or Hover Flies. We are posting your photo as unidentified until we get an actual species or at least genus name. Perhaps our readers can assist us.
Correction thanks to Karl
August 4, 2010
This is a Thick-headed Fly [see BugGuide] (Conopidae), so named because of their relatively large heads. According to the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America “They are mostly parasites of adult solitary bees, and sometimes wasps. The female fly assaults the host in midair, often forcing it to the ground and ramming an egg between the victim’s abdominal segments before releasing it.” I believe the genus is either Physocephala or Phyoconops, the difference apparently being that in Physocephala the hind femur is somewhat swollen at the base, whereas in Physoconops it is not. This feature is not always easy to distinguish but the femurs do appear slightly swollen in this individual. There are many very similar looking species but based on color patterns of the face, legs, wings and abdomen, I think this may be Physocephala marginata. Regards. Karl
¶ Posted 04 August 2010 § ‡ ° Robber fly
Location: Fairfield, Maine
August 3, 2010 9:40 pm
Dear Bugman,
I was taking photos of this Robber fly on my hammock stand, when it swooped at my face and caught a flesh fly (I think) right in front of me and landed back where I was photographing it to eat. I have checked BugGuide and believe this is female Efferia pogonias. Does it have a common name or nickname? Do you know what the little honey-colored sacs on its sides are? There is one between the wing and the behind the wing and the ”shoulder” of the hind-most leg. You can also see them looking down through the wings from the top.
Thanks
James R
Robber Fly eats fly
Hi James,
We cannot tell if the prey in your photo is a Flesh Fly, but it is definitely another Dipteran. You may be correct that this is Efferia pogonias based on images posted to BugGuide, but we believe, based on the shape of the tip of the abdomen, that this is a male. Perhaps someone with more experience can confirm. The vestigial wings you asked about are known as halteres, and they are primarily for balance according to the Orkin Fly Anatomy web page. According to BugGuide: “haltere noun, plural halteres. – two small knobbed appendages rising from each side of the thorax in the order Diptera just where the posterior pair of wings would arise were they present, and to which they are analogous. They tend to balance the insect in flight.“
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for the I.D. and extra info!
I never would have guessed those were vestigial wings; What a cool feature.
Best regards,
James
Black and yellow bug
Location: Willis, Texas
August 2, 2010 6:48 pm
Beginning of August. Very hot. 50 miles north of Houston, Texas. This bug flew into our garage and my wife swatted it.
tom2087
Yellowjacket Hover Fly swatted unnecessarily
Dear tom2087,
This is a Yellowjacket Hover Fly, Milesia virginiensis. It is one of the Syrphid Flies in the family Syrphidae, commonly called Flower Flies or Hover Flies. Many species in the family mimic bees and wasps. The adult Yellowjacket Hover Fly feeds on nectar and pollen from plants like Queen Anne’s Lace, and it will also be attracted to the blooms of related plants in the garden like parsley, dill and carrots. You may read more about the Yellowjacket Hover Fly on BugGuide, including this tidbit gleaned from AllExperts.com: “Flies aggressively and buzzes like a hornet. In the southern United States, sometimes called the news bee or good news bee for its habit of hovering in front of a person and “giving them the news”. It is also said to be good luck if one can get the insect to perch on a finger, no doubt because this is difficult to do.“ There is no mention of swatting a Yellowjacket Hover Fly to bring good luck. The Yellowjacket Hover Fly is a benign insect that will not bite nor sting. People often react to loudly buzzing insects by swatting them, and it is part of our mission to educate the public because many beneficial and benign insects are killed unnecessarily just because they are frightening looking and the person feels threatened, so we are archiving your letter and image in our Unnecessary Carnage section.
4
bee predator
Location: mount washington, ky
August 2, 2010 12:50 pm
this is a picture of some sort of fly, i think, that was seen feeding on a bee. what is this?
thanks!
Red Footed Cannibalfly eats Bee
Greetings from Mt. Washington, Los Angeles, California,
This is the fourth image of a Red Footed Cannibalfly we posted in the last week.
Red Footed Cannibalfly?
Location: Central Indiana
August 2, 2010 10:15 am
My daughter snapped this photo of what we believe is a Red Footed Cannibalfly based on the information on this site. We live in the central part of Indiana. This photo was taken August 1, 2010. This guy was hanging out on our deck rail near our Sunflower plants. It appears as if he is having his lunch.
ajanisch
Red Footed Cannibalfly eats Hymenopteran
Hi ajanish,
Your letter excites us for numerous reasons. We are happy someone used a recent posting to correctly identify a previously unknown to them creature. We are also excited to get a second letter with an awesome Food Chain image of this gorgeous stealth hunter. We are also a bit proud that we were able to identify the image of the Red Footed Cannibalfly, Promachus rufipes, we posted this morning and the colorful common name was just the morale boost we needed before going off to a difficult day at work at the college. We wish we were proficient enough to identify the Hymenopteran prey. It is not a Honey Bee. Could it be a Yellowjacket? or a solitary Sand Wasp? Might it be a solitary Bee? Hopefully, a hymenopterist or a gifted amateur enthusiast will email the correct identification.
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