Heteroptera
rss Rarest looking bug I’ve seen
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
September 23, 2011 12:18 am
PLEASE help me identify this crazy looking bug. I have asked a lot of people and noone has ever seen it before we would all like to know what it is.
Signature: Britt
Trio of Wheel Bugs Mating
Hi Britt,
We aren’t sure if one or both of the male Wheel Bugswill seal the deal with this female, and we don’t believe trios are the norm for mating activity.
Three Wheel Bugs Mate
Found in Mexico, Satelite: Aug 27, 2011
Location: Mexico, Satelite
September 19, 2011 9:31 pm
Can you tell me the name of this bug and what family it belongs to. Also, does this bug have a stinger?
Signature: Rosa Maravillas
Giant Mesquite Bug
Hi Rosa,
This is a Giant Mesquite Bug or a close relative in the genus Thasus. Giant Mesquite Bugs are in the family Coreidae, the Leaf Footed Bugs or Big Legged Bugs and they do not have stingers. We frequently get requests to identify the brightly colored nymphs of the Giant Mesquite Bug, and you can see photos of the entire life cycle on Colin L. Miller’s wildlife website.
Unidentified bug living in rotten wood
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
September 19, 2011 8:03 am
Dear sir/madam,
I’m renovating my house here in Sweden and found this insect living all over the garden in rotten timber. It is red and black and the adult has two distinct black spots. It’s clearly no ladybug! So what is it? Even the local exterminator didn’t have a clue.
Kind regards,
Matt
Signature: Matt
Firebugs
Hi Matt,
These are Firebugs, Pyrrhocoris apterus, and they are a benign species. We were not previously aware that they ranged as far north as Sweden. Firebugs can form large aggregations containing both adults and nymphs. For additional information, you can see this Guernsey website or the British Bugs website which indicates: “This common European bug is on the northernmost edge of its range in Britain and is the sole member of its family to occur here.” Global Twitter indicates this is not the first sighting from Sweden.
Thanks for the answer, so it’s rare then? Cool. I’m just glad it’s not after my foundations and only eating the lime seeds (we have a huge 100 year old lime in the garden). Should I let the local university know about it? Do you know which one in Stockholm would be most receptive to this?
Perhaps I could get a grant to save my lime tree from demolishing my foundations through it’s root system (and therefore pay for my house to be under pinned hehe, )… Joking, of course…
Thanks again,
Matt
Hi Matt,
They are not rare. In our previous response, we indicated that they are a “common European bug” but we do not know how frequently they are encountered in Sweden. If you desire more local information, we would suggest contacting the nearest university with an entomology department.
Bugs in our bushes
Location: Chattanooga, TN
September 17, 2011 12:26 pm
My wife found these bugs when she was trimming our bushes. They bit her and were very painful. I have never seen these insects before. To me, they look like tiny formula 1 racecars. They were very small.
Signature: RalphyZ
Lace Bug
Dear RalphyZ,
You have Lace Bugs in the family Tingidae. There are many similar looking species, but your individual looks close to the Hawthorn Lace Bug, Corythucha cydoniae pictured on bugGuide. The information page for the family on BugGuidesays nothing about them biting, but it does indicate they “Feed mainly on leaves of trees and shrubs, causing yellow spotting and sometimes browning and death of the leaves.” Many plant feeding Hemipterans are capable of biting humans since they have mouths designed for piercing and sucking, however, most of these True Bugs and other Hemipterans do not feed off of humans.
Lace Bugs
Assassin bug bite
September 14, 2011 7:21 pm
I looked up assassin bugs on your site and the info was helpful. I just wonder why you do not warn people who get bitten that they require medical testing to make sure they did not get Chaga’s disease. It is a disease that can be fatal if not treated quickly. It is rare in the US only because few people get bitten but about 50% of the bugs carry the disease.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease
http://insectsinthecity.blogspot.com/2009/03/study-on-risks-of-chagas-disease-in.html
Signature: Ralph Unger
Ralph,
Check your facts. Blood Sucking Conenose Bugs are in the genus Tritoma, the genus that carries the pathogens that cause Chagas Disease, and it is only one genus in a large and diverse family of insects. Not even half of the bugs in the genus, much less half of the bugs in the family, carry the pathogen that causes Chagas Disease. The University of Texas at Arlington calls the insect bite the Kiss of Death, an allusion to the common name for these Triatomine Bugs. The members of the genus Triatoma, are commonly called Kissing Bugs in English and by a variety of colorful names in Spanish, and they can spread Chagas Disease. The name Kissing Bug refers to their habit of biting people on or near the lips. Though there are many Assassin Bugs that will bite humans if they are carelessly handled or provoked, they are not interested in sucking blood, and they do not spread Chagas Disease.
Here are just a few of our previous postings that mention Chagas Disease:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/08/13/immature-kissing-bug/
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/04/16/immature-blood-sucking-conenose/
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/02/02/assassin-bug-possibly-bloodsucking-conenose/
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/02/01/assassin-bug-from-guyana/
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2010/12/15/eastern-bloodsucking-conenose-bug/
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2010/04/05/immature-bloodsucking-conenose-bug/
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/07/29/eastern-blood-sucking-conenose-bug-3/
Blood Sucking Conenose Bug from our archive
Thank you for the reply. If you do get bitten, There is a good chance that you can get the disease in Texas and the SW of the US. This is a new problem that has recently surfaced because of the immigration from the south into the US.
From “Infection of Kissing Bugs with Trypanosoma cruzi, Tucson, Arizona,USA”
“To our knowledge, almost no information has been collected during the last half-century on the incidence of infection by T. cruzi in triatomine bugs from Arizona (but see below). We found that 41.5% of the 164 collected bugs, most of which were T. rubida, were infected with T. cruzi, and that 63% of houses or sites where insects were collected had at least 1 specimen infected(in Arizona). … For instance, 51% of triatomines (mostly T. gerstaeckeri) collected from several areas in Texas were infected (n = 241), with many insects found near human dwellings. ..Many cases of Chagas disease in the United States, however, may be overlooked because the early phase of the infection is often asymptomatic (9,16), and health professionals are largely unaware of this disease. In Arizona, humans may be at a greater risk for vectorial transmission of the disease than previously thought because human populations are rapidly expanding into habitats where infected triatomines (20–22) and wild mammalian reservoirs such as packrats, mice, armadillos, raccoons, and opossums (23–27) are plentiful. Chagas disease is actively transmitted in domestic cycles involving dogs in southern Texas (20,28), where >50% of triatomines collected inside or near the homes of persons were found to be infected with T. cruzi (19,20). Studies conducted many decades ago found that triatomines in California, Arizona, and New Mexico were also infected with T. cruzi (22–25,29).
Thanks for the followup Ralph. It would also seem possible that a person might acquire Chagas Disease after being bitten in Central America. Once infected, subsequent bites by Kissing Bugs not carrying the pathogen will infect the insects who might then pass the pathogen on to additional humans it bites.
odd bug
Location: fredericksburg, va
September 11, 2011 10:57 pm
this bug was in our house today 9.11.11 & bit my husband. apparently it hurt quite a bit. we live in fredericksburg, va & are trying to determine what it is so we can decide if we need to get an exterminator.
Signature: evelyn
Flightless Female Black Corsair
Hi Evelyn,
Regarding the Black Corsair, according to BugGuide: “Females are (often) flightless, tend to live under logs, stones, etc. Adults overwinter under logs, in piles of weeds, etc. Males seen in open in spring, presumably searching for females? During mating, spongy pads on legs are used by males to mount females. Female is reported to stridulate with beak during mating, perhaps (?) to deter attack by male. Eggs are laid singly into soil beneath rocks. Males come to lights in summer.” The Black Corsair is an Assassin Bug that preys upon insects, but like many Assassin Bugs, it will bite humans if carelessly handled or if it feels threatened. You do not need to exterminate based on this unusual indoor visitor.
Daniel – Stink Bug Nymph?
Location: Hawthorne, CA
September 10, 2011 4:23 pm
Is this a stink bug nymph? If so, is it a beneficial or harmful variety?
Signature: Thanks, Anna Carreon
Painted Bug
Hi Anna,
Good call on the Stink Bug family Pentatomidae, but just because this Painted Bug is small, does not mean it is a nymph. We first created a post for the African Invasive Exotic Painted Bug, Bagrada hilaris, in 2009 when we found them eating our collard greens. We quickly learned that they had only been reported in the country since August 2008, and that they were first noticed in Orange County which you may read about on the Natural History of Orange County website. We had a massive infestation on the collards and the kale, but for the past year, we have not noticed them in the garden. You should eliminate them. We did not spray, but we destroyed their habitat and food supply by removing all plants in the cabbage family. Luckily they had gone to seed and needed to be removed anyway. Once the food was gone and they had nothing to eat, they vanished.
Red and black insect
Location: Hemet California
September 4, 2011 9:09 pm
PLEASE identify this bug for me. I have about 25,000 of them in my acre backyard. I need to know if their dangerous, if i need to get an exterminator or what. Please help me!!!!
Signature: Bug information??
Red Bug
The quality of your photograph is not ideal for discerning details, but the photo of the single insect you have attached appears to be a nonnative Red Bug, Scantius aegyptius, a species known to form large aggregations containing individuals from various stages ranging from young nymphs through mature individuals. BugGuide has reported this invasive exotic species is already established in Southern California. Our first reports of this nonnative invasion date back to 2009. The University of Riverside has a nice page on this Invasive Exotic species.
Red Bug Aggregation
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