Green bug!!!
Location: Central Florida
May 14, 2011 9:49 am
Have any idea what kind of bug this is? I live in Central Florida and they are only around this time of year. They are too smart…if they get into the house they fly into the walls repeatedly. Ugh! They buzz very loudly for a bug their size. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Hopefully someone can ID this bug and tell me how to send them away!!
Signature: Help!!!
Dear Help!!!,
According to BugGuide, this is Chlorotabanus crepuscularis, the only green Horse Fly in North America. BugGuide also indicates: “Females feed on mammalian blood” as well as providing this remark: “As with all the blood-feeding tabanids, the females are responsive to Carbon Dioxide. I caught over 500 females in one night with a trap baited with dry ice in coastal South Carolina. Will also come to lights at night. Regarded as a pest species in Florida.” Though we don’t normally provide extermination advice, we thought we would pass on the information about trapping them with dry ice, a fascinating method. Also, the specimen in the photo is a blood sucking female who can be distinguished from the male by her eyes. The eyes of a male Horse Fly meet at the center of the head while those of the female have a small space between them.
Thank you!! They are a MILLION of them where I live (pretty rural). I have never been bit by one though…luckily. They seem to be attracted to light, too!! I’ll try the dry ice though!! Thanks!