Strange bug on my Porch in AZ
August 26, 2009
Hello, I live in south eastern Arizona, and we recently bought this house. We have these strange bugs coming around the back porch when we turn the light on. I have no idea what they are and thought you might be able to help. We are wondering if there is anything to worry about with these. Thanks, Chris
Chris in AZ
Sierra Vista Arizona
Hi Chris,
We absolutely love our new server which we just started using this week. It was a fine investment. It enabled us to quickly search our own archive to identify your Mesquite Girdler, Oncideres rhodosticta. We recall spending quite a bit of time in the past trying to identify this beetle, and we eventually requested assistance from Eric Eaton. We quickly located our September 2007 posting, and now that we have the scientific name, we can link to the BugGuide page as well. Here is the information Eric Eaton provided us in the past: “Females climb out on a mesquite twig and chew a deep groove around the diameter. Each female then lays an egg beyond the scar. The girdling kills the twig beyond the scar and the larval offspring bores in that dying wood. This, and other species of longhorned beetles, effectively prune trees and shrubs in this manner, literally shaping the forests and woodlands where they live. Eric“