Subject: Texas bug ID
Location: San Antonio TX
March 18, 2013 2:33 am
Had a few of these flying insects land on me in the house. Now have found several in hallways. All dead or dying.
They look ”waspish”, but can’t find them anywhere on the web. Since there are so many lately, I am assuming they are nesting somewhere near or in the house. Once identified, can you suggest their habits such that I can determine the best places to look for where they are gathering. Damp places, dry places, high, low, warm, cold etc.. Temperatures in the last week or so have been in the 70’s daytime to somewhere between 45 to 55 evenings.
Signature: Execumahr
Sent a request with 3 photos but the pics were so large (20M each) they took FOREVER to load, so sent a second request with same pics downsized for expediency. Hope that helped.
Dear Execumahr,
Downsizing from 20M to 41K was very dramatic. We routinely receive 5M images, but perhaps 20M was too much. These are Red Headed Ash Borers, Neoclytus acuminatus, and they are not infesting your home. We suspect they came in with firewood. That is a common occurence with this species as well as with other species of beetles with wood boring larvae.
We just laid an ash floor in our brand new home. It came from a 150 year old tree from my grandpa’s farm. We noticed before we got the wood tongue and grooved that there were these same bugs that had bored and were living in the wood. We sprayed with insecticide assuming that would take care of the problem but now that we are all moved it, we keep finding new bore holes and the little beetles in the home. They are most definitely from the wood and I’m concerned they will be ruining the wood under the surface. I have no idea what to do!