What ARE these bugs?!?

19 years ago

Yesterday was an absolutely lovely warm day - real shirt-sleeve weather!

With the sunshine and warmth, out came the woolly aphids. Flying around in their little blue-white coats of fuzz - everywhere! It seems that they show up with the first warm weather at the beginning of the growing season. And then, they reappear during the last and final days of warmth, usually after some cold rains and frost.

While I was thinking about writing this note, I got a phone call from my daughter. These are usually odd exchanges with her saying something and then hearing-impaired Dad responding, "What?!?" And, then she repeats it, often multiple times.

This time it was fairly simple, "What ARE these bugs?!?"

The poor things don't have the same day that they enjoyed yesterday. It is windy and now the rain has begun to fall but this morning they were out in their blue-white clouds.

I stopped in a parking lot which borders a park this morning. Probably, they are coming out of the moist ground in the park. I was happy NOT to need to get out of the pick-up. A bicyclist would have had a real problem since breathing without inhaling a bug would have been a real accomplishment.

Some species are pests in the apple orchards but I think these are coming from the leaves of the elms and other trees. Here's a BugGuide webpage with some pictures.

Despite the trouble they cause with breathing, in their adult stage - I think they are kind of cute. If you look on that bottom row of photo's, however, you can see the damage they do to tree leaves. Ah well, apparently they are trouble-makers as youngsters.

digitS'

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

david52 Zone 6
19 years ago
I see a few of those around, but nothing like breathing them....Soon here is the spider parachute invasion season, and that can be phenomenal. I don't know the precise conditions, but sometime in the fall, in the afternoon when there is a decent westerly breeze, they start coming in from the pinion cedar forests of Utah - millions upon millions of foot long spider strands in the breeze, with little tiny spiders handing onto the ends. When the light is right, its absolutely beautiful.

They're so fine that you really don't notice them, unless the light is right, but the next morning, if the windows were open, the screens are covered in spider silk.
digit
Original Author
19 years ago
Okay, conditions are: wind from Utah and warm enuf or nearly warm enuf for the windows to be open.

Maybe they show up to eat the woolly aphids.

d'S'
"GERONIMO!!"
Related Professionals
Fall River Landscape Contractors · Newark Landscape Contractors · Watertown Landscape Contractors · Mansfield Landscape Contractors · York Landscape Contractors · Austin Architects & Building Designers · Champaign Architects & Building Designers · Greenfield Architects & Building Designers · Kirksville Architects & Building Designers · Binghamton Architects & Building Designers · Aberdeen Architects & Building Designers · Colorado Springs Architects & Building Designers · Lubbock Architects & Building Designers · Spanish Fork Architects & Building Designers · Honolulu Architects & Building Designers
tunnymowg
19 years ago
Steve!! You made me think of standing in my parents' driveway in Virginia as a teenager (a long time ago!) being captivated and bewildered by what appeared to be a lot of very pale blue lint being blown around. And then catching some of it and thinking "Oh, they are bugs? Weird...but cute!!" heehee! Thanks for the memory! :-)
jclepine
19 years ago
somehow, I am in love with these bugs...way too cute...
luckily, we have only seen a few of them, but the gnats and fruit fly-sized things, oi! 'tis like breathing in icky fairy dust!
I am reminded of the june bugs in california. As kids, my brother and I would watch them land on the screen door, trying to get to our kitchen light...oh, it was kind of scary
anne_boulder
19 years ago
Wow, finally an answer to " what are those irridescent blue bugs?". Thanks, digit's........and now i know what's been mutilating my currant bush. They're long gone after the freeze, along with most of the remaining garden, but, well, it has to happen sometime. So sad........
Anne
digit
Original Author
19 years ago
Happy to be of some help, Anne. And, sorry about the currant bush.

Now if you can assist me - there was a butterfly (yes!!) on the sunny, back steps when I arrived home for lunch. What was it and what IS IT DOING HERE IN LATE OCTOBER!

I'll put the info and link over on the current butterfly thread.

digitS'