Well, anyone around here, at least... the absence of these little critters?
(Photo from Wikipedia)
They are Asian beetles, imported to control aphids on soybean plants. They were so thick for a few years that they were a terrible annoyance.
These first three pics are from 2002. They were all over the outside of our house....
... and the windows:
Once the beans were combined, the beetles appeared everywhere, including inside the house!
And they were thick!
I took the next three photos in 2005. These were on our machine shed:
Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. The pics were taken with my old camera and had also been resized. But you get the idea.
The good news is.... I can count on two hands (maybe even one) the number of the beetles I've seen this year! WOOHOO!! Since they weren't doing a good enough job on the aphids, farmers have used crop duster planes the last few years to spray the soybeans, and it appears that the spray has also finally eliminated the beetles. What a relief to be rid of the stinky bugs. Yes, stinky. They had a real odor if you squished them. You could even smell them in the garage after they'd died. They ruined the loveliness of fall, because they were so thick in the air and they landed on you when you went outside. They also bit sometimes. And left spots on any laundry you might have hung on the line.
Needless to say, I AM HAPPY to see the end of them!!
3 comments:
I hope you're right about their demise but I think it was just not a good year for them.
Numbers were down around LC also, but there were some.
I had not seen your impressive bug collection before. It's amazing.
I won't be complaining if the aphid spraying takes them out too.
Dale
Well, now the crazy word is impossible to read because of the font they've used.
Apparently you're a good guesser, since your comment published. :)
Yes, it was a lucky guess.
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