by Roland D. Hallee

There it was. On the deck in front of the barbecue grill. I’d seen something similar before, but that one was brown. This one was a bluish color.

A little wracking of the brain produced no results. It was time to ask my contacts at the state level.

Allison Kanoti, acting state entomologist with the Maine Forest Service, told me it was a Rough Stink Bug, Brochymena arborea. That jogged my memory. What I had seen before, which looked exactly alike, instead of the color, was a Marmorated stink but, which I wrote about in the November 15, 2017, column. They are similar, but different.

The brown marmorated stink bug is an invasive species and considered a serious crop pest. They were accidentally introduced in the United States from Asia. It is believed to have hitched a ride as a stow-away in packing crates or on various types of machinery, first appearing in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1996. Following its arrival, the brown marmorated stink bug spread quickly from state to state, and is now listed as a top invasive special of interest by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) since 2013. It is readily found in the eastern half of the U.S., as well as several western and southwestern states.

At first glance, the two stink bugs are easily confused. If you find large numbers of stink bugs in or around your residence, chances are it is the invader, not our natives.

So, how do you go about telling them apart. First, look at their antennae. The brown marmorated stink bug has white bands on the last two antennal segments. Rough stink bugs have no such contrasting markings on the antennae. Second, look at the leading edge of the top of the thorax, right behind the head. There are fine teeth along that edge in the rough stink bug, so it is not the brown marmorated.

Again, they are called stink bugs because they produce teeming amounts of foul-smelling fluid that is discharged if disturbed.

Rough stink bugs are very well camouflaged and closely resemble the color and texture of tree bark on which it lives.

The rough stink bugs are beneficial insects that control caterpillars and other insect pests. Before randomly destroying an insect, always attempt to identify it first, or at least determine whether it’s a beneficial or pest. No one wants to kill a perfectly good bug. However, since little is known about these insects of non-economic importance, they are suspected of feeding on the sap of host trees and shrubs Though there are persistent rumors they are occasionally predatory, and many true bugs are opportunistic predators or scavengers on other insects, this may not be a stretch.

Eggs are laid in small clusters, resembling a honeycomb, on twigs of trees, and the nymphs that hatch progress through four instars (an instar is the interval between molts) before reaching adulthood. Their development from egg to adult is surprisingly long, so there is but one generation produced annually.

Rough stink bugs have an ability to withstand the cold. BugEric, Eric R. Eaton, an expert in the field, said he once attempted to kill rough stink bugs by putting them in a container in the freezer. He thinks he left them there for about a week or so. When he took them, he found them coming back to life in a relatively short period of time.

Rough stink bugs are the prey of the sand wasp. The female stings the stink but into paralysis, and then flies it back to her nest burrow where she deposits it as food for her larval offspring. Birds are also recorded as predators of the stink bugs. It amazes me that any other creature could find them and make a meal out of them, but they do have enemies.

You can look for the rough stink bugs in spring and fall when they are emerging from, and entering, hibernation. You’ll have to look closely, though, given their camouflage.

I don’t know what that rough stink bug was doing that day on my deck, in broad daylight, but it is contrary of what is known about them, that they camouflage well, and are difficult to find because they are fewer in number than the brown marmorated stink bug. I just got lucky, I guess.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

The Red Sox ownership ventured in NASCAR racing in 2007. What was the name of the race team?

Answer can be found here.

by Roland D. Hallee

Is there anything in this world more annoying than a house fly? – well, maybe except for Fran Drescher.

We have seen an inordinate infestation of house flies this summer. At camp, they are uninvited guests to outdoor cookouts, and even find their way indoors to, again, annoy us to no end.

At the office, we had a fly hatch last week that rivaled the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day. Flies just buzzing around our heads, work stations, and even during lunch. Literally, hundreds and hundreds of flies.

The house fly, Musca domestica, is believed to have evolved in the Cenozoic* era, possibly in the Middle East, and has spread all over the world as a companion of humans. They are present in the Arctic Circle, as well as in the tropics. It is present on every continent.

The adults feed on a variety of liquid or semi-liquid substances, as well as solid materials which have been softened by their saliva. They can carry pathogens on their bodies and in their feces, contaminate food, and contribute to the transfer of food-borne illnesses. Add the fact they are physically annoying, they are considered pests.

Each female house fly can lay up to 500 eggs in a lifetime, in several batches of about 75 to 150. The eggs are white and are deposited by the fly in a suitable place, usually dead and decaying organic matter. Within a day, the larvae or maggot, hatch from the eggs. The larvae avoid light; the interiors of heaps of animal manure provide nutrient-rich sites and ideal growing conditions, warm, moist and dark.

At the end of their fourth instar, the larvae crawl to a dry, cool place and transform into pupae. Pupae complete their development in from two to six days in warmer climates, and up to 20 days in cooler areas. When the metamorphosis is complete, the adult fly emerges from the pupa. Having emerged, it ceases to grow; a small fly is not necessarily a young fly, but is instead the result of getting insufficient food during the larval stage.

Females normally mate only once and then reject further advances from males, while males mate multiple times.

House flies actually play an important ecological role in breaking down and recycling organic matter. Adults are mainly carnivors with their primary food being animal matter, carrion, and feces, but they also consume milk, sugary substances, and rotting fruits and vegetables.

Adult flies are durial (active during the day) and rest at night. If inside a building after dark, they tend to congregate on the ceilings. In cooler climates, they hibernate through the winter, emerging in the spring when the weather warms up, and search for a place to lay their eggs.

House flies have many predators, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, various insects and spiders.

Flies are definitely a nuisance, but they are disliked principally because of their habits of contaminating food. However, fly larvae are as nutritious as fish meal, and could be used to convert waste to feed for fish and livestock.

The ability of house fly larvae to feed and develop in a wide range of decaying organic matter is important for recycling of nutrients in nature. This could be exploited to combat ever-increasing amounts of waste. Harvested maggots could be used as feed for animal nutrition.

House flies can be controlled, to a certain extent, by physical, chemical or biological means.

Flies have been used in art and artifacts in many cultures.

In the early 20th century, Canadian public health workers believed the control of flies was important in controlling the spread of tuberculosis. Flies were targeted in 1916 when a polio epidemic broke out in the eastern United States. The disease control continued with the extensive use of insecticide spraying well into the mid-1950s.

During World War II, the Japanese worked on bombs which consisted of two compartments, one with houseflies and another with a bacterial slurry that coated the flies prior to release. Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera, was the bacteria of choice, and was used in China in Boashan in 1942 and in northern Shandong in 1943. The ensuing epidemic killed 60,000 people initially, with a final count of 200,000 dead.

In the 1970s, the aircraft modeler Frank Ehlig constructed miniature balsa-wood aircraft powered by live houseflies. Studies with tethered house flies have helped in the understanding of insect vision, sensory perception and flight control.

Ogden Nash’s humorous two-line 1942 poem states: “God in His wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why.”

That seems to indicate the value of biodiversity, given that even those considered by humans as pests have their place in the world’s ecosystem.

*The Cenozoic Era, meaning “new life,” is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras, following the Mesozoic Era and extending from 66 million years ago to the present day. The Cenozoic is also known as the Age of Mammals, because the extinction of many groups allowed mammals to greatly diversify so that large mammals dominated it. The continents also moved into their current positions during this era. – Wikipedia.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

Which former Red Sox player was nicknamed “Rooster?”

Answer can be found here.