Left, hickory tussock caterpillar. Right, hickory tussock tiger moth.

by Roland D. Hallee

Last weekend while closing camp for the season, I had an encounter with the hickory tussock caterpillar. Although I didn’t touch it, but merely flicked it off a cleaning bottle, I think I stirred up its hairs and came down with a mild rash on my forearm. It lasted a little over a day.

Later in the week, I heard complaints from other people who have mysteriously developed a rash on their forearms or legs. That led me to thinking they had probably come in contact with the hickory tussock or, even more possible, the browntail moth caterpillar.

A couple of days ago, I received a press release from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Maine Forest Service, about the browntail moth caterpillar.

At this time, I will share that news release with you.

browntail moth caterpillar

Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC), Maine Forest Service (MFS), and 211 Maine remind the public that browntail moth hairs remain in the environment and can get stirred up during fall yardwork. Tiny hairs shed by the caterpillars can cause a skin reaction similar to poison ivy. They can also cause trouble breathing and other respiratory problems.

The caterpillars are active from April to late June/early July.

“While browntail moth caterpillars might not be as noticeable at this time of the year, their hairs remain toxic and in the environment for one to three years,” said Maine CDC Director Nirav D. Shah. “It is important that Mainers take the proper prevention measures when working outside this fall.”

The hairs can lose toxicity over time. Hairs blow around in the air and fall onto leaves and brush. Mowing, raking, sweeping, and other activities can cause the hairs to become airborne and result in skin and breathing problems.

To protect yourself from browntail moth hairs while working outdoors:

• Wear a long-sleeve shirt, long pants, goggles, a dust mask/respirator, a hat and disposable coveralls.
• Rake or mow when the ground is wet to prevent hairs from becoming airborne.
• Cover your face and tightly secure clothing around the neck, wrists, and ankles.
• Do not rake, mow the lawn, or use leaf blowers on dry days.
• Use pre-contact poison ivy wipes to help reduce hairs sticking into exposed skin.
• Take extra care when working under decks or in other areas that are sheltered from rain.
• Take cool showers and change clothes after outdoor activities to wash off any loose hairs.
• Use caution with firewood stored in areas with browntail moths, especially when bringing it indoors.

Most people affected by the hairs develop a localized rash that lasts for a few hours up to several days. In more sensitive people, the rash can be severe and last for weeks. Hairs can also cause trouble breathing, and respiratory distress from inhaling the hairs can be serious. The rash and difficulty breathing result from both a chemical reaction to a toxin in the hairs and a physical irritation as the barbed hairs become stuck in the skin and airways.

There is no specific treatment for the rash or breathing problems caused by browntail moth hairs. Treatment is focused on relieving symptoms.

For more information:

• Contact 211 Maine for answers to frequently asked questions on browntail moths, such as browntail moth biology, management, pesticide options, health concerns, and reducing toxic hair exposure:
• Dial 211(or 1-866-811-5695)
• Text your ZIP code to 898-211
• Email info@211maine.org
• To see Maine CDC’s browntail moth frequently asked questions page, visit: https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/vector-borne/browntail-moth/browntail-moth-faq.shtml
• To see Maine Forest Service’s browntail moth exposure risk map, visit: https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/documents/browntail_moth_risk_map.pdf.

I know that some of the suggestions of what to wear when doing yard work, or when to do it, doesn’t quite fit into your routine or schedule, but there is the old saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

Who was the last Boston Red Sox left handed pitcher to win 20 games in a season?

Answer can be found here.

Left, a giant ichneumon wasp photographed at a camp in Glenburn, and right, a pigeon horntail wasp.

by Roland D. Hallee

A little while ago, the pastor at my church sent a photo to me of a bug he spotted at his camp. It was a scary looking bug that neither of us had ever seen before. It was yellow in color, had long legs and a long protruding appenditure that resembled a stinger.

So, it was time to call on my friends at the Maine Forest Service for some input. Here is what we found.

The bug is called the Giant Ichneumon Wasp, Megarhyssa macrurus.

There are several different species of Ichneumon Wasps, each with its own color variations. Some are black and yellow, others reddish and striped. All have the Ichneumon Wasps body shape: a thin waist and an abdomen longer than the rest of the body.

Females have a long, needle-like ovipositor which is often mistaken as a stinger. The sturdy ovipositor acts like a syringe, injecting eggs deep into wood (live trees or logs) where the larvae will feed on any other insect larvae already deposited there. It is not uncommon to see females poking around wood in an attempt to find a good place to deposit her eggs. Males do not have the ovipositor so their abdomen are shorter. Both genders are still wasps, however. Despite their large size and being “wasps” these are harmless to humans and unable to sting.

Giant Ichneumon Wasps tend to live in wooded areas and throughout all of North America, though they do stay away from arid and hot desert regions and scarcely treed central plains.

Ichneumon Wasp adults do not eat at all. Larvae are parasites of Pigeon Horntail larvae, another type of wasp that deposits eggs in wood. The Ichneumon wasp larvae will hatch and feed on the Horntail Wasp larvae.

When an insect develops on a single host, and kills the host in the process, it is called a parasitoid. Parasites, on the other hand, tend to nibble on their hosts without killing them. And predators kill more than one of their prey items.

The giant ichneumon wasp is a parasitoid, notable for its extremely long ovipositor which it uses to deposit an egg into a tunnel in dead wood bored by its host, the larva of a similarly large species of horntail. Another of its common names is stump stabber, referring to its behavior.

When a parasitoid kills its host, it can indeed be a gruesome sight. Typically, an adult female parasitoid lays an egg on the surface of, or into the body of, a living larva of another insect. When the egg hatches, the parasitoid proceeds to consume the host, piece by piece. Like a cat with a mouse, it keeps its victim alive as long as possible. Dead larvae rot quickly, and this makes the meal less attractive. First the parasitoid eats the fat bodies of the larva, then the digestive organs, keeping the heart and central nervous system intact for as long as possible. Finally, they are eaten as well and the long-suffering victim dies, leaving an empty caterpillar shell.

The slow death inflicted by parasitoids that attack other insects tested the concept of a benevolent God for 19th century theologians who discussed this practice at length. Even Darwin had trouble with the largest parasitoid family as he wrote to Asa Gray in 1860: “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars….”

The female giant ichneumon wasp is a striking animal, two inches long, boldly patterned in brown, orange and yellow. Her two- to -four-inch long ovipositor with its two protective filaments looks like three long tails. Some parasitoids can choose to lay their eggs on a variety of host species, but giant ichneumon wasps need to find a larva of a pigeon horntail. Nothing else will do.

The ovipositor looks like a single filament, but it comprises three filaments, the middle one of which is the actual ovipositor, which is capable of drilling into wood. This central filament also appears to be a single filament, but is made of two parts, with a cutting edge at the tip. The two parts interlock and slide against each other.

Although very thin, the ovipositor is a tube and the egg being laid moves down a tiny channel in its center. The outer two filaments are sheaths which protect the ovipositor; they are out to the sides during egg-laying

The presence of giant ichneumons on a tree is not a good sign because they are an indication that horntail wasp are attacking the tree. Horntail wasps attack trees that are already under stress. Often by the time the wood-boring insects have started attacking the tree it is in irreversible decline.

Fortunately, for my pastor, the giant ichneumon wasp he saw was on a dead stump of a tree, and not on a healthy one.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

For how many teams did NFL quarterback Joe Montana play?

Answer can be found here.

harvestman daddy longleg

by Roland D. Hallee

I think it was Dr. Demento who used to say, “They’re everywhere, they’re everywhere!”

Well, they are. You could be sitting on the deck or porch at camp, and there’s one on your leg, or walking across your shoulders. Go do some garden work, and you’ll see them there. Deadhead flowers in your beds, yup, they’re there, too. Go fetch a couple of sticks out of the wood pile, Bingo! More of them. They are actually “everywhere” and can be a nuisance.

What am I talking about? Daddy Longlegs. It was Jim Stafford who sang, “I don’t like spiders and snakes,” and it usually applies to me. I think he had me in mind when he wrote the song. However, Daddy longlegs don’t bother me too much. They are tolerable, not like those other scary looking, eight-legged creatures.

But are Daddy longlegs truly spiders? Let’s take a closer look.

According to entomologists at the University of California, Riverside, the term “daddy longlegs” is commonly used to refer to two distinct types of creatures: opilionids arachnids with pill-shaped bodies and eight long legs are actually not spiders, and pholcids, which have long legs and small bodies, and thus resemble opilionids, but which are truly spiders.

What we refer to as daddy longlegs are actually called harvestmen. You see them almost every day. They are not spiders – although closely related – but belong to a group with many different species, called opiliones. The common name daddy longlegs came about because of their small oval body and long legs, and the name harvestmen because they are most often seen in large numbers in the late summer and early fall around harvest time.

While they have eight legs and an outward appearance of a spider, daddy longlegs lack two of the most important features that make a spider a spider: silk production and venom. Daddy longlegs do not have spinnerets that spiders have to produce silk and make webs. Spiders also produce venom they inject through fangs to quickly kill and digest prey. Daddy longlegs do not produce venom, nor do they have fangs.

So, how about the old legend, “daddy longlegs are one of the most poisonous spiders, but their fangs are too short and weak to bite humans?”

This tale has been lurking around for years. I have heard it repeatedly. This is incorrect, an urban myth. Most folks who retell this tale have no idea that they are referring to two completely separate groups of animals, daddy longlegs and daddy longlegs spiders.

Daddy longlegs spiders are venomous predators, and although they never naturally bite people, their fangs are similar in structure to those of brown recluse spiders, and therefore can theoretically penetrate skin. For these reasons, this is most probably the animal to which people refer when they tell the tale.

The daddy longlegs we see are the harvestmen – not spiders – and can actually be beneficial. They have a very broad diet that includes spiders and insects, and plant pests such as aphids. They will also feast on caterpillars, beetles, flies, mites, small slugs, snails, earthworms, other harvestmen, and decaying plant and animal matter. Daddy longlegs also scavenge for dead insects and will eat bird droppings. Control should only be performed when absolutely necessary. The clustering behavior only occurs during the fall and for only a brief period of time. If necessary, no need for pesticides, a broom or a vacuum will suffice.

Last weekend, I noticed a harvestman (daddy longleg) carrying a small moth across our deck at camp. I watched it for a while, and observed that it was struggling with the weight of the moth. Finally, the daddy longleg dropped the moth, ate its fill, and left. I kept going back from time to time to see the moth still laying on the deck. After a while, I don’t know whether it was the wind, or the harvestman returned, but the moth had disappeared.

Daddy longlegs legs easily break off. They have the ability to break off legs similar to the ability of lizards to break off a portion of their tail if being attacked by a predator. But it can have an adverse affect on them, especially if its the second set of legs.

The daddy longlegs’ second pair of legs serve as ears, nose, tongue and perhaps even as supplementary “eyes.” The legs are loaded with nerves and literally thousands of tiny sense organs that lie inside microscopic slits in the legs. They can produce a pungent odor that is distasteful to most predators.

Although they can be pests, they have a place in the ecosystem.

It’s going to be difficult, but you now should refer to those eight long-legged animals as daddy longleg harvestmen, and not spiders.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

Mike Lodish was the first NFL player to play in six Super Bowls with the Bills (4) and Broncos (2). Who is the NFL player to appear in the most Super Bowls?

Answer can be found here.

wooly bear caterpillar

by Roland D. Hallee

Has this been a crazy summer, or what?

The summer of 2019 may go down as one of the more mysterious of recent years. We had a bumper crop of black flies and mosquitoes, last week we covered the decline in the number of bats, the usual suspects appeared at our bird feeders – with a few exceptions, there has been a decline in the activities of red squirrels, chipmunks and gray squirrels, and even the garden isn’t cooperating.

Frequent and heavy rains through May and June, with a July and August that has been relatively dry. Just to show you how the beginning of summer shaped out, we actually ran the furnace, – and air conditioning – on the same day this year, ironically, July 4. That is a little bizarre.

At the bird feeders, we have had the annual appearance of black capped chickadees, gold finches, nuthatches, the occasional tufted titmouse, blue jays, crows and woodpeckers. Although they were slow to arrive. But no rose breasted grosbeaks, cardinals or Baltimore orioles earlier in the year.

We usually have two chipmunks scurrying around, where this year we have had only one. Apparently, it is safe to assume its partner met with some sort of tragedy. The red squirrels have not been seen and we have only observed one or two gray squirrels, where in most years it is a constant and never ending battle with them at the bird feeders.

Again, as mentioned last week, we have seen no bats.

The garden is doing OK, but some of the crops, which I have been growing for years with no difficulty, are looking like a bust this year. Broccoli has not flowered, and my cauliflower has produced only two florets. The green peppers are stunted, and have never really grown to any height, and bearing no fruit. The Brussel sprouts never got off the ground, and the squash are way behind where they should be this time of year. But, on the positive side, the string beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce are doing fine.

However, on the other hand, we have rag weed growing like gang busters in places where we have never had them before, the “junk” trees in my backyard have reached an all-time high, despite some cut back last spring, and the Virginia creeper vines have completely covered the wood pile and storage shed, and taken over the entire backyard along the fence. Where they came from is beyond me, but they have been proliferating abundantly over the last couple of years, again despite some major cutting in the fall.

cacadae

The only creature that seems to be on schedule is the cacadae, which came right on cue on July 26. As you know, that is the little bug that creates that loud buzzing sound on the hot summer days, which farmers for centuries have credited with predicting the first killing frost of the fall.

Folklore has it that the first crop killing frost will occur 90 days from the day you first hear the sound, following the next full moon, which this year will be November 12. I hope we don’t have an early winter like last year, because it is highly unlikely the first frost won’t come before that date.

Also, it is mid-August and we haven’t seen any hickory tussock caterpillars – the white fuzzy ones with the black stingers, no Monarch butterflies, but plenty of harvestman spiders – what we call daddy longlegs. They seem to have arrived a little early this year.

Here’s another, bees! We have seen only a handful of bumble bees, no yellow jackets or hornets.

Most of these are nature’s way of letting you know what kind of winter to expect. Where bee hives are built is usually an indication of the snowfall to expect. The higher the hives, the more snow to expect, according to folkore.

What remains to be seen is the wooly bear caterpillar. It’s still early for them. They usually appear in September. They are the little black and rust-colored hairy caterpillars that predict the severity of the winter. The longer the rust band on the body, the milder the winter, and vice versa. Last year, I can say I only saw a handful of those, where you normally see them everywhere, especially trying to cross a road. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with them.

We’ll sit back and see how September, and the beginning of fall shapes up. I wouldn’t mind seeing an Indian summer.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

In the NFL, how wide are the goal post uprights?

Answer can be found here.

Left, an emerald ash borer; right, six-spotted green tiger beetle

by Roland D. Hallee

Of all the animal species on earth, approximately 40 percent of them are beetles. Many of them look alike. That is probably why a friend of mine related to me that he had seen an emerald ash borer in Vassalboro and killed it, because, as a fairly knowledgeable woodsman, he knew how destructive they can be to the forest.

According to Allison Kanoti, state entomologist with the Maine Forest Service, Forest and Health Monitoring, and entomologist Colleen Teerling, there are no known emerald ash borers (EAB) in central Maine.

They do exist in Maine, but have been isolated to northern Aroostook County and western York County towns. I guess the logical question is, how can this invasive beetle be found in northern and southern Maine, but nowhere in between.

Anyway, they are being contained in those two counties because the transportation of untreated firewood into Maine from other states and provinces of Canada have been prohibited, as is movement of untreated firewood out of those quarantined areas. Firewood provides a free ride to a staggering host of insect and disease-carrying organisms that pose a threat to our forests. That is why it is encouraged for people to use local firewood.

So, what did my friend see?

Apparently it is a very common insect in our area called the six-spotted tiger beetle, also known as the six-spotted green tiger beetle, Cinindela sexguttata, which is common in North America.

They are commonly found in deciduous forests from Minnesota, east to Rhode Island, and north to Ontario. They are also found as far south as Kentucky.

They are easily recognizable, if you know what you’re looking for, by their large, white, overlapping mandibles and six yellowish spots on their bodies. They are also a brilliant green, which resembles to EAB. However, don’t let the spots fool you. Some of the species will have more spots, fewer spots or none at all, again possibly leading to a misidentification.

The mandibles give this insect a menacing appearance, but they are only predators of small anthropods. They do not bite humans unless handled or feel threatened.

This species is associated with wooded areas and they are often found in sunlit patches clear of undergrowth such as dirt paths and fallen logs where they hunt caterpillars, ants, spiders and many other kinds of anthropods. Although they are not gregarious, many beetles may sometimes be seen in one suitable hunting area.

The letter D-shaped holes in a tree produced by the emerald ash borer.

Like as many as 147 types of tiger beetles in the United States, this species has a two-year life cycle. During this time it goes through a complete metamorphosis. This means they have four separate stages during their lifetime. The first is the egg stage. The female lays eggs in individual holes in the ground during June or early July. The egg hatches and the second stage, known as the larval stage, begins. The larva resembles a caterpillar, but with two unique characteristics. The first is the two sickle-shaped jaws protruding from its abnormally large head, which it uses to catch prey. The other is a hooked hump on its back, which prevents it from being pulled out of the ground. The entirety of the larval stage happens underground. It then reaches the third stage, the pupa a year later. The pupa begins to make its way out of the ground by digging toward the surface diagonally. The adult form of the beetle emerges within a month. The beetle is sexually mature in the spring, mates, and dies during the summer months.

The tiger beetle, not more than a half inch long, is a ferocious predator in the insect world. It is carnivorous throughout the span of its life. The six-spotted green tiger beetle is an active creature with the ability to run and fly at great speeds; this is not the case for most beetles.

Now, getting back to the emerald ash borer. Should you find holes in trees in the shape of the letter D, please contact the Maine Forest Service, so an entomologist can be dispatched to investigate and possibly confirm or discount the existence of the insect in our area.

Hopefully, for the sake of our forest, you never come across one.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

To be politically correct, which NFL team would you be describing in the following manner:

A – Six royal male rulers; B – Juvenile bovines; C – Crimson Epidermis; D – Military insects?

Answer can be found here.