Return to the Insects Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
Posted by Bethany_Z5 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 20, 05 at 13:34
Never seen this in all they years we've been here but they are crawling all over out by the chicken/duck house so I cannot spray with chemicals. DE hasn't put a dent in them so far but i just put it down a couple days ago.
About the size of an aphid. When you squash in it leaves a purple stain. Wingless, soft bodies.
Please any suggestions on what to do.
|
Image link: Please help ID! I have a plague! (45 k)
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
| I responded to your posting in another forum. Here are my thoughts. There is not one of those critters in focus, so it is difficult to do anything but speculate on what kind of insect they might be. Can't see a head, can't see the top of one of the little things. They do appear to be one of the true bugs, but perhaps a weevil of some sort. The other thing we have to ask ourselves is what these insects might be doing where you found them. Plant bugs are not going to be found in a setting where there are no plants. Insects that predate on other insects are going to located somewhere close to their food source. Insects that feed on animals, seed, wood, etc, are going to be near those sources. If these insects seem to be consentrated in the same areas as your chickens, I would absolutely take some insect samples to your vet, as I suggested before. Inspect your feed, too. Try taking and sending more images, and I'm sure that would help. |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
| And there's the problem....box elder bugs lay their eggs ON the food source. Those little babies can't fly to find plants, they have to hatch on them. So, I think we have to conclude that whatever these critters are, they feed on poultry or poultry feed. Unless there are some plants very near by....like right next to those little buggies, I think we are looking at a critter that does not dine on living plants. |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
| Boxelder bugs eat plant matter, but will also attack other insects. In my case [I had swarms of them, they were not only after the maple, but my own caterpillars! I haven't determined if they actually can suck nourishment from dry wood, but they have a very strong affinity for my house. Yes, they live in the woodwork! I can only presume they attack sowbugs and slugs. I can only guess in the henhouse, they are either after the fly and beetle larvae or just the wood itself. |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
| Boxelder bugs don't have any sort of tasty affinity for wood. Nor, as far as I am aware, other insects. Instead, they damage seeds of boxelders and other maples. The reason they cluster on houses and other buildings is that they're simply hanging out for the winter. They hide in the interior of the wall, then come out on sunny days. And they might also follow the warmth gradient from the wall interior to inside the room. Beyond that, let's repeat this -- those hen house critters aren't boxelders. Although they have the correct colors -- red and black -- those colors are in the wrong places. |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
| I've been trying to ID a bug in my garden in great numbers and this is it. They hang out on the foundation of my house (concrete)then move to the garden. They are in the mulch in my tomatoes and have had a mass population explosion. The baby bugs are all orange with bigger abdomens. They don't seem to fly or eat my plants, but I'd really like to know what they are and why they're in the garden. |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
Ummm...am I the only one who sees the red cornicles on those things that are "about the size of an aphid"?
Fer cryin' out loud, people. |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
| You missed the other images and conversations regarding these critters when it was first posted many months ago. It was pretty much decided that these are not aphids, though I can see how one might think (at first) that they are. As I recall, the original poster sent some better images out that pretty much secured that fact. |
RE: Please help ID! I have a plague!
| | |
| Really? are you saying those are anal Cerci or something? I guess I'd like to see those other pictures because if those are cornicles, they are aphids. If they aren't, then I'm a monkey's uncle. |
|
|
|
|
