Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Assassin Bug Update
This is probably a sibling to the five wheel bugs I resettled on a Rose-of Sharon. I don't know what became of those because I didn't see them anywhere near the Rose-of-Sharon after the evening I moved them. As far as I can tell, my scheme for getting them to eat Japanese Beetles didn't work. The Japanese Beetles are more numerous than last week. The resident cardinals appear to be picking a Beetle or two off the plants as a sort of light snack. They don't seem to want to eat the whole batch at once, or maybe they don't really like them at all. I took down the sunflower seed feeders for the summer, so perhaps they just had a craving for something crunchy. I never noticed any birds eating JBs before. Anyhow, yesterday afternoon, I noticed this one Wheel Bug on the same Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate' from which I removed the five last week. They appear to be rather lethargic creatures, and I've not personally seen them eat any other insects, but I assume they wouldn't grow to adulthood without eating. After I photographed it (3 pix posted), I left it alone to eat what it will.
1 Comments:
Beautiful pix of the bug! An impressive creature.
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