One of my co-workers commented last week that she had heard her first katydid singing in a tree in her back yard. Last week, I took my poodles out for their constitutionals, after dark, and I was nearly dumbfounded by the chorus of cricket sounds!

I heard a couple of katydids, but most of what I heard were other orthopterans! I heard conenose grasshoppers (relatives of katydids), tree crickets, small black crickets and the big black field cricket.

Each has its own song and once you learn the songs, you can identify every species. I'm not that good as I know that I was hearing some additional species of crickets.

Katydids and conenoses are in a group generally called longhorned grasshoppers. Most look like green or brown grasshoppers, but their antennae are very long and thin, often longer than the entire body length. Their rubbing of their wing bases produce the typical katy-katy-katydid or crench, crench, crench noises. The true crickets also use their wings to produce their songs, but they rub them so fast that the songs sound like high-pitched trills or chirps.

Why all the noise? SEX! Only the males have the rasp, file and vibrating membrane structures on their wings. Both females and males have "ears" (more technically called tympania) and both are often attracted to a male singing. Males will often fight each other for territory though some seem to gather together so that the combined chirping sounds travel farther to bring in more females. Once a female arrives, she will size up the male, and if he is deemed worthy, the female will mate!

I've been getting a general increase in inquiries about spider mites on landscape trees and shrubs. Of greatest concern to me is mite damage on arborvitae! Arborvitae can get spruce spider mites (a true cool-season species) and the arborvitae spider mite (a species that seems to remain active in warm conditions). So, the real question should be, "Are the mites active or not?" In fact, this should ALWAYS be the question when mite damage is noted (that is, the tiny, yellow stipples on leaves or needles). Even warm-season mite populations can be eliminated by predators, disease or weather conditions!

So, how should you determine whether mites are active or not? I prefer to use what is called the "bang board" technique. Entomologists, traditionally, have used a square foot of plywood or masonite painted white. They hold this square under the foliage of the plant and strike the overlying branch sharply with a stick…whack, whack, whack. I now use a square foot of quarter-inch foam board! It's easy to get, light weight and when it gets too dirty, I just cut another piece rather than having to repaint it! After striking the foliage, hold the board with all the debris that has been dislodged horizontal to the ground for about 10 seconds. Then tilt it vertically to dump all the leaf litter, needles, etc. The hesitation will let the mites upright themselves and hold onto the board. When you closely inspect the surface, you see small dots walking about. With your finger tip, squash the spots in a streaking motion. Spider mites will streak shades of green (from the chlorophyll they have been eating) while predatory mites will streak yellow or pink-orange.

Lots of green streaks? You have active mites and a miticide may be in order. No green streaks or more yellow or orange streaks relative to the green streaks, hold off and let the predators do their thing! Sample again in a couple of weeks to see if the predators have done their duty!

BYGLers also ran into a number of other insect pests this week including:
The COMMON BAGWORM (Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis) feeding season is coming to an end. Joe Boggs reported that around fifty percent of the bagworm caterpillars in the Cincinnati area have tied the feeding end of their bags to anchorage points and sealed the opening closed to prepare to pupate. This means the time to treat with an insecticide to manage bagworm populations has come to an end. Hand-picking bags from host plants is the only effective management option available at this time.