Today my student forensic entomologists collected “fly larvae” evidence in a Who Killed SpongeBob Squarepants scenario. ID’d with a key, larvae were measured for length. Using temp data and growth curves, the post-mortem interval was determined to narrow the list of suspects.

Am at NJ School of Conservation Teaching Scholar Program on Biodiversity Field Methods by Stokes State Forest. Bird mist netting/banding demonstrated by Dr. John Smallwood followed by birding lecture/walk. Amazing amount of data collected. Bat tagging/small mammals tomorrow.

Great AES trip to Mt. Cuba, Del. Bugs everywhere! Baited a pitfall with aged chicken/liver/squid. 12 American carrion beetles (ACB) in 3 hours. Found fresh dead shrew with fly eggs/no larvae. Ants took over after I moved it for photo. Another shrew was under a pile of ACBs.

Had 11 bugs on my 2019 most wanted list. Found #3, Big-eyed toad bug, on the banks of the Del. R. in Titusville, NJ. Small,0.5-0.6 cm, and cryptic in color, hard to spot unless they hop. First time I saw one,I mistook it for a young toad. Truly are big eyed and toadlike.

Was a warm fall day so windows were open until the odor of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug drifted into the house. Counted 14 of them on my screens. Thanks to a Spotted Orbweaver whose web has covered a window for the past week, there is one less stink bug trying to winter inside.

Walking along the canal path just south of Stockton, I saw dead Spotted Lanternflies for my first time in NJ. (1 live, 4 dead) When I called it in to the hotline (1 833BADBUG0) I was told they had a control team already in the area.

Finished winterizing beehives today. Added winter food patties high in carbohydrates to supplement honey reserves. To help protect bees from cold weather, hives were wrapped with tar paper. Moisture boards were placed inside to capture condensation buildup that occurs in winter.

Social distancing gives me time to catch up on my insect collection. Bugguide.net is my “Go To” for ID support and current taxonomy. It keeps me up-to-date with changes by the “splitters and lumpers” and other revisionists. (I still mourn the passing of “Isoptera”.)

People expect me, a bug guy, to ID any small life forms (and big spiders) they find. Photos show the latest. May be Basilica orbweaver spider egg case in cherry laurel. Often in my Xmas tree each year. Using stay home time to learn spider collecting and ID. Good resources shown.

Beeswax is a by-product of my beekeeping. Am using it to make candles. Great hands-on, educational activity for home bound families. Connects to science-properties of matter, social studies-pioneer technology, math-geometry, mass, volume, Writing-Idioms “Mind your own beeswax.”

They’re here! Newly hatched Spotted Lanternfly nymphs have appeared on my deck rail in Lower Makefield, PA for the first time. Black with white dots, they are quick to hop away. Have collected 30 so far. Never saw adults in the area last fall. I will try to find the egg mass.

Having finished Sustainable Jersey grant report for project conducted by CMS students in WW-P where I kept asking them “What can you repurpose/reuse?”, my next task was to order solar beeswax melter but heard their voices asking me same question. My answer: old inverted aquarium.

Today was comb honey harvest day. Rather than separating honey from the wax comb, honeycomb is cut with a knife or square cutter into blocks placed into containers. Because honey is eaten, wax and all, directly or spread on toast, warm bread, etc., it’s popularity is limited.

Kale, zucchini, and mosquitoes oh my! Rainwater in a forgotten bucket in my garden was full of mosquito larvae and pupae. From a sample of that water transferred to a mosquito breeder, 102 adults emerged. 10 of 10 examined were daytime biting Asian tigers. What is the lesson?

Covid concerns have cut back on my insect collecting trips. No worries-My bug vault contains still-to-be ID’d dried specimens from family vacations years ago. The Ornate Bella Moths in this envelope waited 22 years to be relaxed, pinned, labeled, and ID’d. Discovery continues.

Beekeeping is a challenging hobby. Honeybees are livestock requiring yearlong monitoring and management inputs. In the fall we wrap our hives, add mouse guards and moisture boards, and feed winter patties high in carbs and low in protein to increase overwintering survival rates.

Spent the day looking for egg cases of the 4 local praying mantis species. Carolina mantis is native but Chinese, Narrow-winged, and European mantises are not. Photos show ootheca of a Chinese (left) and a European mantis and a European mantis feeding on harvestman last summer.

Am back to being a bug guy again! Have a moth survey job from April through Sept. Set up UV moth traps overnight in state game lands and forests in western PA/MD. ID/count/report the results. Driving on narrow gravel forest roads is like being in a Subaru Forester commercial.

While emerging cicadas are getting the headlines, newly hatched spotted Lanternflies are quietly invading my neighborhood. Thousands can be seen on sticky tape barriers on nearby red maples. I added more bird houses in my yard in hopes the inhabitants will prey on the invaders.

In prior years, my milkweed plants hosted milkweed bugs, milkweed beetles, oleander aphids, tussock moths but no monarch larvae. Spotted Lanternfly are the year’s surprise addition to the list. Will ingestion of the cardiac glycosides harm, help, or have no impact on the nymphs?