View Full Version : tee-niney tiny tiny bugs!
I was walking along the pond yesterday and saw what looked like blobs of oil. Black, lumpy blobs floating on the surface by the south shore. I looked closer and it appeared to be tiny black seeds. I couldn't imagine what plant would rain all these little seeds on the pond so I scooped up some and got my magnifying glass out and lo and behold, the tiny seeds turned out to be thousands of tiny black bugs, each about the size of a grain of coarse sand. :0!
And today, I got a better magnifying glass and it appears that some of the bugs have long orange legs. There also doesn't seem to be as many blobs of them today, but that may be simply because the blobs floated to another shore.
What in the heck can these things be? Has anyone ever heard of, or saw such blobs of bugs?:confused:
This is the second bug invasion this fall. A swarm of box-elder bugs overtook our garage.
Peggy. A few seasons back, we, too, were invaded by Boxelder bugs! Masses of them everywhere! My husband took to spraying them with bug killer (which helped), but no matter how much we sprayed, they kept a comin'. As for this past summer, hardly any.
Hmmmm.........interesting! How many legs did they have?
Cathy, they had at least 6 if not more. The bugs were shaped kind of like a grain of rice, but with pincher's/mouth parts in front. Not all have the orange legs. Could be it's actually two types of bugs. I didn't see the orange legs the first day, but only yesterday. Maybe the orange legged bugs are eating the other bugs. They are so tiny it's hard to get a really good look at them. My pocket microscope, which I've had for maybe 20 years, has given up the ghost. I went to a toys r us yesterday trying to find another, but maybe they don't make them anymore. I was reluctant to buy a regular microscope. It's very weird. Most of the fish have moved to deeper water. Maybe these bugs are there all the time and just get eaten normally. I don't know. I just love my pond. So many fascinating things to discover there everyday!
Mrs M...Aren't they the pits! For several weeks I've been sweeping these bugs out of the garage. If the weather turns cool they stay hidden, but the minute the sun shines they come out! They swarm on the outside of the garage and when we open it they get in, but then die as I had fogged for spiders last month. But I think the stuff is wearing off. I'm just waiting for the weather to turn cool and stay so i can fog again and kill them once and for all. At least they aren't bitey, stingy, pinchy bugs.;)
And they're actually living in the water? (on the surface)?
Originally posted by Peggy.
Aren't they the pits!They sure are! This year was good, but other years I'd even find them on my washing! That made me really mad!
Do you have lots of leafy greens in your yard? Apparently, they feed off such.
Notice how skittish they are? Walk by almost any other insect/bug, and no response, walk by these things, and they spook.
We always seem to have Box Elder bugs everywhere in the Fall. It used to be the asian ladybugs, which really bite, but they haven't been so bad recently.
Well Cathy, I don't think they are pond skaters. We do have those but the look is all wrong. I guess the closest in shape and color would be the giant pond bugs, but these are anything but giant. They are really really tiny. I guess they are about the size of poppy seeds.
Yes, they are on the pond. Or rather floating on the pond near the shore in clumps. Like wet, black seeds in clumps ranging in size from a dime to a cigarette pack. Clearly they are a pond bug of some kind. I might have to wait until they get bigger to see what they are, if they survive the winter. I would think at this size they would be perfect snack for the little minnows and shiners...who are snack for the bluegill, bass and crappie...who are snack for the heron..who is snack for the owl...
Do you hear the 'Circle of Life' playing in the background?:D
Is it possible that they are eating on some floating algae? Maybe they are just babies and will look different as they grow?
I have those bugs that have little side flippers and they dodge all over the place. They are so funny!
I think there's alot of weird things going on because of the summer's weather.
As I mentioned in another post, I have a female cardinal that been pecking on my windows for about 3 months now.......all day long. Something's weird, for sure!
It is weird! They could be feeding on surface algae as I saw we have developed a skim of it in this warm weather. I wish I could see some small fish, but they seemed to disappear altogether when the weather turned cool. I know they have simply gone to deeper water, but it still bugs me when I can't see any fish. My koi, I haven't seen since mid September. The water level is so low, the pond is down at least 3 feet. I'm not worried about it going dry or anything like that, but it just depresses me to go out there and see it so low. It will be more than one normal or above normal seasons to get it back to where it was.
But, things change on the pond daily. The muskrats are settling in and I see them daily carrying bunches of cattails to their den, I guess. I'm hoping for babies in the spring! The heron fishes daily, and if last year is any indication, he will stay till the bitter end, or ice forces him out! From the cattail 'tamp down', I see the deer are sleeping every night by the water. This is actually pretty close to the house, so maybe it's just the hunting season, or the dwindling water in the neighborhood that is making them sleep so close. As long as they leave my little trees alone, they are welcome to stay.
Well, as you say, things are weird.:)
I don't know if we talked about his Peggy, but here in Indiana, I guess there has been a big deer die-off because of the drought. Supposedly having very little water causes the deer to all go to the same watering places and the virus spreads quickly when they are so close to each other. I haven't seen many deer at all. Do you have any problems with beaver?
I have several 300 gallon above-ground stocktanks. In the summer they are filled with tadpoles. But this year, when I went to drain the stocktanks, there wasn't a single one. I have no idea where they go.
Glad to hear you're still enjoying your pond, even though its low. Fortunately, we've caught up on rain, which was such a relief. I hope you can catch up soon.
I'm afraid it will be several seasons before we catch up, but we seem to be holding our own this last month. I know there has been a couple of diseases affecting the deer this year. Chronic wasting is one, although the conservation dept says it hasn't really affected our area. And the drying up of watering holes has certainly been a factor, along with the lack of green stuff to eat because of the drought.
We haven't actually seen a lot of deer this whole summer, much less than in previous years. But we see evidence of them coming to the fen to drink. But in this last month we have seen them quite a lot. My husband says the deer know this is a deer sanctuary since we don't hunt, but what they don't know is we have invited a friend with a cross bow to 'have at it'!
The fen in the back has shrunk from a 3/4 acre body of water to about the size of my living room, but the large pond in the front isn't going anywhere although it is down about 3 feet, so this is probably why we are seeing more evidence of deer around it. I certainly hope we don't get any viruses spreading among the deer. I wonder if those viruses would spread to goats? We don't have goats but our neighbors about 1/4 mile from us do.
We don't have beavers. I think they like moving water, don't they? I suppose we could have had them out back as the fen stretched into the woods a bit, but I've never seen any evidence of them. Just muskrats.
I'm glad you have caught up with the rain. Just this night on the news they were saying it could get worse for some. Are you watching the program on the Dust Bowl? it's fascinating.
As far as those bugs in your water, I can imagine that the whole ecology of your pond has changed with the drought. Can you imagine how concentrated that water must be by now? There are bugs/plants that seem to love bad conditions!
Dang, I meant to watch The Dustbowl, but forgot! With the holidays coming I guess I got distracted.
Beavers like ponds too. Every once in a while I see a muskrat in our creek, but not very often.
I can't say that word without singing "Muskrat Love" in my mind the rest of the day. haha
Ha ha! I hear that song every time I see them!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you too peggy.............(~softly in the background~......Muskrat Suzi, Muskrat Sam....do the jitterbug down in Muskrat land............) :)
Sounds a little bit like some kind of small mayfly larvae. Do they have tails? Most mayflies have a kind of three prong, pointy tail. Damselfly larvae have more of a paddle for a tail.
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