4-H Bug Show 4: Part 1

• Hi, I’m Shane Harris with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. We’ve learned about insects and bugs in the last few videos. It’s now late summer approaching early fall, and there’s still plenty of insects and bugs for us to talk about. In fact, there may be more at this time of year than ever. In this latest series of videos, “Bug Show Number 4”, we’re gonna highlight some of the larger insects that are out there, as well as some of those creepy crawly bugs or spiders that are beginning to appear in the fall season.

00:29 - Stay tuned and hope you’ll learn something more about the world of insects and other bugs in this latest series of videos. - [Narrator] The ladybug is an all time favorite insect. Despite its name, ladybugs aren’t true bugs. They’re actually small beetles. Most ladybugs have oval dome-shaped bodies with six short legs. They can be either male or female, not just ladies. Depending on the species, they could have spots, stripes or no markings at all. Most are red and black, but some types are orange and black. People like ladybugs because they’re cute and pretty, but they’re also considered good insects because they’re harmless and they eat bad bugs. One ladybug can eat up to 5,000 aphids in its lifetime. Ladybugs are welcomed in gardens and on farms because they help control so many bad bugs. There’s a reason ladybugs are colorful.

01:31 - Their color pattern tells predators, “I taste terrible. “You need to eat something else.” They can also secrete a fluid that makes them taste awful. They sometimes will even pretend to be dead if bothered. The ladybug beetle can live up to one year and is typically a great insect to have around. Here is an odd-looking insect, the praying mantis. Some may say it’s strange and scary-looking. Its name describes how it holds its front legs upright when steel, which sort of looks like it’s praying. Praying mantises can be from one to six inches long depending on the species. They have triangle heads poised on a long neck and they’re the only insects that can turn their head side to side, 180 degrees. Their eyes can see movement up to 60 feet away.

02:29 - They can also fly short distances, such as from one tree to another. Praying mantises are impressive predators because they catch and eat other bugs. Typically green or brown and well-camouflaged on the plants, mantises lie and wait or move very slowly, waiting for their next meal. They patiently and quietly watch for a bug to come by. With lightening fast moves, they use their front legs to quickly grab their prey. Gotcha, now it’s time to eat.

03:06 - Praying mantises are weird-looking insects, but are indeed fascinating bugs. Here is a large colorful spider, commonly known as the black and yellow garden spider. This web crawler is type of orb-weaving spider. Orb weavers make the large spiderwebs we see and often run into the late summer and fall. The big spiders we find are typically females. This garden spider can be almost three inches long from leg tip to leg tip. The bodies of females grow to a little more than one inch long. The male spiders are much smaller and are rarely seen. Black and yellow garden spiders are not dangerous to people. They may look scary and creepy, but they’re not interested in people.

03:55 - They can bite, but are not very aggressive. They’d rather run and hide if disturbed or if their web is damaged. All spiders are carnivores and they eat primarily insects. Black and yellow garden spiders find their prey or food by sensing vibrations in the web. They eat anything that doesn’t tear itself loose from the sticky web. Spiders are considered good bugs.

04:22 - Black and yellow garden spiders usually build their webs in fairly open areas, as opposed to dense shrubs or inside shelters. They’re common around homes and gardens. Spiders rest in the center of the web until they feel vibrations from intruders. When the insects such as a grasshopper or moth is caught, the spider will attack it and inject venom into the prey to kill it. It then may wrap it in silk webbing. After the prey is secured, the spider will feed on the liquid turn meal, sorta like a bug-flavored milkshake. Yuck! This insect is called a red velvet ant.

05:04 - It looks like a large hairy ant, but it’s actually a wasp. Since females do not have wings, they’re sometimes confused as being ants. They are mostly orange-red with some black. The male red velvet ant looks very similar, but has dark wings and can fly. This female red velvet ant can be nearly one inch long. It is a solitary wasp, which means it lives alone and not with other wasp. She gets her name from the short, smooth and shiny velvet-like hair on her body. Some folks call these insects cow killers due to the females ants’ powerful sting, which is said to be strong and painful enough to kill a cow. Well, maybe not that strong, but it is said to hurt worse than a bee sting. Red velvet ants are usually discovered during the summer and fall roaming along the ground.

06:03 - They may be seen walking across lawns or pastures. Adult red velvet ants feed primarily on nectar and water. Red velvet ants are not aggressive and will try to escape when bothered. It’s okay to look at it, but this is not an insect to pick up or handle. Wow, what a big grasshopper. This is an eastern lubber grasshopper. The word lubber can mean lazy and clumsy, and best describes this insect.

06:34 - It’s quite slow in movement and mostly travels by walking and crawling on the ground. The color pattern can vary for adult eastern lubber grasshoppers. This is the black color form, but they can also be yellow or black or a combination of these two colors. This is one of the biggest grasshoppers found in Alabama. Adults are almost three inches long. This large heavy body grasshopper is unable to fly and it’s poor at jumping too. It mostly walks.

07:07 - However, it is a good climber and often climbs into trees to feed on its leaves. In the garden, they can be a pest. Lubber grasshoppers are defoliators, meaning they eat leaves from numerous plants. They often damaged plants by taking a bite out of the leaf and then moving on to another plant. Should a predator find it and think about eating it, this grasshopper may try to scare it off. It may issue a warning by spreading its wings, hissing air, or secreting a foul-smelling foam or even vomiting.

07:43 - Who would want to eat that? They may pretend to be scary, but they’re harmless to us humans. .