Insect and Disease Identification Thread

:+1: for Fipronil as a barrierā€¦ My niece was bitten by a Brown Recluse when she was a toddler. Doctors put her in a hyperbaric chamber for some time, breathing highly oxygenated air. That was it, healed up and no problems.

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Walking by a small pear something odd caught my eye - a small horizontal twig. It took me awhile to realize it was a very large inchworm (or are they called spanworms when that large?)! Looked around and sure enough, there was another. Canā€™t say as Iā€™ve ever seen one before, though considering their incredible camouflage t I doubt Iā€™d see them on a larger tree. It wasnā€™t hard to find that they are a type of Geometer but I didnā€™t have any luck finding a good ID site with photos of the caterpillars that matched up with a name or moth photo. I realize this is a very large family but is anyone familiar with this one? They sure are impressive. Sue

twig-geometer2-pear-gf

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wow! like the walking stick of caterpillars. never seen them up here but maybe never looked close enough.

Thousands of images here:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/188/bgimage?from=0
^ select caterpillar images rather than ā€œadultā€

but I could find nothing to match. You would be better off putting the caterpillar into a container with leaves and seeing what adult moth emerges.

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Any idea what this is?

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No. But if it were in my house it would be known as deadā€¦LOL

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Not positive, but it looks like a wheel bug. If you look at one from the side, a wheel bug has what looks like a round toothed wheel sticking up from its back. If thatā€™s what it is, they are beneficial predators that eat lots of pests, including Japanese beetles, cabbage worms, Mexican bean beetles, and tent caterpillars. I love to see them in my garden!

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That could be one of the Leaf-footed bugs.bb

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Recluse - I was bitten. Leg blew up like a balloon. I had a small area of necrosis and what apparently is a ā€˜venom granulomaā€™ which makes the venom pocket wall of but bits break free over time
Been 20 yrs hopefully last episode is done. Have a big ol grey-brown scar

It HURT

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Insect above has wrong neck area between head and thorax for wheelbug. Also, even from the underside, the abdominal flaring of a wheelbug would be visible.

It is similar to leaf-footed or to squash bugs.

At least it is not a brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB).

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That sounds horrible.I never want to get near one of those.bb

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When i lived in kansas city it was ripe with brown recluse. I do hate them a buddy got a huge necrotic spot on his leg when being bit by one and it was crazy seeing how fast he got sick and it swelled up. Essential oil sprays made of about 4 TBL of oil per gallon can be more effective than pesticides and not have a bad residual. You need to mix in 1 tsp MCT oil and 1 tsp of glycerin soap and add it to naturally extracted Thyme Rosemary Clove Cinnamon Citronella Lemongrass (Clove and cinnamon can stain) and this can be used as a repellent spray as well as a dusting of DE as long as your dog wont go over and inhale it (Eating it is okay just siliceous dust shouldnā€™t be inhaled ).

Competition! is there any house spiders you can nurture to outcompete the brown recluses? sadly the common house spider looks a decent deal like the hobo spider. The best way to tell a hobo spider is they only run in straight lines they are super fast but they dont turn on the go they stop and pivot, if you put a object near a common house spider it will move in a circular pattern around it and you can easily tell its friendly.

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@RichardRoundTree i had wolf spiders at one point and saw no brown recluse. The wolf spiders prefer cricket etc for food which are not easy to live with. I took the kill them all policy meaning i killed the crickets and opened the door and the wolf spiders left many years ago. The recluse does not live in my house but he does occasionally sneak inside. Iā€™ve lived with them all my life since they are as much a part of Kansas as me.

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What happened here?

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Oh man. I donā€™t know the answer to your question, but I am interested to find out. That looks bizarre.

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Itā€™s possesedā€¦

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Can you cut one of the ā€œblistersā€ out and dissect it. I would suspect an insect laid an egg in those and the developing larvae made for the bump. Might still have a viable larvae in there, so may want to dispose of accordingly. Were many fruit affected?

It could be insect damage,that has healed over.bb

@39thparallel
Maybe this ?
Phytrocoris conspurcatus
https://extension.psu.edu/apple-insect-pest-new-plant-bug-type-injury-to-fruit
Or
Green apple bug /apple green bug ?
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/tarbug.htm

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The tissue looks normal when you cut into the bumps. Only saw this damage on a few apples on one or two trees