Identifying insects (and worms) and more on Japanese beetles

Homegrown blog reader Cyndi Lee asked about a large trail that looked like sawdust falling from her tree. On closer inspection, she saw that the dust was actually tiny pale-yellow worms.

Laura Jesse, of Iowa State University Extension' s Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic, offered the following possibility:  If the tree is an ash my guess is that it could be ash seed maggots.  They are different from the ash seed weevil, a larger, more wrinkled, brown-headed beetle larva that emerges from ash seeds in the fall of the year (September and October.) The "usual" life cycle for small plant-infesting maggots is for the larva to emerge fully grown from the plant and then hide and wait. My guess in that the current batch of maggots on the ground will wiggle and squirm till they settle into cracks in the soil or under the leaf litter.  They could pupate immediately or wait till next spring.  Either way I assume the adult flies will emerge next spring at the time the new ash seeds are forming, lay eggs and repeat the cycle.

I don't have a lot more information about ash seed maggot and don't have a species name.  We have received a few calls and questions in the past week and we think people are describing  ash seed maggots, but I have not gotten any samples to confirm it.

(Back to Cindy) I've used ISU's insect identification by sending in an email with a photo of a bug and they've been great at identifying the insect. Here's how to get started:

if you are an Iowa resident: Extension Entomology (515) 294-1101, insects@iastate.edu (Iowa residents only)

Another blog question came recently from a reader who noticed a bug bite after coming in contact with a Japanese beetle. My nemesis beetle has destroyed many of my plants and has a tendency to jump on my clothes and climb up my neck  - always a pleasant feeling -  but I don't know that I've ever been bitten by one. How about you? They're just plain evil, so I wouldn't be surprised. Do Japanese beetles bite people?

if you are not an Iowa resident: contact your local extension office or the entomology department nearest you. Regrettably, we do not have the resources to answer questions from those outside of Iowa.