Don't bug out as summer brings the crawlers out
AUSTIN (KXAN) – As we move into summer and warmer temperatures, bugs will start to make a bigger appearance in our yards and possibly our homes.
Meteorologist Freddy Vela spoke with Wizzie Brown, senior extension program specialist at Texas A&M’s Entomology Department, about what types of bugs we will see and how weather conditions affect how many we could see.
Read an edited version of the conversation below, or use the video player above to listen.
Freddy Vela: What are some of the summer bugs that are going to be visiting us?
Wizzie Brown: Probably a lot of common things that we’re used to seeing other places. So we have a lot of different kinds of ants, bees, wasps and mosquitoes are going to be a huge one. The ones that they really should be concerned about are the ones that can cause problems. So those are going to be ones that can bite or sting and cause issues for us personally.
Vela: Do the showers that we receive in the springtime affect the amount of bugs that we see during the summer?
Brown: It can it really depends on what insects we’re talking about. Generally, if we have cool, wet springs, then we’ll have less grasshopper problems later on because a lot of the eggs that are in the soil will die. But rainfall can also drive plant growth, which a lot of insects are going to use as food so they can have increased populations because of that. But then we also have hot, dry conditions that can be favorable for other things. So it just depends on which ones you’re dealing with and which ones you are annoyed by.
Vela: There’s a lot of helpful bugs out there and we obviously want to protect all creatures, but how can we also protect our home and our plants from them taking over?
Brown: That’s a really great question. The main thing that you really want to target doing is keeping the bugs outside where they belong and the best way to do that is to go around the outside of your structure and try to figure out where they might be coming in. Can you see light around doors or windows that you might need to replace? Weather stripping? Are screens needing good repair? Do they have holes in them? Leaving your porch light on at night is going to draw a bunch of stuff in so maybe turn off those lights at night so they don’t have them coming right to the door. Take a look and see where are they coming in. Where are you providing them with water sources? Maybe reduce any water that you might have, and that should really help to cut back.
Vela: There’s a lot of helpful bugs out there that we want in nature, correct?
Brown: Yes, definitely. That’s ladybugs. Everybody’s just like, well, I want ladybugs in my landscape but they don’t want the aphids that the ladybugs feed on. So make sure that you have at least a little bit of aphids in your landscape if you want those ladybugs.
