Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Fuzz Bug

Alright, this bug is soooooo tiny and fuzzy it was really difficult to get a good picture of - but does anyone out there know what sort of bug this is and what kind of life it leads? Besides being oh so fuzzy and cute! If it was the size a cat I would take it inside my house and become BFF's with it.
And I swear this is not just some piece of lent stuck on there, it is alive and crawling along like a micro doodle bug.



If anyone can correctly identify this bug, I'll give them a 40% discount at The Oko Box!

11 comments:

  1. The Wooly Aphid is your culprit and a known fuzzbug of the Southeastern US.

    Bong!

    http://www.giffbeaton.com/Homoptera/Wooly%2520Aphid_2006-05-21-0029a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.giffbeaton.com/Homoptera.htm&h=361&w=481&sz=28&hl=en&start=1&usg=__JS06Sf1hhcRsLrTaDKsHzgILXT4=&tbnid=Pa7ZwM_v0gn4iM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwooly%2Baphid%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

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  2. Whoa! I can't believe you got that! I will email you a coupon :)
    Except - your link doesn't work- so i have to check out the name first......lol

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  3. Ummmm,I wanna make a guess. This looks like a larvae of the bug that eats mealy bugs. Aphids have legs and wings, the woolly has waxy white stuff on it, not like this one you have. Your call!

    http://www.sterlinginsectary.com/bene_mealybugdestroyer.html

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  4. Hey Susie-
    Your picture of the mealy bug destroyer larva totally looks like my picture...
    hmmm, which one is it?

    Evan- you might want to send in another link with a goooooood pic. ;)

    It's the fuzz bug face off!

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  5. I must have typed it wrong, I definitely meant a mealy bug destroyer ;)

    Good look, Susie.

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  6. I love my bugs!!! Esp garden bugs, and this little guy is a GREAT friend of gardeners! Hey, I know entomologists at the unversity, let me get a solid ID. The bug face off! I love it. More soon.

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  7. Awesome! I will be turning to ya'll more often, when i don't know what a bug is...

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  8. Haha... I watched a really cool movie with my son awhile ago that was made for IMAX and was called something to do with bugs. Maybe BUGS. I don't remember but it was sooooo cool. It was the story of two bugs, a butterfly and a mantis and the life they lead from their perspective. Then if you watch the after bits about how the movie was made (which I found totally fascinating...) they all take turns guessing what this bug is. I swear it is the same one and they have shots of it in the movie but in the making bits they don't know what it is even with ten or so bug specialists on board... during the movie they call it a ladybug larvae but I think they are just faking it because it sounds sort of obscure when they say it and it would be easy to miss. Funny I thought. They had to include it because it was so cute and gave the shot of personality they needed, but then couldn't name it.

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  9. Hey Andrea!

    How funny, thanks for sharing - if experts have a hard time, then I don't feel so bad not having known what it was. And I am bug obsessed!

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  10. Confirmation from the entomologist! Yes, it is indeed larvae of the mealy bug destroyer. A gardeners best friend. Here's what my entomologist friend wrote to me after taking a look at photo:

    Hi Susie,

    It sure looks like the immature/larva of a ladybug that feeds on mealybugs and scale insect. Known as the mealybug destroyer, the immature stage mimics mealybugs and are voracious predators of pestifierous mealybugs and scale insects.

    http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/predators/cryptolaemus_m.html

    http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWN,RNWN:2006-42,RNWN:en&q=mealybug%20destroyer&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

    Hope this is helpful.

    arnold

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