The Bug Man

THE BUG MAN: Earwigs

By James A. Bethke, for Let’s Talk Plants! July 2022. Figure 1. The European earwig, Forficula auricularia L. Photo from Pixabay.com....

THE BUG MAN: Soft Scales

By James A. Bethke, for Let’s Talk Plants! May 2022. Soft scale insects can be quite a pest in the landscape and garden in southern...

THE BUG MAN: Sooty Mold

Sooty Mold By James A. Bethke, for Let's Talk Plants! March 2022. I gave a presentation a few years back at a community center, which was...

THE BUG MAN: Serpentine Leafminers

By James A. Bethke, for Let's Talk Plants! November 2021. My first job in the University of California Riverside (UCR) Department of...

THE BUG MAN: The Glassy-winged Sharpshooter

By James A. Bethke. The glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS), Homalodisca vitripennis (Figure 1), is an insect that was inadvertently...

THE BUG MAN: What are Ambrosia Beetles?

Ambrosia beetles are a group of beetles in the bark beetle family, Scolytidae. However, there is some argument by taxonomists that the group

THE BUG MAN: Mosquito Eaters

Every spring I get calls and emails from people about the great mosquito eaters that are showing up at their lights, windows and doors at ni

THE BUG MAN: What is a Piercing Sucking Insect?

In the last article (you can read it here), I mentioned that true bugs have piercing sucking mouth parts. I thought it would be a good idea

THE BUG MAN: One Bug, Two Bug, Red Bug, Blue Bug

In the fall, a common call I receive from friends and neighbors concerns masses of bright red bugs on trees, shed walls or front porches. I’

THE BUG MAN: Born Pregnant - Aphids

Many of the insecticide trials that I performed at the University of California Riverside were against aphids, which are one of the most com

THE BUG MAN: Jumping Spiders - One of the Good Guys

When I was a teenager, I collected a whole bunch of very small jumping spiders into small, clear, plastic containers and watched them for ho

THE BUG MAN: Common True Katydid.

While working to fix an irrigation line in my yard I noticed that one of my window screens was slightly damaged. Upon closer inspection, I n

THE BUG MAN: No Way! Blue Centipedes?

For all my life I knew an awful lot about bugs and other creepy crawlies, so I was confident when a Master Gardener said she had blue centip

The Formidable, and Misnamed, Potato Bug

This is the first in a series of articles about the insect creatures in our gardens from entomologist James Bethke, well-known for his...

THE BUG MAN: The Formidable, and Misnamed, Potato Bug

By James A. Bethke. This is the first in a series of articles about the insect creatures in our gardens from entomologist James Bethke,...