The Contented Naturalist

My friends and family know I love bugs. It makes me really happy to be known as the person you can send random bug pics to, whether for ID help or just to share something cool. Unfortunately, this summer I’ve had several instances where my reply has been negative. It hurts a little to do that, and I don’t want to dissuade anyone from showing me the neat bugs they find. But we are absolutely besieged with Spotted Lanternfly nymphs right now, a nasty invasive.

The problem is the nymphs are polka-dotted. Ok, that’s not what makes them invasive. It’s my personal problem. Because I also love polkadots. So not only do I hate having to squish bugs (or recommend others do so), I hate not being able to feel giddy at something irrationally polkadotted in nature! I don’t know why polkadots amuse me so, it just feels like a fun pattern. How dare this invasive bug take over my beloved polkadots?

The nymphs are very thick at my park– on our opening and closing walks every day, staff has made an informal game to see who can squish the most of them. We’ve found the nymphs are great leapers as well, and more often than not escape our smacks or slammed waterbottles. As the nymphs grow larger they get better and stronger at jumping. So while the first few instars were relatively easy to squish, fourth instars (the red ones) are extremely difficult.

One of my coworkers developed the trick of grabbing one in her hand, throwing it quickly to the ground and stomping on it while it was (hopefully) off-guard. This doesn’t always work, but it’s entertaining. My favorite technique is to grab a nymph and then throw it into a nearby spiderweb. There aren’t always enough spiderwebs within range, though. I’m half-tempted to try to capture an intact web (with spider) in a forked stick that I could then carry around.

But really, there are so many that even with all of us squishing as many as we can see, we’re not likely to make a significant dent in their population. And that’s frustrating. I’ll probably keep getting texts from friends wanting to share their cool bug find, and too often I’ll have to disappoint them. I agree, they do look cool! But knowing that they’re an invasive problem is just a twist in my gut, souring what should be a wonderful feeling that my friend has shared a bug with me.