Turns out my puppy is a Champeen Bug Hunter!

Blanca BusaLess

Suffers from PBSD
Donating Member
Registered
I thought she was just 'dig happy' but I've seen her dig a few of these up?
She'll be crossing the yard and stop, her ears perk up and she goes into sniff mode, then Brrrrrrrp right into the ground lickety splitt! She can dig faster than a dozer! Everytime she comes up with one of these, a mole cricket. Either she hears them tunneling or hears their calls? But she sniffs em out quick! So my yard now looks like the moon. Daughter and wife are so freaked out from the size of them that they won't walk barefoot anymore :)

ec322ecf.jpg


So I ordered some Talstar granules. Let's hope it gets rid of them.
 
What kind of pup is it, cuz I think my lab would tunnel to china if i left him there longer than a day....lol

Thats a wierd looking bug to, mutant-like...:D
 
Theres two plants native to Florida which attract a certain wasp profusely. This wasp plants larvae one at a time on these mole crickets. The larvae grows and eats the bug. Death rate is 100% :)
For now to establish control I'm gonna use the pesticide but I'm gonna plant a row of these two plants on my fence line so I can hopefully gain a natural control of them and not have to use chems all the time.

Specific Biocontrols
The Larra Wasp
The Larra bicolor wasp--one of the mole cricket's natural enemies--is called a "parasitoid" because its young feed off mole crickets, though the adults live on nectar. The wasp lays an average of two to three eggs per day, or up to one hundred in a lifetime. Each one of these eggs is laid on a mole cricket.
When an egg hatches, the wasp larva sticks to the cricket, feeding off its blood. When the wasp is fully grown, it eats the mole cricket it has lived on. There is a one hundred percent death rate for mole crickets that play host to a Larra wasp.
Each generation of wasps kills about twenty-five percent of the local mole cricket population--and there are three generations of wasps per year to one generation of mole crickets.
Larra bicolor wasps do not sting humans unless caught and held in the hand. They are solitary, which means they have no nest to defend. It is more beneficial for them to flee than to sting.
At least thirty-one Florida counties are home to the wasp today, and they’re spreading. It’s simple to encourage these wasps to visit your property. Simply plant their favored host wildflowers--Spermacoce verticillata and/or Chamaecrista fasciculata--in the vicinity of your lawn, golf course, or pasture; sit back; and watch nature work.
 
Hey, just a random question... but why is your wedding band on your middle finger...???... Is that a Florida thing...:laugh:

Or are you just being a rebel again....:rofl:
 
Hey, just a random question... but why is your wedding band on your middle finger...???... Is that a Florida thing...:laugh:

Or are you just being a rebel again....:rofl:

That's the palm of my right hand. It's on correct finger. Was Jb Welded on :)
 
Back
Top