From mid-May to June reminds me of being in a bakery where cakes are being decorated with frothy pastel colored icing. It is a confectionary time in nature.
There are apple blossoms and lilacs It is time between new leaf and full leaf canopies. It is a time of anemones and roses. May is a dainty time in nature.
The day starts early on the mountaintop with birds singing from their hearts. Soon after first light they begin to celebrate the dawn. It is easy to wake and for a few minutes listen and identify who is up and about. There is one male tufted titmouse that begins to call and announce his territory before the light arrives. Obviously he wants everyone to know who and where he is, especially the opposite sex.
The trees shimmer in the early light with their fresh new leaves that are still celery green. As the season matures, the leaves will become shades of darker green. Roadside grass is lush with newness, and hurries toward June's maturity. For those who suffer allergies to grass, it is not a comfortable season.
Wisps of silver mist hug the Valley. The busyness of the day has not intruded yet. One can hear the breeze whispering through the treetops as it tussles the young leaves. It is the sunrise hour, the beginning of another new day. June bugs are already out. These big, blundering beetles respond to spring with a hum all their own. They appear at dusk and linger into darkness, buzzing a greeting to
porch lights and lighted windows. They come from soft white grubs in the soil, but to look at their armored bodies and oddly stiff wings, one might think they are a product of a whimsical workshop.
If you stand outside near a light, one of the beetle bombers is likely to land on you, craw up your arm or crawl under your hair. Many young boys who didn't know any better used to tie a string to a leg and have their own beetle flying machine. Such behavior is much too boring for young boys today. I'm sure the June beetle is thankful that boys find it boring.
When a June beetle finds its way inside, it doesn't take long to hear it blundering against a wall or scratching with its six pairs of claws. The beetle lays a few dozen eggs in June or July with each egg tidily enclosed in a little ball of dirt. The eggs are placed in a shallow burrow in a garden or field and lawn. Each egg hatches into a white grub that as trouble crawling because of its large abdomen curled under the body. The grubs feed on roots of grass and other plants, often damaging crops and lawns.
Raccoons, skunks and bears enjoy a snack of beetle grubs when they can find them. In the fall the grubs burrow down to two feet in depth to spend the winter. In spring they surface to continue feeding and growing until fall arrives again. Once again they burrow deep in the ground.
In June or July of the following year the grubs become pupae, and in August or September the adult beetles hatch. Obviously, in the world of June beetles, Mother Nature takes her time.
The adult beetle continues to stay buried in the soil and does not emerge until the following spring. On a warm late May or early June evening, it emerges and flies to a close tree where it chews on the leaves and waits for mating and egg-laying time to arrive.
The June beetles have many predators. What raccoons, skunks and bears don't get, shrews, blackbirds and crows move in for a snack. It is the grubs that attract predators not the mature beetle. Black wasp burrows and paralyzes a grub by stinging it. Then the wasp lays an egg on the paralyzed victim's back. The wasp egg hatch and the larva fed on the body fluid of the living grub-finally consuming all of it. Surely the grubs and wasps would make great characters in a horror movie. Fishermen discovered long ago that a big fat white grub with a brown head makes good fishing bait.
When you see a June beetle in flight, it makes one wonder how the insect accomplishes the feat. The beetle shares the category of nature's impossibilities with the bumblebee.
When a beetle lands on its back, it is almost helpless, looking much like a tiny mechanical toy. They blunder into walls and furniture inside, and make a buzzing fuss that drives house cats insane until they locate the beetle. The claws make cats step back and ponder the bug. I have a Maine coon cat, Minnie, that can ponder a June beetle for at least an hour, before she gives up her beetle prey to one of her brothers, who is too lazy to do more than stare at it. It is the buzzing sound and the flailing claws that entice a cat to at least touch the bug.
The June bug persists in nature. They aren't pretty like butterflies, and wasps and bees are more industrious, but the beetles hold their own in nature's hierarchy.
May Mother Nature always be kind to you, and grant you the whisper of wings.
© Copyright North American Wildlife Health Care Center
P.O. Box 155
Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA 28711
A non-profit 501-3-C organization dedicated to wildlife research and education
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