The June Bugs are coming out in droves. I can't say that I remember noticing them earlier than, well, June. But a few nights ago, as I was coming back up from closing in the chickens for the night, I kept hearing this strange buzzing noise coming out of the soil. Perhaps their larval grub-like bodies were awakened early by all the rain soaking into their cozy dirt and grassroots homes.
June Bugs are a type of scarab beetle in the Family Coleoptera. I'm sure you're familiar with them. In our Easter regions they are brown-rust in color and invade our after dusk campfires. They are very attracted to light, and often swarm our porch and other lights. Though harmless, they tend to give you a scare as they make a beeline for our heads. Or so it seems. Each year the females bury their eggs back in the soil where the larva will pass through a different stages, over winter in the dirt, then emerge as adults in the spring (this was what I was experiencing). If you're a gardner, you may have accidentally dug up some of these larval grubs (see below).
So don't be frightened by these harmless little beetles the next time one lands on your arm of flies at your face. Their legs may feel spiky, but they don't bite let alone eat eyeballs. And as the old saying goes, "They're more afraid of you, than you are of them."
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