AboutEric R. Eaton Expertise I can answer most questions related to wasps, solitary bees, grasshoppers and katydids, beetles, cicadas, and spiders, especially requests to identify "mystery bugs" in North America!
Experience
Past/Present clients Principal author of the "Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America" (in bookstores now!), Smithsonian Institution (contract), Cincinnati Zoo (employer), Portland State University (contract), Chase Studio, Inc (employer), Arkansas Museum of Discovery (guest speaker), Krohn Conservatory, Cincinnati (volunteer trainer, guest speaker).
Expert: Eric R. Eaton Date: 7/3/2008 Subject: Insect swarm
Question I live in Western Pennsylvania. I have a beautiful flowering magnolia bush in my yard. Over the last week it has been swarmed with all manner of insects. Hornets, yellow jackets, paper wasps, strange waspy looking insects, flies of all kinds, red ants, flying ants, etc. All at the same time. I've never ever seen such a thing. There is nothing dead under the bush and the bugs don't seem to be eating the leaves, just walking around leaves, flying in and out of the bush - we see no visible nests of any kind either. What is this phenomenon?
Answer Dear Cindy:
I would bet money that your magnolia is covered with aphids or scale insects. Those insects secrete huge amounts of a sweet waste product called "honeydew." This substance is extremely attractive to all manner of other insects. Ants, in fact, will defend aphid and scale insect colonies in exchange for a monopoly on the honeydew. I guess it is the insect equivalent of crack:-) LOL!
The honeydew also drips onto the foliage, so the wasps and flies are eagerly lapping it up off the surface. I would advise not parking your car under the tree:-)
I have collected some very interesting and seldom-seen wasps, bees, and beetles around aphid colonies on catalpa trees in Cincinnati, Ohio, so I can attest to how incredible this phenomenon is. Thank you for sharing your experience. Oh, the aphids or scales probably won't do substantial damage to the tree.
