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).
I really hope you can help my dad has this bug in his yard we don't know if it's good or bad. I've looked online but there are lots of bugs to look at i think it's a beetle of some kind, thanks for taking the time to answer my ?
Answer Dear Shanna:
You are right, it is a beetle! Thank you for including the image with your question, as it leaves no doubt as to the identity of the insect.
The beetle in the image is known as the "red-headed ash borer," Neoclytus acuminatus. The larvae of these beetles bore in the wood of dead, dying, or weakened trees of ash and other deciduous trees, as well as some shrubs and even vines. They really are not good OR bad, they just....ARE:-) Most insects are that way. The only time we consider them bad is when they compete with us for what we consider to be "our" resources, like food crops, livestock, our blood...LOL! Nature knows no boundaries, and recognizes no ownership, so everything is fair game.
You can find out more about this particular insect by doing a search on "red-headed ash borer" and using .edu, .gov, or .net resources. Commercial websites (.com) will sometimes treat every insect as a pest, regardless of whether it actually is one.
Hope I have helped. Thank you again for your POLITE question and the image with it:-)
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