INSECTS do not usually give us humans too much concern. However, if one studies even a tiny bit of natural history topics from plant pollination to disease vectors, from beneficial bugs to outright pests, and everything in between, we soon learn that we are vastly outnumbered.

Entomologists who make critical discoveries and studies of ‘bugs,’ both good and bad, according to human standards of definition, find out that the insect world is a vast and very complicated part of all ecosystems from the tropics to the poles.

We humans are outnumbered by insects by a staggering amount. That number is 200,000,000 to one according to Iowa State entomologist Larry Pedigo. Around the entire Earth, an estimate of the number of living insects is 10 quintillion at any one time.

Trying to learn more about these ‘bugs’ and the role they play in life cycles of plants and animals is a huge task. You may ask, why does it matter? Because for all the “good bugs” and their beneficial attributes, there are also some really nasty things that some bugs can spread to our food sources, plant or animal, or infect us with maladies from mild to life-threatening.

Worldwide species of insects could easily be over 900,000. Another way of placing this number in perspective is this tidbit of fact: 80 percent of all living creatures are insects.

Folks, we are outnumbered, and of that 900,000, those known to science still have a long way to go. Another entomology footnote is that perhaps 75,000 insect species are unknown to science, remaining unknown of how they may be beneficial or not helpful to humans.

Of course, our viewpoint in all of this mystery of sciences is that before we humans condemn them all, we need to learn how all insects fit into Mother Nature’s ecosystems. There are 783 insect family groupings in the USA and Canada to help entomologists catalog and distinguish the similarities and differences.

An excellent resources guide is a book published by the University of Alabama. It is titled “Insects of North America” authored by John C. Abbott and Kendra Abbott. It is available from the Princeton University Press website or by contacting the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Call them at 205-348-7550 or send an email to almnh@ua.edu.

Regarding today’s image of the gall on an oak tree branch, it was just a chance happening that I was attracted to a white spot on an otherwise green leafed oak tree branch. Curiosity overcame my current tasks, so I stopped to investigate. My cell phone camera captured the white golf

ball sized growth with pink blotches all over its outer surface. This thing was an outgrowth of the plant branch itself, an odd happening and very unusual.

A bit of investigative inquiry found the answers to my curiosity from an Iowa State University publication about galls. For this example, a very tiny yet adult female Wood Sower wasp, a member of the family of wasps called Cynipids, had laid her eggs on that branch.

The egg larvae are white and fat and have no legs. However, within the chemical secretions of these larvae a reaction to the “pest” causes the host plant to grow a gall formation around the egg/larvae.

This gall growth is the reaction of the host oak tree to make an abnormal enlargement gall that will become the home for future wood sower wasps. Those young larvae are encased and safe from outside predators and also have a food supply furnished by the host oak tree.

Galls are round-like spherical growths on many types of plants. All are caused by insects, aphids, mites or midges of some kind. Galls may be found on herbaceous plants in a prairie grassland, or even road ditch vegetation.

There are hundreds of gall documentations that may be caused by insects or mites. Galls can appear in many sizes on leaves, stems, twigs, branches, trunks or on roots.

A unique fact about the life cycle of wood sower wasps is their two generational alternating pattern. One generation produces stem galls, and the wasps that emerge will lay eggs on leaves to cause gall growths on the leaves.

Wood sower wasps and the galls aren’t harmful to the host plant. Galls remain on the host plant for more than one season and only become noticeable after they are fully formed.

Gall growths on plants are an interesting phenomenon of the natural world. For white oak trees, the tiny �…�” long wood sower wasp is only a minor irritation, far removed from other potential damaging sources like strong wind storms breaking out large branches or outright uprooting of the tree. This wasp species does not sting humans or occur in such numbers to damage white oak trees.

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Another insect situation that is making the news now relates to the flesh-eating screwworm. It has the potential to infect cattle, and many wild big game animals. It is spread by a parasitic fly. It poses a severe risk to livestock, and livestock shipments. The fly may also infect large even toed wildlife critters like white-tailed deer, bighorn sheep and mule deer. The parasite burrows into open wounds, feeding on living tissue and causing extensive damage to the host whether wildlife, birds, livestock or in rare cases humans.

Science is trying to do battle with this fly by raising this species in secure labs, sterilizing all the males in sufficient numbers of males, and releasing them into areas where the disease is known to be making a severe effect. Florida had some success with this tactic in 2016 when 132 endangered key deer were killed by this insect. Recovery of the key deer population is ongoing.

The ‘front line’ at this time for this new world screwworm fly is about 700 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. USDA officials are paying close attention to this emerging disease vector, an insect and specifically a fly.

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MEMORIAL DAY weekend is coming up. Lots of people will enjoy a three day weekend off work. Campgrounds are expected to be well used, and a traditional campfire setting is part of evening visits with fellow campers.

Do note however that fire wood should not be brought to the campground from home. Try to use only locally provided firewood.

This effort is centered around insects, some undesirable bugs like emerald ash borer, oak wilt and other pests that may be living in firewood collections. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship requires all firewood sold or acquired in Iowa to have the county and state of harvest location on the label of the packages.

This label also has a delivery ticket of origin. In the case of emerald ash borer that kills all species of ash trees, this disease vector carried on a beetle, has infected all 99 counties of Iowa.

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WILD TURKEY SEASONS in Iowa ended on May 18. Recordings of harvests show about 15,355 tom turkeys taken by hunters.

Marshall County turkey hunters took 102. Our neighbor state Missouri has completed their turkey seasons and reports a take of 51,011 birds. Much more forest lands exist in Missouri.

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A quote: “Good things should be cast in bronze, and bad things cast to the winds.”

— Galileo Galilei

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Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology. Contact him at: P.O. Box 96 Albion, IA 50005