Banded Hickory Borer

This critter was flying around in the house at a dinner party the other night.  Like any Master Naturalist I whipped out a bug box and took it home.  The first choice on INaturalist was the banded hickory borer, a perfect visual fit.  It is a warm and fuzzy creature with heavy eye shadow above the eyes and long sexy antennae. "The better to sniff out your hickory my dear!" It measured an inch long and was very patiently waiting in the refrigerator the next morning.

The banded hickory borer (BHB - Knulliana cincta) actually isn't that picky, laying their eggs in bark crevices on hickory, ash and several other species.  The adult bores into the tree to lay its eggs.  "The larvae feed under the bark during the remainder of the summer, forming galleries in the wood and ejecting frass through openings in the bark. During the fall and following summer larvae continue to feed in the wood and pupate in the fall or spring between lumps of frass at the end of the larval gallery. The life cycle most likely requires two years for completion." Forestpests.org

These beetles are actually kind of cute once you get to know them although they can pinch lightly with their jaws if you hold them tight.  They make a squeaking sound by stridulation by rubbing their body parts together, like running your finger down a comb.  They do this when threatened but it doesn't take much, just a little poking with a pencil eraser did the trick with this one.  You can hear this one here recorded on my phone.

They are considered a forest pest by many sites but but an interesting insect on others.  I suspect this depends upon your supply of trees.  If you have just one or two trees for them to feed upon they might cause considerable damage and make you call the Department of Conservation and yell "HELP."  Aside from praying for the arrival of the ichneumonid wasp, Labena grallator, which sometimes parasitizes their larvae, it is just a matter of waiting for the balance of nature to arrive.

With the exceptions of insects that transmit disease and invasive species that destroy our natural environment, most of the "pests" are just insects and plants trying to make a living like they did thousands of years before we arrived with our preconditioned notions of nature as a mowed lawn and the perfect tree in the front yard.  I suspect some of them are muttering under their breath, "Hey bipeds, just get over it!"