Carpet Moth | Bugging You From San Juan Island

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Counting Bugs: What’s at the light in the night? April 20, 2025

Posted on April 21, 2025 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island Leave a comment

Here’s a quick rundown of what I spied at my bug light when I checked this morning. I did move the bucket and light to a new location across from our house in our open air barn.

There were nine species of moths (31 individuals), two species of Coleoptera (beetles), and one wasp that I believe is Ophion sp.

Moths:

Egira perlubens = 1

Egira (either E. simplex or E. crucialis) = 3

Egira rubrica = 1

Orthosia transparens = 5

Orthosia hibisci = 8

Orthosia praeses = 8

Feralia comstocki = 2

Eupithecia graefii = 2

Melanolophia imitata = 1

Beetles:

Diplotaxis sp. = 2

Strophosoma melanogrammum = 1

Wasps:

Ophion sp. = 1

If I may, I’d like to leave you with something to consider. When you rake your leaves and clean your yard – especially if you are burning, chipping, or bagging and removing all those things that fall onto the ground, you are eliminating habitat for native species. If you can refrain the urge to spring clean around your property, you can help support life.

These may be somewhat drab colored moths and you may not even like them, but they sustain other organisms, including plants, because moths are also nighttime pollinators. Each species has a niche, and a role in the ecosystem (and ultimately the food web).

Please take note of nature around you. It’s actually beautiful and mysterious. Whether you like it or not though, nature is life. Nature matters. Little things like leaving the leaves can make a difference. Care.

Thanks for reading.

Spring!

Posted on March 27, 2025 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island 2 comments

I hope it’s safe to say that Spring has finally arrived in the San Juans. We have enjoyed tiny blips of sunshine the past two afternoons, enough to awaken life in miniature around our home. I’ve found these tiny lives going about business on the “highway” around the top of our above ground pool, crumbled mounds of dirt in hard-packed soil where little mining bees have excavated their way to the surface from a long winter sleep, and a suite of species of flies (our best early spring pollinators) sipping at the miniature chickweed flowers that opened overnight. I’ve also seen my first tiny “sugar” ant in the house, most definitely a harbinger of spring!

In these days where we are likely weary of the many assaults on our souls – from reading that we are at the precipice of mass species extinction to the news reports of fires and other natural disasters (intensifying from climate change), and the horror of what we face watching our nation torn apart and not really knowing what the fateful consequences of unchecked power will be, I hope you will do as I am trying to do…take each day moment by moment, and find some beauty wherever you can. Remember the dandelion that blooms in the crack in the concrete. If you’re reading this, go outside and B-R-E-A-T-H-E.

Yesterday I saw the first Yellow Rumped Warbler of the season. The Violet Green Tree Swallows are going to show up any day now. Go soak yourself in nature while we still have nature around us.

Golden Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)

I’ll leave you to shadow dance with this happy little Cereal fly on my blue garden chair….💙

Thanks for stopping by!

Cereal Fly (Geomyza tripunctata) shadow dancing

National Moth Week 2023, Day 1 – San Juan Island, WA

Posted on July 22, 2023 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island One comment

Today (June 22) marks the start of National Moth Week, 2023. For anyone interested in participating or learning more about how to “MOTH,” check out the National Moth Week website here: https://nationalmothweek.org.

I’ll be brief, but start by introducing myself. I’m Cynthia (Brast-Bormann) and I am an entomologist who lives on San Juan Island. My “work” is on a volunteer basis. Because of my love for insects, spiders, and the natural world, I endeavor to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with our community and anyone else who would like to know more about these charismatic critters that are all too often targeted for eating leaves, buzzing, sometimes biting or stinging, but mostly for merely existing. We stop short of recognizing they are food for other organisms, work to control pest populations (without noxious chemicals), and they help us to have food (pollination). Without insects and spiders, we would be in a deep heap of doo! Pardon my French.

Each day of National Moth Week – which runs through July 30, 2023, I will be posting a gallery of what shows up at my light trap each night, hopefully with an ID along with the photos I post. Please feel free to let me know if you see something misidentified. 🙂

If you’re interested in Mothing, or learning more about other bugs, you may contact me with questions via email or join the Facebook Group, Bugs of the San Juan Islands at https://www.facebook.com/groups/3594158544144419