Bugs bombard campus in search of food source

Assistant professor and extension entomologist Erin Hodgson squinted and a tiny, lime-green bug came into focus on a student’s outstretched fingertip. Hodgson instantly recognized the winged creature. The insect was no more than one centimeter long, but recently it has become the biggest pest problem on campus.

Beyond the brick walls of the insectary, these insects are swarming campus in unprecedented numbers. Students and staff are caught in the huge clouds of bugs, sometimes referred to as “ghosts,” hanging in barely-visible clusters on sidewalks and near greenery.

Hodgson identified the creepy-crawly as a soybean aphid. She said that with the change of seasons, the sap-sucking aphids’ secondary food source, the soybean plant, is gradually becoming scarce and the insects are flocking back to their primary food source.

Buckthorn, a weed plant that can be found around campus, is the bug’s preferred treat. Hodgson said aphids tend to migrate from one host to another during cool weather.

“You’re seeing more aphids this year because it was a nice summer,” Hodgson said.

For students who are accidentally inhaling these probing pests on a regular basis, Hodgson insisted that aphids pose no direct threat and do not vector any diseases. She said that, for now, they are just a nuisance.

But for students like Xeniya Slinkova, senior in community and regional planning who enjoys jogging regularly, the bugs have been more than just a mere annoyance. The aphids have affected her daily exercise routine.

“Now, I prefer to spend more time in the rec center than jogging around outside,” Slinkova said. “Honestly, there are just too many of them.”

Slinkova is not alone. Many students are thinking twice about being outdoors, opting to catch buses rather than walk, and taking new, longer routes away from shrubbery. Emily Kurimski, a senior in history who rides a bicycle to class, does not plan on changing her cycling habits, but finds the bugs unbearable.

“I’ve never noticed it this bad before,” Kurimski said. “It’s absolutely miserable. I can’t ride through campus without getting them in my eyes and nose.”

Aside from being found in the mouths, noses, hair and other unspecified places on and in student bodies, bugs are popping up mysteriously in textbooks, cell phones, dorm rooms, kitchen sinks and inches away from students’ teeth.

Les Lawson, manager of Campus Services said, “It’s unpleasant, but it happens.”

Lawson is responsible for taking care of the grounds on campus. He said that although the aphids are a serious annoyance to students, Campus Services has its hands full taking care of other pest problems, such as the congregation of bees on campus, and does not plan to take any actions to exterminate the aphids.

“We could spray them today and they’d be back tomorrow,” Lawson said. “They’re just too numerous.”

Lawson noted that Asian lady beetles feed on aphids and are expected to be the next insect outbreak on campus, but said that pesticides would be wasted on the aphids and could also be detrimental.

“Any time you start killing one bug, you start killing other bugs that are beneficial to the environment,” said Lawson.

Yet both Hodgson and Lawson agreed that the aphids should not be around for much longer. They said that aphids usually settle down and lay eggs during the winter and will not be seen around campus as much.

For students who find it difficult to cope with the insects before winter, the two had the same words of advice: “Stay inside.”

Otherwise, students attempting to navigate through the persistent packs of pests are encouraged to keep their heads down and try not to let these unwelcome guests bug them.