UVALDE - Insects with strange names like red katydids, false chinch bugs and cicada killers are among the pesky critters popping up in surprising numbers throughout South and Central Texas this summer, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service experts.

From late spring to the present, AgriLife Extension entomologists and integrated pest management specialists have been receiving reports of red Central Texas leaf-katydids in Medina, Comal, Bexar and Real counties, said Noel Troxclair, AgriLife Extension entomologist at the AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde.

While masses of red katydids can damage trees, especially the canopies of oaks, as well as cause consternation and aural irritation to many Central Texas residents, they do not tend to inflict much long-term damage on the areas they choose for their summer home, he said.

Central Texas leaf-katydids look similar to grasshoppers and are from 1.3-1.7 inches in length with forewings that are broad near the tips and slightly convex, forming a cup around the abdomen. They are sometimes called “longhorn grasshoppers” because of their long, sturdy antennae. Katydids produce a sound by rubbing their forewings together, and during population outbreaks, masses of them generate a loud, raspy, pulsating whine that continues night and day.

“The Central Texas leafkatydid is an arboreal or treedwelling species found mostly in oaks,” Troxclair said. “Large populations of them can decimate oak tree canopies and swarm over property, though they’re mostly considered a nuisance or annoyance.”

Troxclair said he witnessed the previous explosion of Central Texas leaf-katydids in 2007 and remembered a large bottomland area near Pearsall where the rapacious insects had completely defoliated hundreds of live oaks. During that year, outbreaks were reported in Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Frio, Hays, Kendall, and Medina counties.

One of this year’s most serious reports came from the Kane family of Hondo.

“A few weeks ago, red katydids started swarming all over my house and property,” said Janelle Kane. “At first there were hundreds on the side of my house, then they finally moved into the trees and now they’ve spread all over a 50- to 60-acre area around us.”

Kane said the katydids have gotten into her shed, crawled under her patio and “found their way into almost every nook and cranny” of her home’s exterior.

"When their noise finally stops for a brief time, we can actually hear them eating the leaves on our oak trees,” she said. “They’ve jumped on both me and my kids, and now my kids are scared to go near them. Besides that, with so many of them dying around us, they smell just awful.”

Troxclair said katydids are sturdy insects and insecticides for their control would depend on their location – home landscape, pasture, forested area, etc. - and the recommendations and directions noted on the pesticide’s label. Insecticides containing acetamiprid, carabryl, indoxacarb, malathion, phosmet and spinosad would be labeled in most situations and provide some level of control.

“We’ve also gotten reports of false chinch bugs in Guadalupe and Medina counties,” said Troxclair. “These are a sucking bug related to the chinch bug, but are of a different genus. They tend to do the most damage to row crops, as well as rangeland and brushland with a lot of winter annuals, which is where they prefer to breed.”

He said the insect prefers wild mustards, breeding on numerous species in the mustard family including Virginia pepperweed and shepherd’s purse, but also feeds on other winter annuals.

Troxclair said adults are a gray-brown with translucent wings and approximately the size of an uncooked grain of rice, but that the late instar immatures are responsible for the majority of the crop damage done in Texas.

“As the winter annuals dry down in the summer forcing these large new populations of false chinch bugs to migrate, they can move into small row crop stands and destroy them, basically sucking them dry,” he said.

Troxclair said reports of false chinch bugs usually come from rural and semi-rural areas, but that sometimes they can migrate onto residential property where they can damage landscape plants and lawns.

“Malathion is an effective pesticide for row-crop farmers to use against the insect, he said, and pyrethroids also typically do a good job of controlling them,” he said. “But again it is important to read the pesticide labels carefully for proper application rates and information.”

“We’ve been getting a number of calls about cicada killers, especially about the holes the cicada killers make in the ground,” said Wizzie Brown, integrated pest management specialist at the AgriLife Extension office in Travis County.

Many people panic when they see large wasps flying low over their yard at this time of year and spot holes in the yard or flower beds surrounded by small piles of dirt, she said.

“But these wasps are cicada killers and aren’t anything to panic over,” Brown said. “The males can be aggressive and buzz near people, but males are unable to sting. And while the females are capable of stinging, they are rarely aggressive towards humans or animals.”

Cicada killers are about 1.5 inches long with a reddish-brown head and thorax and a black abdomen with yellow markings, and their wings have a rusty tinge. Females dig burrows in the ground and use them as nesting areas.

Females sting and paralyze cicadas, then take them back to their burrow to lay eggs on them. When the eggs hatch, the larvae feed upon the cicada carcass.

Cicada killers usually do not warrant any control methods, Brown said.

“They are actually beneficial insects that help to reduce populations of cicadas,” she said. “But if you feel that you must do something to manage them, you can sprinkle insecticidal dust around the opening of the burrow.”

Troxclair and Brown also noted an increase in reports in Central Texas of caterpillars they have identified as salt marsh caterpillars. They agreed while the caterpillars are not yet a significant issue, the moths they will produce in weeks to come could create problems for home gardens and area cotton producers as cotton is a preferred host.