JUNE BUGS!

Today is the last day of June, so it's my last chance this year to write about June bugs.  Mom said there might still be some June bugs around in July, but sometimes she's wrong about stuff like that, so I think I'd better go ahead and write about June bugs today.

Anyway, when we go out on the patio at night, there are June bugs there because they like to come to where the floodlights are.  Gabe and I think it's fun to catch the June bugs and eat them, but Gabe likes to do this more than I do.  In my opinion, June bugs are not nearly as yummy as cicadas, so I am saving most of my bug-catching energy for cicada season.

The scientific name for June bugs is Phyllophaga, which is Greek for "leaf eaters."  If you don't like the Greek name, you can also call June bugs "June beetles" or "May beetles."  In some places, the June bugs are shiny green, but the ones we have around here are a boring brown color.

When the June bugs get tired of eating leaves, which happens in July or August, they mate and then the girl June bugs start laying eggs in the ground.  Each one of them lays about 60 to 75 eggs, and it takes them a couple of weeks to lay them all.

Then after a while, the eggs hatch, and make little white worm things called grubs.  The grubs keep growing, and when they get bigger, they have to shed their old skin and make a new one.  Meanwhile, they are busy eating the roots of the grass in your yard and maybe in your flower bed, too.  Mom thinks grub worms are yucky, and she thinks June bugs are yucky, too.  But the grub worms are the yuckiest of all because they do lots of damage by eating all those roots.

Anyway, the grubs turn into pupae before winter comes, which means they wrap up in a cocoon kind of thing to keep warm and sleep through the cold weather.  Then in the spring, they come out and become June bugs, and the whole thing starts all over again.

Mom wishes that Gabe and I would eat up more of the June bugs, but like I said before, I much prefer cicadas.  I told Mom that she should get a chicken if she wants something that will eat all the bugs and grubs.  In fact, I think that having some chickens around would be an excellent idea, but Mom does not agree, for some reason, so I guess we will just have bugs and grubs and no chickens.