Extension Report

Baldwin County Extension Office

302A Byrne Street

Bay Minette, AL  36507

Telephone (251) 937-7176 or

928-0860/943-5611 ext. 2222

FAX (251) 937-7285

Michael N. McIntyre

Urban Regional Extension Agent

Natural Resources/Home Horticulture  

January 5, 2009

The Bugs Are Whispering

Can bugs really talk? No. Can they indicate to us about changes in our surroundings? Yes.  This article looks at how bugs, especially those that live or use water to complete their lifecycle.   This article will focus on aquatic macro invertebrates. Aquatic relating to water, macro meaning they can easily be seen, and invertebrate- they do not have a backbone. These aquatic macro invertebrate may undergo a complete change-metamorphosis i.e., egg- larva –pupa -adult or a partial or incomplete metamorphosis i.e., egg- nymph (instar 1) –nymph (instar 2) -adult. 

So how are these bugs whispering to us and what are they telling us about the quality of the lake or stream? Remember that these bugs live somewhere in the water on a plant`s stem, under rocks, at the bottom of a muddy lake or just flying around looking for somewhere to lay its eggs. One of the most important things to consider is that these bugs can tolerate the conditions of the stream or lake. However, there are certain bugs that will be dominant in clean water and bugs that will be dominant in dirty or poor quality water, a third  category of bugs can live pretty much in a wide range of water quality conditions.

Now listen closely to their whisper. You are at a stream with your nets collecting bugs and found mainly stoneflies, riffle beetles, mayflies, caddis flies and very few other bugs. After consulting your macro invertebrate chart you conclude that the stream water is of good quality, because the bugs mentioned above are dominant in good quality water.  Your friends on the other side of the city are conducting the same activity at a different stream.  Their findings were primarily midges, aquatic worms, black flies, pouch snails with a few other bugs.  Once again after consulting their macro invertebrate chart and correct identification, they concluded that the stream water was not of a good quality. The midges, aquatic worms, black flies and pouch snails can all tolerate polluted water, but few of the other bugs can tolerate such polluted water.

The bugs have whispered to us, now it is time to take action; improve the good quality water of the first stream and seek to mitigate the problem in the second stream. The bugs are indicating to us that something is not right; they are indicator species- species that serves as an early warning that a community or ecosystem is being degraded. Other chemical test should be done and further monitoring continued.

Sources:

Whitney Cranshaw, 2004: Garden Insects of North America

William G. Deutsh, 1996: Bio-Assess, An environmental game that simulates stream biological assessment and watershed evaluation in the classroom

Tyler Miller, 2001: Environmental Sciences

Email address: mnm0001@auburn.edu

Phone number: 937-7176 or 943-5611, 928-0860, ext. 2222

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Alabama A&M and Auburn Universities) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture is an equal opportunity educator and employer.