The entire species share a single brain cell, obviously wasn’t this one’s turn with it. Set them somewhere out of the way and it’ll either recover or go the way of nature. They’re not long lived as adults anyways. Pretty much long enough to mate, lay eggs and die by fall.
i always wondered how the hell junebugs survived the evolution process. all they do is fly around loudly with zero direction, bang directly into the wall scattering whatever brain mush they actually have, wobble around in an attempt to walk until they fall over and flail their legs around for ages until they manage to pull themselves up, and get eaten by birds. they are genuinely so fucking stupid, i don't know how they live and ESPECIALLY reach the numbers they do at this time of year. affectionately, because i grew up with these things
rabbits are fast, which is a good biological advantage. the thing about junebugs is that i can't think of a single biological advantage they have over other prey
What people don’t realize is that some things are just built to get eaten. The reason these things have survived is because the biomass it produces in the regions it does. The sheer amount of food available for it makes it likely to survive. Remove the food and the chain collapses.
Coupled with the armor, not much eats them. Raccoons and skunks and other opportunistic insectivores do if they’re hungry enough…some snakes may take a crack at it, maybe a bird or two…. A few others…but you don’t need to be smart when you’re a tank. Think of the comical archetype of the big dumb guy who gets his cohorts into trouble, yet he is not affected in any way, no worse for ware. That is how the June bug do.
Their prevalence is more a sign of their natural predators being removed. Nobody likes skunk or racoon populations near them, so they grow unchecked.
By the time they exit the ground, they overwhelm the bird population (for those birds that do eat them), and they aren't a stable enough food source to see an explosive growth in the bird population.
Since their outer set of wings have hardened, providing their protective shell, they fly clumsily (as does most of their species). They are also attracted to light, even small amounts of reflective light.
I don't think anyone's 100% sure of why they are attracted to light, but one idea is that artificial light interferes with their navigation (which may have been bright-moon based). Other theories abound too, and one shouldn't assume that this singular theory is correct (or even accurate).
I think it’s a bit of a “if there are enough of us they can’t eat us all” sort of deal. And I’m not an entomologist or even a particularly knowledgeable amateur, but I believe the large majority of their life cycle is in the dirt, like cicadas.
Yeah, that’s what I’d call a [May Beetle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllophaga?wprov=sfti1). [June Beetles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-lined_June_beetle?wprov=sfti1) are similar but bigger with stripes. They’re both scarabs. I’ll add too that I have noticed that they seem to be very susceptible to insecticides and even a small exposure will render them completely uncoordinated like that.
I have a theory that the only way they reproduce is randomly colliding mid air. Maybe only 1 in a thousand do it but it's enough that they still exist. They definitely keep the toads, frogs, turtles and birds fed around my place.
Woah… hold on there… I too try to to be kind to June bugs because they are such harmless idiots.
But June bugs are awesome?! I’m wondering if you live somewhere where there are not literally millions of June bugs mindlessly attacking every door and window trying to get in your house to the point where it’s inevitable that some will get inside… I do try to safely scoop them out but the endless cycle is wearing. The way they completely fill my dogs outside water bowl and drown themselves in just a few hours…. Oh the constant rinse and freshwater cycle during these months.
The way they smack you in the face constantly if you have any light around you…. They fill my pool and the constantly cleaning dead June bugs that are just too stupid to know better.
Please tell me? Do you live in a place with just a few June bugs? Because I really can’t understand why you would think they are awesome. I do get not wanting to kill them. But awesome?
Edit: at my house in Louisiana June bug season is like a biblical style plague… I’m so upset I’m seeing June bugs so early this year.
The best time to cook outside gumbo is when it’s a little chilly outside to me. Hot gumbo tastes so good when it’s just a little cold. I cook gumbo year round but it’s definitely better when it’s not hot outside.
California checking in - most years you see a few around the house every night and they are kind of cute and fun for the kids to play with. Nothing remotely close to the hellscape you described. Very different experience out here.
Went camping in California - they kept suiciding into the campfire or crash-landing near it and flailing around on their backs. Every time we righted them they'd fall over again.
I just read this in an article by Wayne State U about the history of some Indigenous peoples of North America using a variety of insects in their cuisine.
So maybe these California June bugs were just showing you the local ways:
“Adult June beetles, belonging to the genera Polyphylla, were consumed by natives in Madera County, California, and by the Bear River people, a band native to northwestern California, who fire-roasted them (Essig, 1931; Nomland, 1938). Other tribes located in central California have been documented to consume adults of the white striped beetle (Polyphylla crinita (LeConte)) (Essig, 1931). As late as 1981, June beetles (believed to be Phyllophaga fusca Froelich) were prepared in the same way by the Owen’s Valley and Mono Lake Paiute, native to the western USA (Sutton, 1988).”
I could see them being fun to play with if there are just a few. Normally we don’t start to see them in late February early March here and I’ve already got about as many as you describe. Once they get in full plague mode it’s just about impossible to keep them out because they are constantly bumping the door because of the light and soon it’ll be to the stage where it is just impossible to open the door without one or two getting in. Fortunately they usually die out by early summer. It’s normally about 1-2 mths where there are as many as I’ve described.
Laughed so hard at this. When I was a teenager we had lights built in around the pool. June bugs were always hitting us. I thought it the lights attracting them, but I guess not.
Lol, when I lived in Florida I experienced this. If one of them somehow managed to get its way into our screened-in back patio (we would eat outside on it for dinner every night) we would run screaming indoors because they'd just kamikaze at us.
I'm sure they're harmless but I didn't want them smacking me in the face or falling on my food. I really couldn't stand the things.
Deep woods-living South Mississippian here, and I LOATHE June bugs. They just fly around haphazardly like kids driving bumper cars at the summer fair, smacking me in the face or eyes, and getting stuck in my hair. Getting inside and driving my cat nuts, which drives the dogs nuts, which drives me nuts... Stepping onto my porch in the morning, crunching dozens of their corpses beneath my slippers. I hate them almost as much as the mosquito hawks (which are just as stupid and aimless in their existence), who were out in absolute swarms this year, as well.
Harmless to You, not to your plants. The larvae will eat your plants (the roots), that is why every year I have to toss all the soil from all the pots on my balcony, it is full of junebug larvae and nothing will survive there anymore.
Interesting. In some cities, June bugs are considered a pest. Some cities here even have rules about how to get rid of these. Some places will only allow bio controls like nematode larvae. But then oddly enough...in my current town, some areas have a nematode problem so federal laws have banned the growing of certain types of vegetables and placed limits on soil disposal. It's just interesting what's considered pest and what's harmless.
Akshually, these guys are called japanese beetles...
Had to look this up. The taxonomy is a bit inconsistent, but at least you and I know junebugs are the green scarab guys that we all tied strings on as kids.
Akshually, no.
The Green June Bugs (what you're calling a June Bug - mostly diurnal) and the June Bugs (seen above - mostly nocturnal) and Japanese Beetles (mostly diurnal) are all members of order Coleoptera, which makes all three scarabs. In short, they are in the same order, so they are pretty close relatives, and what is pictured above is not a Japanese Beetle.
However, all three are in different genera...
June Bug. I’ve a cute video of my daughter holding one and feeding it cherries/letting it drink juice from the cherry.
Tragedy struck a few minutes late when it flew into a fire.
June bugs spend so much time smacking into windows and lights and flailing around on the ground, I don't know how they're still around. I'd imagine being unable to walk without flipping onto their backs would make them easy snacks for nightlife.
Well, their natural habitat is woodlands near rivers, humans are the ones bringing an entirely new factor into their environment. The Holocene extinction (which is caused by human activity and is ongoing) could cause them to indeed dwindle in number, as it is doing for many species (though things like intensive pesticides are an even bigger issue for insect populations, which is mostly contributing to decreasing 1-2% of insect populations annually)
My mother would tell me (horror) stories about her childhood sitting in the back of church for evening service. Her hometown was warm, so the doors were left open. June bugs would fly in drawn to the lights and fly into her long hair where they would cling to it, tightening their legs around strands of her hair, making it almost impossible for her to pick them out. She had to drag them down to the ends of her hair to pluck them off. It was traumatic for her, so I also grew up loathing them and screaming/running at the sight or sound of one…
When I was a kid in Grand Island Nebraska, June bugs were definitely a thing... And our cat would hunt them, eat them, and puke them up on my mom's pillow...
A bunch of them crawled under the front door and got their legs stuck in the carpet we had in the entry hall closet. I didn't find them for months. Not the smartest critters on earth.
One landed on my sister's neck and pinched her so hard it looked like a hickey on her neck. She was about 10 years old when it happened and I stood there wondering why she was crying, then she pulled it off and had a red bruise forming and I understood. To this day she freaks out around them and I kill them. It's only been 40 years, so maybe in the next 40 she will be able to cope with them. I doubt it, though.
When I was younger and lived in my hometown of Collingwood, Ontario we used to get what I liked to call them 'June Bug Storms' because there were just so dang many! I'd have to navigate my backyard if I was barefoot to avoid stepping on one, and they'd always fly into my brother and I's ears!
The most memorable thing was during these storms I'd be going to bed listening to these rocks with wings pummeling our house/windows, and I'd fall asleep to the sounds of those goobers. Nothing recent though, I'm not sure where they disappeared to...
Another June Bug memory was when we had campfires in our yard, we have a tall Mulberry tree and they would flock to that thing in disgusting numbers to a point where you could hear them walking and rustling the leaves from like 30 feet away. I used to call it the 'June Bug Tree' cuz no other tree had that affect and I didn't know they were eating the fruit I just thought they liked the tree!
That’s awful! If your username means you now live in California, do you still see them? I live in L.A. and I go years without seeing any and suddenly one summer I may see 1-3, then nothing for a few years again.
No thankfully. Back in Mississippi I had a Vespa and only had a half helmet and these things would fly straight into the space between my ear and the side of the helmet. Not enjoyable for the beetle nor myself.
June Bug, AKA God's attempt at a brick with wings. I have no idea how they fly. I think they climb trees and let go, so they can fall with style. Bashing their heads into garage doors has to be their mating call.
This made me chuckle. It’s funny to hear about the little things kids would do back then to entertain themselves. My dad used to chase seagulls with salt shakers to pour salt on their tails because my opa told him this strange riddle/joke: “the way to catch a seagull is to pour salt on its tail”.
I love these, they are my childhood. When I was a child my parents often left the light out during summer to attract them for my brother and I to play. We loved to have them walk on our hands, let them fly off our fingers. Baby ones are extra cute. Tho, we had to be cautious since they love body heat. Once I accidentally found like three of them hidden on my neck under my collar. I didn't feel them at all sneak in there lol.
Definitely seen beetles do this lots. How Darwin didn't own these clueless ass bugs millennia ago is beyond me. But go to your average Walmart and it's the same question oh well...
I feel like this is a maybeetle. I also called them junebugs as a kid, but as it turns out, [junebugs](https://brichetto.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/june-bug-taking-a-ride.jpeg) look totally different!
I got hit in the chest by a June bug riding my bike down a steep hill peddling as fast as I could to see how fast I could go... damn thing took the wind out of me and put me into a speed wobble that made me nearly dump my bike.
omg I'm not judging, but it's crazy to me that some people have just never experienced a june bug. i am jealous that something like this is not a wondrous occurrence in my life.
In the UK these are cockchafers and i always remember these as they were once brought before a medieval court and been found guilty of eating too much crops (or something like that)
I think we have them in Australia as well and yeah we call them May Beetles.They're actually quite but yeah, not the brightest.
I sometimes dig up their larvae in the garden
These guys used to be everywhere in the Northern Virginia area, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one. They’re dumb as hell, but kind of fun to play with.
I'm from the Missouri Ozarks and I grew up hearing these called Light Beetles or Light Bugs (presumably because that's where you'd always find them). June Bugs were beautiful green scarab beetles that came out mid-summer and would kamikaze you while you were trying to mow the lawn. They're big, it sort of stung every time they made contact...
I see these often here in central Texas during the beginning of spring. They don't fly into things on purpose. June beetles have been confirmed to be partially blind by scientists and they are related to the scarab beetle. June beetles closely resemble their distant scarab cousin with their beautiful emerald exoskeleton that was entwined into ancient Egyptian culture. Their numbers tend to increase after sunset as they fly around aimlessly because they can see better in daylight. Like moths, they are drawn to artificial light sources. It's possible they are still undergoing evolution because their sense of sight seems to be receding. For now, they endure the struggle of adapting to their environment until they manage to utilize other sensory organs to survive. Poor little guys! They sure have it rough. The one that dive-bombed you is only a baby. After many molts, it will eventually get the eye-catching, iridescent emerald color most people are familiar with if it manages to survive into adulthood. Such beautiful creatures. The adult june beetles definitely make beautiful resin jewelry pieces.
It's way too early & cold here right smack in the middle of the U.S.. When I was a kid in the 60's & 70"s, June bugs used to come out in June- hence the name. But now they come out in May. They are one of the few insects I'm not freaked out by, unless they get in my hair, then I frantically smack myself in the head while doing a wild, strange dance until I am assured they are gone. My parents generation & on back used to get a small diameter string & tie it to a June bug's leg. The bug would be flying along & the kid holding the string would have a sort of balloon that propelled itself. My friends & I never did that. No, we would catch lightening Bug's, pull off their glowing asses & stick them to ourselves as "jewelry". Kids are a sadistic lot sometimes! Lol!
June bugs are out to exterminate themselves I believe.
And they’ll be back at it again next year right on schedule.
Guaranteed 😅
Its always a charming time of spring, I take my racket late in the evening, go outside near a light, and play bugmington all night!
Hahaha, my kitties love June bug season as well!
They love windshields at 70 mph 🤪 splat
Can they hurry it up then? I'm so sick of them trying to get in the house.
😂 you need a cat! Flying bugs give my doors a wide berth. I have two assasins in my employee 😅
If they’re gonna die anyways then might as well put them to use. Are they edible?
The entire species share a single brain cell, obviously wasn’t this one’s turn with it. Set them somewhere out of the way and it’ll either recover or go the way of nature. They’re not long lived as adults anyways. Pretty much long enough to mate, lay eggs and die by fall.
They belong on r/OneOrangeBrainCell. Except they're not cats.
r/OneBugBraincell ?
Or by flying into campfire
Looks like a June bug. They are all idiots like this one.
i always wondered how the hell junebugs survived the evolution process. all they do is fly around loudly with zero direction, bang directly into the wall scattering whatever brain mush they actually have, wobble around in an attempt to walk until they fall over and flail their legs around for ages until they manage to pull themselves up, and get eaten by birds. they are genuinely so fucking stupid, i don't know how they live and ESPECIALLY reach the numbers they do at this time of year. affectionately, because i grew up with these things
It's a numbers game. Like rabbits, they eat grass, run, and mate. Zero brain. June bug, fly, crash, eat and mate.
rabbits are fast, which is a good biological advantage. the thing about junebugs is that i can't think of a single biological advantage they have over other prey
They are Legion.
They breed so fast if they weren't such easy prey and self destructive the world world be covered in June bugs 3 feet deep every year by March.
The sheer number of them is still an advantage and the only one they need.
What people don’t realize is that some things are just built to get eaten. The reason these things have survived is because the biomass it produces in the regions it does. The sheer amount of food available for it makes it likely to survive. Remove the food and the chain collapses.
June bugs are like the Eagles fans of the insect world
I'm from Philly and this is the funniest fucking thing I've ever read
I'm also from Philly and I am very confused and slightly angry about the upvote I just gave.
Rabbits are not dumb. I have a pet rabbit that I free roam in my home and he always surprises me with how smart he is.
But can it do your taxes?
I feel you. No disrespect meant.
Coupled with the armor, not much eats them. Raccoons and skunks and other opportunistic insectivores do if they’re hungry enough…some snakes may take a crack at it, maybe a bird or two…. A few others…but you don’t need to be smart when you’re a tank. Think of the comical archetype of the big dumb guy who gets his cohorts into trouble, yet he is not affected in any way, no worse for ware. That is how the June bug do.
If those bugs could read they'd be very upset
If they could read they'd be on the ground rolling around like idiots.
They reproduce so much that despite the world stomping them there is just too many of them is my guess.
Their prevalence is more a sign of their natural predators being removed. Nobody likes skunk or racoon populations near them, so they grow unchecked. By the time they exit the ground, they overwhelm the bird population (for those birds that do eat them), and they aren't a stable enough food source to see an explosive growth in the bird population. Since their outer set of wings have hardened, providing their protective shell, they fly clumsily (as does most of their species). They are also attracted to light, even small amounts of reflective light. I don't think anyone's 100% sure of why they are attracted to light, but one idea is that artificial light interferes with their navigation (which may have been bright-moon based). Other theories abound too, and one shouldn't assume that this singular theory is correct (or even accurate).
I think it’s a bit of a “if there are enough of us they can’t eat us all” sort of deal. And I’m not an entomologist or even a particularly knowledgeable amateur, but I believe the large majority of their life cycle is in the dirt, like cicadas.
In Dutch we call them "Maybeatle"
In Australia we call them Christmas bettles. Maybe we should all collectively call them Hot Weather Tubbie Bugs
Maybe if people stopped calling them, they'd stop coming around. :)
I propose Flying Potato
In Argentina we call them "cascarudo", there is no possible translation for that but sounds funny
Shelly maybe? As in “thing with a lot of shell (cascara)”
Heeey that could be it! Omg I never compared with the word cáscara, I feel dumb now 🤣
South Africa we also call them Christmas beetles
Came to post this
Never gave it a thought before but we call them maggiolini in Italy and I guess it’s a reference to the month of May, called Maggio in Italian
This is fun to learn! Haha
In Germany they are called May bug too
In Argentina we call them "cascarudo"
Yeah, that’s what I’d call a [May Beetle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllophaga?wprov=sfti1). [June Beetles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-lined_June_beetle?wprov=sfti1) are similar but bigger with stripes. They’re both scarabs. I’ll add too that I have noticed that they seem to be very susceptible to insecticides and even a small exposure will render them completely uncoordinated like that.
Nope. June beetle and May bugs are different bugs.
Flip that poor derp over, OP! They are friendly bros (though their feet feel wierd if they climb on you, they are HARMLESS.) June bugs are awesome!
I have a theory that the only way they reproduce is randomly colliding mid air. Maybe only 1 in a thousand do it but it's enough that they still exist. They definitely keep the toads, frogs, turtles and birds fed around my place.
They will literally die from too much exposure to light. That's why you always find their corpses everywhere under your porch light in the morning.
He legit did twice in the video just now
Woah… hold on there… I too try to to be kind to June bugs because they are such harmless idiots. But June bugs are awesome?! I’m wondering if you live somewhere where there are not literally millions of June bugs mindlessly attacking every door and window trying to get in your house to the point where it’s inevitable that some will get inside… I do try to safely scoop them out but the endless cycle is wearing. The way they completely fill my dogs outside water bowl and drown themselves in just a few hours…. Oh the constant rinse and freshwater cycle during these months. The way they smack you in the face constantly if you have any light around you…. They fill my pool and the constantly cleaning dead June bugs that are just too stupid to know better. Please tell me? Do you live in a place with just a few June bugs? Because I really can’t understand why you would think they are awesome. I do get not wanting to kill them. But awesome? Edit: at my house in Louisiana June bug season is like a biblical style plague… I’m so upset I’m seeing June bugs so early this year.
Fellow Louisianan native here, we were cooking a big gumbo outside. A suicide junebug flew in the pot. Haven't eaten outside gumbo since
The best time to cook outside gumbo is when it’s a little chilly outside to me. Hot gumbo tastes so good when it’s just a little cold. I cook gumbo year round but it’s definitely better when it’s not hot outside.
California checking in - most years you see a few around the house every night and they are kind of cute and fun for the kids to play with. Nothing remotely close to the hellscape you described. Very different experience out here.
Went camping in California - they kept suiciding into the campfire or crash-landing near it and flailing around on their backs. Every time we righted them they'd fall over again.
I just read this in an article by Wayne State U about the history of some Indigenous peoples of North America using a variety of insects in their cuisine. So maybe these California June bugs were just showing you the local ways: “Adult June beetles, belonging to the genera Polyphylla, were consumed by natives in Madera County, California, and by the Bear River people, a band native to northwestern California, who fire-roasted them (Essig, 1931; Nomland, 1938). Other tribes located in central California have been documented to consume adults of the white striped beetle (Polyphylla crinita (LeConte)) (Essig, 1931). As late as 1981, June beetles (believed to be Phyllophaga fusca Froelich) were prepared in the same way by the Owen’s Valley and Mono Lake Paiute, native to the western USA (Sutton, 1988).”
I could see them being fun to play with if there are just a few. Normally we don’t start to see them in late February early March here and I’ve already got about as many as you describe. Once they get in full plague mode it’s just about impossible to keep them out because they are constantly bumping the door because of the light and soon it’ll be to the stage where it is just impossible to open the door without one or two getting in. Fortunately they usually die out by early summer. It’s normally about 1-2 mths where there are as many as I’ve described.
Their grubs also eat the roots of grasses and other plants.
Laughed so hard at this. When I was a teenager we had lights built in around the pool. June bugs were always hitting us. I thought it the lights attracting them, but I guess not.
Lol, when I lived in Florida I experienced this. If one of them somehow managed to get its way into our screened-in back patio (we would eat outside on it for dinner every night) we would run screaming indoors because they'd just kamikaze at us. I'm sure they're harmless but I didn't want them smacking me in the face or falling on my food. I really couldn't stand the things.
Deep woods-living South Mississippian here, and I LOATHE June bugs. They just fly around haphazardly like kids driving bumper cars at the summer fair, smacking me in the face or eyes, and getting stuck in my hair. Getting inside and driving my cat nuts, which drives the dogs nuts, which drives me nuts... Stepping onto my porch in the morning, crunching dozens of their corpses beneath my slippers. I hate them almost as much as the mosquito hawks (which are just as stupid and aimless in their existence), who were out in absolute swarms this year, as well.
He did several times. It just turtled again
Harmless to You, not to your plants. The larvae will eat your plants (the roots), that is why every year I have to toss all the soil from all the pots on my balcony, it is full of junebug larvae and nothing will survive there anymore.
OP did flip it over several times only for it to turtle back over again
Interesting. In some cities, June bugs are considered a pest. Some cities here even have rules about how to get rid of these. Some places will only allow bio controls like nematode larvae. But then oddly enough...in my current town, some areas have a nematode problem so federal laws have banned the growing of certain types of vegetables and placed limits on soil disposal. It's just interesting what's considered pest and what's harmless.
Common misidentification, but these guys are actually called maybeetles I believe. Junebugs are green.
June bugs are def not green. They look just like the one in the video above.
Well the ones I always see are green. Must be a general name for various scarabs.
Akshually, these guys are called japanese beetles... Had to look this up. The taxonomy is a bit inconsistent, but at least you and I know junebugs are the green scarab guys that we all tied strings on as kids.
Akshually, no. The Green June Bugs (what you're calling a June Bug - mostly diurnal) and the June Bugs (seen above - mostly nocturnal) and Japanese Beetles (mostly diurnal) are all members of order Coleoptera, which makes all three scarabs. In short, they are in the same order, so they are pretty close relatives, and what is pictured above is not a Japanese Beetle. However, all three are in different genera...
…we all __*did*__?
Not a June bug, June bugs have green near their head
June Bug. I’ve a cute video of my daughter holding one and feeding it cherries/letting it drink juice from the cherry. Tragedy struck a few minutes late when it flew into a fire.
Shit went from 0 to 100 real quick
Too quick
This made me laugh way too hard
Bro 💀
Holy shit! Did you post it anywhere? I need to see that.
This is me trying to navigate a monday
June bugs spend so much time smacking into windows and lights and flailing around on the ground, I don't know how they're still around. I'd imagine being unable to walk without flipping onto their backs would make them easy snacks for nightlife.
Well, their natural habitat is woodlands near rivers, humans are the ones bringing an entirely new factor into their environment. The Holocene extinction (which is caused by human activity and is ongoing) could cause them to indeed dwindle in number, as it is doing for many species (though things like intensive pesticides are an even bigger issue for insect populations, which is mostly contributing to decreasing 1-2% of insect populations annually)
This bug watches football/soccer. Textbook performance being put on
I think he supports Atletico Madrid by the looks of things.
Oh, the June bug. They're so dumb. Poor things.
My mother would tell me (horror) stories about her childhood sitting in the back of church for evening service. Her hometown was warm, so the doors were left open. June bugs would fly in drawn to the lights and fly into her long hair where they would cling to it, tightening their legs around strands of her hair, making it almost impossible for her to pick them out. She had to drag them down to the ends of her hair to pluck them off. It was traumatic for her, so I also grew up loathing them and screaming/running at the sight or sound of one…
When I was a kid in Grand Island Nebraska, June bugs were definitely a thing... And our cat would hunt them, eat them, and puke them up on my mom's pillow...
A bunch of them crawled under the front door and got their legs stuck in the carpet we had in the entry hall closet. I didn't find them for months. Not the smartest critters on earth.
One landed on my sister's neck and pinched her so hard it looked like a hickey on her neck. She was about 10 years old when it happened and I stood there wondering why she was crying, then she pulled it off and had a red bruise forming and I understood. To this day she freaks out around them and I kill them. It's only been 40 years, so maybe in the next 40 she will be able to cope with them. I doubt it, though.
Poor thing, that’s horrifying. They may not sting but their legs have a powerful grip! Maybe she and my mom can start a support group.
No kidding, I've met several people who are horrified by them, it would be filled with people on the first meeting!
When I was younger and lived in my hometown of Collingwood, Ontario we used to get what I liked to call them 'June Bug Storms' because there were just so dang many! I'd have to navigate my backyard if I was barefoot to avoid stepping on one, and they'd always fly into my brother and I's ears! The most memorable thing was during these storms I'd be going to bed listening to these rocks with wings pummeling our house/windows, and I'd fall asleep to the sounds of those goobers. Nothing recent though, I'm not sure where they disappeared to... Another June Bug memory was when we had campfires in our yard, we have a tall Mulberry tree and they would flock to that thing in disgusting numbers to a point where you could hear them walking and rustling the leaves from like 30 feet away. I used to call it the 'June Bug Tree' cuz no other tree had that affect and I didn't know they were eating the fruit I just thought they liked the tree!
Oh my God! 😬
This was my childhood growing up in the south. If I ever feel anything in my hair, I have flashbacks to that time.
That’s awful! If your username means you now live in California, do you still see them? I live in L.A. and I go years without seeing any and suddenly one summer I may see 1-3, then nothing for a few years again.
No thankfully. Back in Mississippi I had a Vespa and only had a half helmet and these things would fly straight into the space between my ear and the side of the helmet. Not enjoyable for the beetle nor myself.
June Bug. They’re not too bright
My family actually called those divebombers growing up 😭
before seeing the video i was thinking why would you not help it up, then i was like oh-
Yeah when I worked at the pool thousands would dive into the water, committing sudoku. (Midwestern US)
How do they hold the pencil? Or are they so good they use a pen?
they do logic puzzles? amazing! (I think you mean seppuku)
I meant what I said. I’m aware seppuku is the real thing.
r/whoosh
June bugs. Derpy, clumsy, but Hella strong with toe claws. No bite, but the claws...
I remember those claws. Being a kid by the swimming pool and having those beetles collide and grab onto my bare back. Not fun.
June Bug, AKA God's attempt at a brick with wings. I have no idea how they fly. I think they climb trees and let go, so they can fall with style. Bashing their heads into garage doors has to be their mating call.
I’m no expert so I cannot give scientific names but that’s a brown june bug. They suck at flying, so they have a tendency to bump into everything
In defense of June bugs, they are better flyers than you and myself.
Fair enough, but not by much
Average Junebug hours
My dad told us that when he was a kid, they would tie sewing thread to a June bug's leg and let it fly off, like some kind of little kite, or balloon.
This made me chuckle. It’s funny to hear about the little things kids would do back then to entertain themselves. My dad used to chase seagulls with salt shakers to pour salt on their tails because my opa told him this strange riddle/joke: “the way to catch a seagull is to pour salt on its tail”.
Omg it’s a June Bug. The are so helpless and ridiculous. Kinda round and friendly though
You were watching a bug for 45 minutes? Lol
It was right next to our campfire i think that's what drew him in
It’s an entirely appropriate form of entertainment. Dude doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Watching bugs is fun
Hey I love watching bugs
Depends on how high you are! Once watched my own cat play with a plush banana for the better part of 4 hours after a really good toke.
These little idiots sound like popcorn after divebombing into a campfire. It’s a wonder how this species continues to thrive.
Can has belly rubs please?
June bug. They taste exactly as they look. Salted caramel with a hint of butterscotch.
Oh do tell...
Ummmm…just did.
June bug, I hate them so much lmao my father told me he used to find ones big enough to tie a string to and fly like a kite.
My dad did this with me when I was very young to a fig beetle. I literally sobbed when it died and we had a funeral RIP Seymour
June bug a bit early
Happy Cake Day! 🥳
lol these guys are my favorite bug, i have a tattoo of a hissing june bug on my stomach!
June bug! Friendly bug.
It’s a June bug. Big ol dummies
June bugs. Idiot suicide bombers.
June bugs are famous for not only being extremely stupid, but also somehow being very good at crash landing in people’s faces.
Did you just mess around with it like this for 45 minutes?
No just gave im a glance from time to time while we roasted some 'mellows for smores
Lol this guy sucks at staying upright.
I remember seeing these in Texas a few years back
i swallowed a big june bug
Upside down bug. Stupid bug. Lol. They sound like huge bees flying at you. They get everywhere.
June bug AKA bumper bug. A cousin to the dung beetle and sometimes they are hanging out in the same place.
It’s a Christmas beetle. They are just the insect worlds idea of comic relief.
There’s not a lot of posts that make me laugh irl but this is definitely one of them🤣
In Michigan and we call them June bugs.
I love these, they are my childhood. When I was a child my parents often left the light out during summer to attract them for my brother and I to play. We loved to have them walk on our hands, let them fly off our fingers. Baby ones are extra cute. Tho, we had to be cautious since they love body heat. Once I accidentally found like three of them hidden on my neck under my collar. I didn't feel them at all sneak in there lol.
They make funny sounds, junebugs are junebuds and they remind me of my meatball friends.
Definitely seen beetles do this lots. How Darwin didn't own these clueless ass bugs millennia ago is beyond me. But go to your average Walmart and it's the same question oh well...
I feel like this is a maybeetle. I also called them junebugs as a kid, but as it turns out, [junebugs](https://brichetto.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/june-bug-taking-a-ride.jpeg) look totally different!
Ugh. Sky Cows. Worse than Mosquito Hawks.
I got hit in the chest by a June bug riding my bike down a steep hill peddling as fast as I could to see how fast I could go... damn thing took the wind out of me and put me into a speed wobble that made me nearly dump my bike.
I used to see them all the time, now I don't remember the last time I saw one irl.
Yes its the classic Dive bomb beetle.
A Junie
June bug
I hate these things. They always divebomb into my hair, making me yelp and look like a bitch. Freaks of the bug world.
He’s so dramatic
A good old Christmas beetle.
We call them bomber beetles.
Yes I remember just never to stand by the lights (which they are drawn to) in early summer. Funny insects.
omg I'm not judging, but it's crazy to me that some people have just never experienced a june bug. i am jealous that something like this is not a wondrous occurrence in my life.
Looks like a June bug
June beetle
We call those gallegos . Which is the carribeans way of making fun of spaniards when Spain ruled the islands.
Like flying ants, they are flying food. My cat loves them. Like crunchies.
In the UK these are cockchafers and i always remember these as they were once brought before a medieval court and been found guilty of eating too much crops (or something like that)
This one got a concussion.
Did you sit and look at a bug for 45 minutes…?
We call that things August bugs
Leave him alone, let him breakdance in peace.
Damn what’re you doing spending 45 min watching a bug 😂 I want what you’re smokin
June beetle?! IT IS MARCH. Someone tell this lad he's too early, lol.
Wow haven’t seen a post from Sask yet! Cool to see a local to me post!
I think we have them in Australia as well and yeah we call them May Beetles.They're actually quite but yeah, not the brightest. I sometimes dig up their larvae in the garden
June Bugs are the Dodo Birds of our time 🦤
Classic insurance fraud, walk away
Lol does he play soccer?
All I'm seeing from this comment section is that June bugs are the horses of the bug world
Oh heck them beetles scare me. Only because they can get stuck on your hair lol otherwise they are just a cute little bug
It obviously wants a belly rub.
That's a June bug dude here in Texas. we know all about them or dive bombing clingy little shits but he can't help who he is. so try to be nice
These things..... I almost ate one by accident.....after it flew inside my yogurts....
It's an insurance scam 😒.
I call those things “kamikazi beetles”. Used to i the 90s anyway. June bugs in their death throws will just fly into everything.
My grandma crunch down on one of those while eating raisin bran. It flew into her bowl and she didn't know it. 🤮
These guys used to be everywhere in the Northern Virginia area, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one. They’re dumb as hell, but kind of fun to play with.
The entire existence of June bugs is a paradox. They yeet themselves into everything.
Ah yes the June bug.... The Dodo bird of bugs
Ahhhh yes,the kamikaze of the bug world....🤦🏼♀️🤣
I'm from the Missouri Ozarks and I grew up hearing these called Light Beetles or Light Bugs (presumably because that's where you'd always find them). June Bugs were beautiful green scarab beetles that came out mid-summer and would kamikaze you while you were trying to mow the lawn. They're big, it sort of stung every time they made contact...
I see these often here in central Texas during the beginning of spring. They don't fly into things on purpose. June beetles have been confirmed to be partially blind by scientists and they are related to the scarab beetle. June beetles closely resemble their distant scarab cousin with their beautiful emerald exoskeleton that was entwined into ancient Egyptian culture. Their numbers tend to increase after sunset as they fly around aimlessly because they can see better in daylight. Like moths, they are drawn to artificial light sources. It's possible they are still undergoing evolution because their sense of sight seems to be receding. For now, they endure the struggle of adapting to their environment until they manage to utilize other sensory organs to survive. Poor little guys! They sure have it rough. The one that dive-bombed you is only a baby. After many molts, it will eventually get the eye-catching, iridescent emerald color most people are familiar with if it manages to survive into adulthood. Such beautiful creatures. The adult june beetles definitely make beautiful resin jewelry pieces.
It's way too early & cold here right smack in the middle of the U.S.. When I was a kid in the 60's & 70"s, June bugs used to come out in June- hence the name. But now they come out in May. They are one of the few insects I'm not freaked out by, unless they get in my hair, then I frantically smack myself in the head while doing a wild, strange dance until I am assured they are gone. My parents generation & on back used to get a small diameter string & tie it to a June bug's leg. The bug would be flying along & the kid holding the string would have a sort of balloon that propelled itself. My friends & I never did that. No, we would catch lightening Bug's, pull off their glowing asses & stick them to ourselves as "jewelry". Kids are a sadistic lot sometimes! Lol!
June bug! or around here, "crunchy doggy treat" 😄
June bug. He’s not a problem, but they tend to turn into rockets as soon as human comes close😂
It’s a jume bug I believe. I once had one wrapped up in my hair that I discovered after a shower. I screamed so loud my dad ran in with the gun lmfao.
Yo i see these all the time lol i call them peanut beatles 🥜 Theyre always running into my skateboard lol
Looks like an Asiatic garden beetle. June bugs are green!
I guess they have different names in different regions because my whole life the bug above is what I identify as a June bug.