Seeing a June bug
Seeing a June bug is a sure sign that the year has reached early summer, since these beetles emerge in numbers once the soil warms in late spring. The insect carries a month in its name and keeps to it like a calendar.
What it may mean
Few insects keep a calendar as faithfully as the June bug. For a year or more it lives underground as a fat white grub, chewing roots in the dark, and then on the first truly warm nights of late spring or early summer the adults dig out, often in large numbers on the same few nights. Anyone raised with them remembers the first buzz of the season the way others remember the first robin. That is what a June bug offers: a marker that a season has turned, whether or not you were paying attention. Days blur easily when every week looks the same. The beetle on the porch rail gives you a moment to notice the season you are in and what has changed since this time last year.
Depending on how you saw it
A metallic green June beetle in the South
In the South and East, the big green June beetle flies by day in midsummer, buzzing low over lawns like a bumblebee and shining green in the sun. In North Carolina and across the South, children once tied a thread to a leg and flew one like a living kite. What simple summer game do you still remember from your own childhood?
One clinging to your shirt
June bugs have hooked feet and hold on stubbornly once they land, so prying one off a sleeve takes patience. The grip is how they hang on to swaying leaves. Who in your life holds on a little too tightly when they are startled?
Grubs in the lawn
Brown, patchy grass that lifts like a loose carpet often hides white grubs feeding on the roots below. Skunks and raccoons dig up lawns to get at them. Which problem in your life shows up only as a symptom above the surface?
Why it happens in nature
June bug is a loose name for several plump beetles of late spring and summer: brown May and June beetles across much of North America, the metallic green June beetle in the South and East, and the figeater in the Southwest. Their white grubs feed on roots underground for one to three years, and the adults emerge in warm weather for a few weeks of flying and mating.
To reflect on
Which small yearly arrival tells you a new season has begun, and do you stop to notice it?