Wild Bergamot will never look innocent again. At least to me since I started looking a lot closer at it. And I blame the looking and the loss of innocence on Janet Creamer at Midwest Native Plants, Gardens, and Wildlife and her post Wild Bergamot. That post inspired me to check out the Wild Bergamot around here to see if I could find some hidden threats. Sure enough I found a few Ambush bugs within the first minute of looking. They’re hard to see, first they’re small and secondly the ones I saw looked more like plant debris than bugs from a distance.

Once photographed I needed to ID the ones I saw. Rummaging around the web I found another post that highlights how hard it is to spot ambush bugs. Take the great phymata challenge. Go ahead and give it a try if for no other reason than to see a good Yarrow closeup.

Bug Ugly

I’ll only go as far as Genus in the identification. They could be either Phymata pennsylvanica or Phymata fasciata. But when you’re so bug ugly no one wants to know your name.

Phymata (whatever)

Love Love me do. You know I love you.

Tomorrow I’ll go back and see if they caught anything for a romantic dinner.