The wheel bug is one of the more interesting insects that gardeners encounter. You can't avoid bugs, the good, the bad, pretty much at your fingertips as you work. Of course we love the beneficial ones, they take out the bugs that eat our plants, we like to think there is a balance. The wheel bug is one of those beneficial bugs that looks really different. Imagine a cogged wheel with a base plate attached to your back.

From the genus Reduvius, which comes from Latin reduva, meaning hangnail or remnant. Within that genus we have about 7,000 species, the wheel bug being only one, better known as Arilus cristatus, referring to the crest or cogged wheel on its back.

No particular explanation for the wheel, some think it scares other insects, ok - I can see that. The nymphs emerge from a flat disk of eggs, 40 to 180 arrive, bright red abdomens send a clear message - do not eat. Despite that, the nymphs cannibalize each other, which doesn't stop there because later on the mating females usually eat their mate, just like praying mantises do. I understand that only 30% of the nymphs make it to the end of the season and their natural life.

Five molts occur between late April and fall. As later molts occur, the wheel bug will find an isolated spot, usually on the underside of a leaf, and shed her exoskeleton, leaving a bright orange, soft bodied, very defenseless bug. Within a few hours she will harden and turn gray again.

As beneficial insects, they feed on aphids (as nymphs), Japanese beetles and tent caterpillars as adults. Yes, I mention two we love to see eaten, they will actually eat any insect they can catch.

As they stalk their prey, they move slowly, looking a lot like a mechanical dinosaur. Once they have grasped their catch with front legs, a tube (which usually stays tucked under their head) probes until it can find a place to insert, which is usually where the wings meet the head. Enzymes are injected that liquefy their insides, which are then slopped up, leaving only a hollow shell behind. If you watch this happen from beginning to end with a Japanese beetle, it will take about half an hour, something I can say I have watched several times as I cheer the wheel bug on.

As often as I have encountered them, never have I been stung or bitten. As you might imagine, they give quite a nasty bite. I have noticed that they have above average eye sight because they see me from some distance and move to the underside of stem or leaf. If they are startled, orange scent glads come out with an odor similar to that of the stink bug.