Ah, spring, when the chiggers and the carpenter bees come out

From Aug. 24, 2016:

On my patio the other day I noticed a flying insect repeatedly bumping into the side of my house or gutter. This happens regularly during daylight hours, more or less at the same time. The insect has a shiny black body and makes a loud buzzing noise. Do you have any idea what’s going on here?

What you saw was almost certainly a carpenter bee. It was either looking for a mate or looking for a place to drill a nest. They are most active in the late spring and early summer.

Male carpenter bees are very aggressive if you come close to a nest. However, they are all buzz and no sting. The female has a stinger, but it is unlikely to attack unless handled or irritated.

Female carpenter bees use sharp mouth parts to drill a perfectly round hole in wood or to remodel an old nest and deposit her eggs in it. The hole is about half an inch around. They prefer soft unpainted wood.

Recently, I’ve been itching like crazy after spending time outdoors. Not only my feet and legs but also arms and back. This used to happen a lot when I lived in Indiana where we had chiggers. Are these pests also in Arizona?

Chiggers are the larval stage of the harvest mite. They’re related to ticks and spiders. Adult harvest mites have eight legs and are usually red.

Chiggers hatch when vegetation emerges. You’re most likely to find them in late summer and early fall.

For their first meal they climb to the top of a stem of grass and wait for something to come along. They prefer rodents or birds, but you’ll do in a pinch.

A lot of people think chiggers suck blood. Not so. And they don’t burrow under your skin. The chiggers clasp onto the skin with specialized mouth parts, injecting saliva packed with enzymes that break down the skin tissue. Then they suck the fluids out of the cells.