Have you ever seen a spot like this on one of your plants or maybe in your yard where it looks as though somebody spit on your plant and it stuck? I spotted this bit of spittle on a plant while I was walking with the dogs sometime this week. I’ve seen the spit spots before and knew they were caused by an insect but I’d never been curious enough to look them up before. First off, they are not spit bugs as I had always called them but spittlebugs. You know what spittle is. Saliva we spit out of our mouths. Sometimes in the past you might even have gotten a spittle bath when your mother spotted a dirty spot on your face when you were a kid. Maybe you gave your kids a spittle face clean-up sometime. I’ve seen some moms clean up their babies’ pacifiers with a little spittle after it fell on the floor or ground. Only the second or third baby. Never the first. With the first, the moms probably had a sterilized extra pacifier in a plastic bag handy. But that’s people spittle.
This spittle bug is bug spittle. Actually it’s not spit at all but some bubbly secretion from their abdomen to make this little hidden spot where the larva can suck the moisture out of the stems of whatever plant its parent bug picked to lay eggs. Spittlebugs use the bubbly substance as protection from predators, extreme temperatures and drying out. You have to be amazed at the adaptability and little wonders of nature.
Gardeners only need to worry about the spittlebugs if there are an abundance of them. One or two won’t hurt a plant that much. If you do want to get rid of them, many gardeners just spray away the spittle spots and any remaining eggs with their hose. For a more permanent solution you can find recipes for a natural deterrent of peppers and garlic. Of course, there’s always the never fail solution of picking them off and squashing the larva. My mother used to talk about having to pick the potato bugs off the potato plants in their garden and I have bad memories of being told to pick tobacco worms off the tobacco plants.
But since this little spittlebug was out in the field on a weed, I didn’t have to do anything to it. If no cow decides to step on its plant or perhaps chow down on the leaves, this larva has the opportunity to develop into the froghopper bug. If you get nothing else out of this post, you have to love the bug names. Spittlebug. Froghopper.
I found two reasons the bug was named froghopper. One place said it was because the bug’s head looked like a frog. Another said it was how they can jump. Froghoppers can jump 27 inches into the air. Even though it is heavier than flea, it can jump higher thanks to strong, well-developed muscles of the hind legs. The hind legs of a froghopper generate G-force of 400 gravities, when it prepares to jump. This force is 80 times greater than G-force generated during the launching of the rockets into the space. See, I told you nature can be amazing.
While it’s easy to spot the spittlebug, it’s rare to see one of those froghoppers. That’s because they can take off and jump away faster that our eyes can follow them. Maybe that’s why they’ve been around forever. Scientists claim to have found fossils of froghoppers they estimate at 165 million years old. But the poor froghopper has a short life span of 23 days.
If you have made it reading this far, you have surely learned more about the spittlebug than you ever knew you wanted to know. But I find nature fascinating and how the Lord designed each creature and each bug to find its place in the world. I’m not sure what purpose the spittlebug or froghopper has in our natural world. Perhaps nothing more than food for birds, ladybugs or preying mantis. But they are part of nature’s cycle.
Thanks for reading. I hope all of you won’t unsubscribe after this post. 🙂 I promise I won’t talk about bugs next post. Maybe.
Do you like to read about the wonders of nature?
Comments 32
I thought this was an interesting subject. I’ve never thought of this bug before. Nature is amazing and everyone of it’s creatures. Thanks for the post!
Author
Glad you enjoyed our science/nature lesson for the month, Connie. Since I enjoy searching out names of nature things and then always come across the most amazing facts, I just have to share them. Good that you all were okay with that and liked learning about spittlebugs.
Have often seen spitbugs while out playing as a child but never knew all the info about them. Thanks for sharing, It has been a good day –I learned something.
Author
It is fun to come across something new to learn about each day, Martha. That’s one of the joys of reading. Such a great way to learn some new things, even if the book you’re reading is fictional. There will still be a lot of facts embedded in the background and new things to experience through living the story with the characters.
I thought this was very interesting and I love your “educational posts”! But, please, no posts or pictures about mice or snakes! Those are the only two things that I cannot stand and will not read about! I get the shivers just thinking about them!
Author
Hmm, snakes and mice are out, Linda Dianne. But some people might like those. I’m not particularly fond of either one, but I come across one now and again. And oh, dear, if you read this, you are probably getting a shiver. 🙂 Glad you liked the bug post.
Ann, thanks for the nature lesson on bugs. And a brief physics lesson. Who says learning ends when we leave school? Well, anyway, your story made me giggle. Have a great day.
Author
Giggles are always good, Maria, and with a bug name like froghopper then you have to wonder if the first person to write down that bug name wasn’t giggling too.
Really enjoyed your topic onthe spittle bug and frog hopper. We’re never to old to learn something new.
Author
Indeed, Evelyn. I never want to stop learning some new things, and with the internet it is so much easier to search out information like that. I even have an app on my phone now that will try to help me figure out what flower I just found out in the wild. They probably even have a bug app, but I think I’ll just keep guessing on the bugs. 🙂 Not sure I would have ever come up with froghopper though.
I had to laugh out loud while reading about the spittlebugs. I have never known what that stuff was called. Thank you for enlightening me. haha! I won’t unsubscribe. I love your posts. Yes, I love learning about nature, just never snakes. 🙂 Have a blessed weekend!
Author
Glad you enjoyed the post, Melissa. I had always just called the stuff a spit bug without wondering what it might become or why it spit. 🙂 So this blog can teach me a few things too. But sounds as though you and Linda Diane don’t want me to do any snake info posts. 🙂 I do post a picture on my FB page sometimes when I come across a snake on my walks. Those are always some of the most popular posts. That and cows. Go figure.
Thank you for sharing. I found it fascinating. Happy a Memorial Day.
Author
Hope you had a good weekend too, Lucy. Our air-conditioner is on the blink so we’re hoping either for the repairman to show up or cooler temperatures. Don’t think either one is happening today.
I love this post. It’s all information I have never heard. Very interesting. I too love God’s creation, all of it, bugs included. As long as they are not in my house.
Author
I can agree with that, Becky. Bugs outside. Not inside. However, it can be amazing to see the many bugs that are outside. Here’s an interesting tidbit about that. “There are more insects in one square mile of empty field than there are people in the world. We don’t even know how many species of insect exist; new beetles are discovered at a rate of one an hour.” (Telegraph.com)
That was very interesting! I’ve always called them “spit bugs” but I guess spittle is more accurate. Never did know about the froghopper that they grow to be. Thank you so much for sharing that!
Author
Glad you enjoyed learning more about our “spit” bugs, Lee. That’s what I called them too. But guess I’ve never caught sight of that froghopper.
I find the world of nature most interesting and an amazed at what each specie does as if it was a well thought out plan. But I have yet to decide whatever the purpose is of mosquitos, fleas, or ticks. Not sure if that’s the correct spelling. I enjoyed your newsletter. That spittlebug residue would have made a great stumper. Have a safe Memorial Day. 🇺🇸😊🇺🇸
Author
You’re right, Karen. I may have missed a great mystery picture there. Sigh. 🙂 I’m with you on the purpose of those mosquitoes, fleas and ticks. Especially the ticks, but they say some other animals eat them. And think of all the industries that profit from selling stuff that we hope will repel them. But I’d just as soon they had to find a different way to make money and all the repellents weren’t necessary.
Yes! God’s creation is so amazing.
Author
Thinking about the wonders of nature makes me think of that old Anglican hymn first published in Mrs Cecil Alexander’s Hymns for Little Children in 1848 .
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
James Herriott used the the lines of the verse in the titles of his books about his veterinarian adventures in 1930’s Yorkshire.
I think there must be a poem or a song there, about spittlebugs and froghoppers, or perhaps a children’s book with illustrations.
Your post made me laugh out loud, while, at the same time, it was quite informative. I wondered what that foamy stuff was I saw on the stems of many plants I saw as I walked a trail a few weeks ago. Now I know, thanks to one of my favorite authors.
Author
Sometimes it’s fun to store away some odd information about this or that, Becky. I don’t know about a song about those spittlebugs or froghoppers but that sounds like something that would be fun. Maybe I’ll have to hunt those down. We could always make one up about a rocket bug since it sounds like the froghopper does some blasting off now and again.
I have always enjoyed entomology and have never been afraid of nature like many children now. I still love learning about the wonderful world God gave us. Thank you Ann. Love to read about your morning walks also. ❤️
Author
Thanks, Jill. Glad you like to go “walking” with the dogs and me. It’s been really hot the last couple of walks, but the dogs are always ready to go anyway. There is plenty to learn about our beautiful world. That’s for sure.
I’ve seen those spittle spots before and wondered what caused them. When I was young I thought a frog did it, because it looked like the stuff frogs deposited with their eggs. Now I know it wasn’t a frog, but a froghopper bug. Pretty neat!
I enjoy reading things like this.
Earlier last week I killed a huge hornet in the doorway to my basement patio. It was frighteningly big. My first thought was “murder hornet in Kentucky!”. But since the only place I’d ever read about murder hornets was on Facebook, I was pretty sure it was some other kind. But who’s going to take any chances when something with a stinger is blocking your entry? So I snapped a photo and sent it to an expert at the Salato Wildlife Center. Whew…no murder hornets anywhere near Kentucky. But I learned a lot about the hornets that are here. I was also told that “if you don’t mess with them, they won’t mess with you.” Again…who’s willing to take that chance? I killed it. Twice.
Thanks for the nature education, Ann. I’m not sure what purpose hornets have, but I hope God didnt mind me ending that particular life cycle.
Have a great week.
Author
Glad to hear the murder hornets haven’t made it to Kentucky yet, Lavon. I’m with you on not feeling very welcoming to hornets. It’s one thing to live and let live out in the wide open spaces. Quite another to live and hope it doesn’t sting at your doorway. I did discover a hornet nest in the top of the tree right outside our front door. The nest was old and the hornets long gone, but I had to admit, none of us ever saw the first one. It was a big hornet nest too. But the hornets need to know to stay away from doors for survival. I’m not sure a hornet’s purpose either. Hmm, another blog post someday.
I love learning about nature. There just seems to be no end to God’s creative ability!
Author
The world of nature is an interesting place for sure, Suzanne. Everything seems to interconnect in ways we can’t always see. That’s what I think we’re finding out about our own lives right now with all the pandemic lockdowns. Stopping this affects that and then that causes problems somewhere else and so on and on.
Never heard of this before. It was fascinating!
Author
Glad you enjoyed me talking bugs, Paula. 🙂 If I wanted to, I could probably blog forever and a day talking about different bugs. We have plenty of them to consider, but I think I’ll go back to talking about books or whatever else pops up as an interesting subject.