I'm a really big fan of insects, but I live in a city! I used to live near the woods with all kinds of cute bugs, but now it's difficult to find much beyond the occasional silly grasshopper or trash-loving fly. The only thing interesting we get is cicadas in the summer! I dunno what else there is here in northern Texas..
This is all to say that I really appreciate your blog! I love being able to see silly bugs!! I'd also like to ask, do you have any bug finding tips? I'm certain where I live isn't completely devoid of cute creatures, so they gotta be hiding somewhere! If you ever go bug hunting, where do you search? :))))
Hello :) Certainly you can find bugs in cities, though it can be more difficult obviously and you're not going to find the diversity you might outside of the city.
Some places to look, though - during the day on sides of buildings, often the side facing the sun, and around window sills. These are especially good places to look for jumping spiders, but also some true bugs and beetles will congregate there to warm themselves. Look at the same places at night rather than during the day and you'll see different friends, often orbweavers and moths if there's a bright light on the building. Any lights around entrances or patios or balconies will attract friends. Hanging a white sheet outside and shining a bright light on it can attract all sorts of dudes if you want to get that into it. Different lights attract bugs better, so that's something you'd need to look into first.
Look in landscaping around buildings, especially if there's mulch or rocks or lots of plants. If you can do it without getting in trouble or causing any damage, lifting landscape rocks or edging bricks that line walkways will almost certainly reveal some critters - mostly isopods, snails, slugs, millipedes, and centipedes, but sometimes wolf spiders or other cool fellas. Obviously just be very careful when replacing the rocks so you don't squish anyone. Digging around in mulch or leaf litter is a good way to find the same pals.
In landscaped areas around buildings with flowers or in small city parks, check the tops of flowers and all over the stems and on the undersides of leaves during the day - but be thorough, take your time and look very closely, you'd be surprised who's hiding in and around flowers that aren't immediately noticeable. This is almost always how I find things like crab spiders and ambush bugs, but of course you'll also find all kinds of flower beetles and plant-feeding true bugs. Seed bugs, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, froghoppers/spittlebugs, etc can all be found on flowering plants, or mantises if you're lucky. The taller/denser/weedier the area is, the more pals you'll likely find, assuming it hasn't been sprayed with pesticides.
In addition to the friends crawling on those plants, you'll likely find some pollinators flying around them. Bees and wasps and butterflies of course, but also lots of different flies - especially hover flies and long-legged flies, which are small but super pretty up close and fun to watch.
On trees pretty much anywhere, look all over the bark of the trunk, especially underneath any pieces of bark that are lifting, or on/under any fallen branches.
And of course water attracts all kinds of bugs, either to live in, drink from, or hunt near. Runoff ditches on the sides of roads are often full of all kinds of different bugs, but it may be difficult to get close enough without getting your feet wet. Stagnant water will tend to have different bugs than fast-moving water does, so check out both if you can. Sitting near the water and just looking into it is a good way to spot lil friends creeping around in the muck on the bottom or skating around the surface. If your city has a lake or a river, docks and piers are a great spot to find spiders, especially at night, and of course during the day dragonflies and damselflies will be near water, too.
Hopefully that was somewhat helpful! That was just a brief overview of some of the easier places to look, but if you're observant enough, you'll find friends literally all over the place.
