Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

A friend of mine has asked me to help her identify something she found
in her garden this week. She noticed that the soil under one of her
plants appeared to be moving. When she looked closer, she found a
large number of small, light-colored things, the size of a poppy seed
or somewhat smaller, that appeared to be jumping around.

I thought at first that the things must be insects or larvae, but she
told me that they are round, with no identifiable features. She says
that they appear to be eggs.

Her location is in the vicinity of California's Sacramento Valley.

She made a short video of the jumping eggs, which I am posting on the
Web. She couldn't get close enough to make it show detail of
individual "eggs," but it shows the movement pretty clearly.

http://www.amphigoricbooks.com/jumping-egg.WMV

Does anyone know what these things could be?

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:51:30 GMT, Steve wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:20:15 GMT, Jonathan Sachs
wrote:

Does anyone know what these things could be?

I'm going with "a really cool hoax".

I should add that she took a sample to a nursery and four staff
members said they had seen the same thing, although they didn't know
what it was.

She's going to visit the local ag extension office to see if they can
identify the things. She may not have time until late in the coming
week, though, and if the jumping eggs are gone by then they will
remain a mystery. I hope someone familiar with the area can help out.

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

Jonathan Sachs wrote:

A friend of mine has asked me to help her identify something she found
in her garden this week. She noticed that the soil under one of her
plants appeared to be moving. When she looked closer, she found a
large number of small, light-colored things, the size of a poppy seed
or somewhat smaller, that appeared to be jumping around.

I thought at first that the things must be insects or larvae, but she
told me that they are round, with no identifiable features. She says
that they appear to be eggs.

Her location is in the vicinity of California's Sacramento Valley.

She made a short video of the jumping eggs, which I am posting on the
Web. She couldn't get close enough to make it show detail of
individual "eggs," but it shows the movement pretty clearly.

http://www.amphigoricbooks.com/jumping-egg.WMV

Does anyone know what these things could be?

I would guess her garden is under an oak tree... have her look up
Jumping Oak Gall. Interesting little creature that can appear time to
time when conditions are right. There is a tiny wasp larvae inside.

Lar

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

In article ,
Lar wrote:

Jonathan Sachs wrote:

A friend of mine has asked me to help her identify something she found
in her garden this week. She noticed that the soil under one of her
plants appeared to be moving. When she looked closer, she found a
large number of small, light-colored things, the size of a poppy seed
or somewhat smaller, that appeared to be jumping around.

I thought at first that the things must be insects or larvae, but she
told me that they are round, with no identifiable features. She says
that they appear to be eggs.

Her location is in the vicinity of California's Sacramento Valley.

She made a short video of the jumping eggs, which I am posting on the
Web. She couldn't get close enough to make it show detail of
individual "eggs," but it shows the movement pretty clearly.

http://www.amphigoricbooks.com/jumping-egg.WMV

Does anyone know what these things could be?

I would guess her garden is under an oak tree... have her look up
Jumping Oak Gall. Interesting little creature that can appear time to
time when conditions are right. There is a tiny wasp larvae inside.

Lar

Your description reminds me of Mexican Jumping beans. The rage in the
early 1950's.

Bill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_jumping_bean

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This article is posted under fair use rules in accordance with
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Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 11:57:42 -0400, William Wagner
wrote:

Your description reminds me of Mexican Jumping beans. The rage in the
early 1950's.

That did occur to me, although Mexican Jumping Poppy Seeds --
especially light-colored ones -- would arouse justifiable skepticism.
The oak gall idea certainly sounds possible, and we will check it out.

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:41:32 -0500, Lar wrote:

I would guess her garden is under an oak tree... have her look up
Jumping Oak Gall. Interesting little creature that can appear time to
time when conditions are right. There is a tiny wasp larvae inside.

You would guess right! I looked it up myself, and it did appear to
match the description and the video. When I told her, she confirmed
that there is an oak tree over her house whose droppings would slide
off the roof onto this one particular place.

Thank you -- I'm just about sure that you have solved the mystery.

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

On Jul 15, 1:14 pm, Jonathan Sachs wrote:
On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:41:32 -0500, Lar wrote:
I would guess her garden is under an oak tree... have her look up
Jumping Oak Gall. Interesting little creature that can appear time to
time when conditions are right. There is a tiny wasp larvae inside.

You would guess right! I looked it up myself, and it did appear to
match the description and the video. When I told her, she confirmed
that there is an oak tree over her house whose droppings would slide
off the roof onto this one particular place.

Thank you -- I'm just about sure that you have solved the mystery.

I just noticed this today, here in Sacramento. Pretty amazing!

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

wasp larvae inside? what kind of wasps and should we try to get rid of
them?

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

On Jul 27, 3:41 pm, Lar wrote:
wrote:
wasp larvae inside? what kind of wasps and should we try to get rid of
them?

No need to do anything about them...there are hundreds if not thousands
of species of wasps around your home and most are very tiny and very
beneficial. Not sure if the adults of these are considered beneficial
or as most insects, placed in the of no consequence group.

Lar

Thank you for all your insight as to what this mysterious "thing" was
all over my patio. Thousands of them have been collecting in a
plastic "doggie" pool and creating quite some confusion around my
house. Nobody seemed to believe what we were seeing. I looked up
jumping oak gall and that is exactly what they are. We have MANY oak
trees in the ravine behind our home so these little buggers are
everwhere!

Lori

Insect identification: "jumping eggs" in the Sacramento Valley
 

On Sunday, July 15, 2007 2:32:27 PM UTC, Jonathan Sachs wrote:
On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:51:30 GMT, Steve wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:20:15 GMT, Jonathan Sachs
wrote:

Does anyone know what these things could be?

I'm going with "a really cool hoax".

I should add that she took a sample to a nursery and four staff
members said they had seen the same thing, although they didn't know
what it was.

She's going to visit the local ag extension office to see if they can
identify the things. She may not have time until late in the coming
week, though, and if the jumping eggs are gone by then they will
remain a mystery. I hope someone familiar with the area can help out.

"Jean" Mary Schaefer, Attorney at Law
2560 Castlewood Drive,
Sacramento, CA 95821
916-925-4400