Poor, Little Dead Bug

   Right now, it appears that it is the "season of bugs".   Last week, swarms of termites clouded over the city areas with a vengeance.  Traffic came to a crawl, ball games were cancelled and it was "lights out" on the Coast.  The lights out thing is to keep the critters from swarming into the house.  Those lucky enough to have streetlights nearby can watch from indoors as the large swarms literally block out the beams of the lights.  They are that thick.  The swarms were not limited to termites, however, as the eastern lubber grasshoppers made their appearance, gnats are out in masses and deer flies attack anything that moves.  Then, there are mosquitoes.  With the over abundance of rain in the early spring, mosquitoes have flourished and are blood-thirsty.  Thankfully, I appear to have very distasteful blood for all of the biting critters. 

  The insects do not end there as the garden has been under siege for a few weeks now.  Hating to pour toxic chemicals on my foodstuffs, my only hope is that the predatory bugs, lizards and birds kick it in gear and rescue the plants.  It is one of those predatory bugs that saddened me today.  I found a dead tiger beetle in the tomato patch. What killed the critter is beyond me since (like I said) no sprays are used on the place.  

  The beetle only caught my eye since it was upside down.  The topside of the insect was black but that underside was metallic blue!  The deceased critter needed to be examined since old ladies cannot go around chasing one of the fastest bugs on earth!  I gingerly picked up the beetle and brought it to the steps where I could see it better.  Yep, that metallic blue was pretty impressive!  After the initial admiring of the colors, I decided to check the "build" of the bug.  (Yep, I am curious enough to examine dead bugs.  That is how you learn.) No wonder that critter is so fast!  The legs were build for speed!  In fact, the whole beetle was fashioned perfectly to be the voracious predator it is. I sure wish it had lived and was protecting the tomato plants.

  Folks, be careful what you put in your yards and gardens.  Those chemical sprays are not discriminatory and will kill ALL insects both the bad and the good.  Just use commonsense when it comes to using any and all chemicals.  Lives matter...critter lives, too.