One Less Garden Pest

  It is that time of year when the critters that were born (hatched) earlier in the spring have to get accustomed to their new size.  Critters grow fast.  They mature at a greater rate than humans merely because of hardships faced.  There is no mollycoddling of the young.  It is more of a "grow up and move on" type situation.  Even critters that do care for their babies only provide that care for a very short time.  It is also that time where critters of the insect world start molting.  The babies are no longer tiny and they have to shed that exoskeleton so they can grow.  This is much like our changing our clothes as we grow.  The outer part separates from their bodies and then splits.  The critters sort of slither out.  At this point, they are usually soft and have limited movement.  They are also highly vulnerable.  Predators can make an easy meal of them as the insects cannot escape.

  This morning, I headed to the garden.  We had a particularly nice rain last night and I knew the yellow squash should be the perfect size for picking.  Lunch was going to be a delight.  After getting my bowl full of the beauties, I turned to check how the blueberries were doing.  It was there that I found my molting critter.  A eastern lubber grasshopper was in the process of shedding that outer layer.  The grasshopper was almost all the way out of the old outer shell when I happened upon it.  Things like this never cease to interest me so I watched the critter for a while.  This one was well on its way to attaining its adult size of about 3 inches in length. 

  Now, had this been most any other insect, I probably would have left it be but because of the damage these critters do, I did get rid of it.  The process was easy and swift.  There is now one less pair of gnawing jaws to tear down my plants.  Sorry, grasshopper.  You just had to go.  One down....a million to go.