Little Tree Custodians?

  Each day, I walk the hillside just to have a bit of peace.  It seems that there are certain things that start weighing on my well being and I have to escape for a few minutes.  It is usually during these hikes that I, not only find comfort, but also a lot of interesting critters or plants...sometimes both.  Yesterday morning, Mark and I were strolling along when I saw a black spot on the mimosa trunk.  Aha!  I immediately recognized what was afflicting my tree!  Not that is was particularly a bad thing but, still, it was there.  While some folks may be a bit squeamish about finding a horde of bugs clustering on a tree trunk, I was more interested in photographing them.  I knew what the critters were and could rest easy knowing they were not doing any harm to the tree nor would they do any harm to me.  

  The critters that were forming a tight cluster were bark lice and their clustering told me that the juveniles were being protected.  Obviously, the little rascals had hatched and were still a bit too young to scamper quickly enough to avoid predators.  The adults were rallying around them and keeping them tightly corralled.  The youngsters were being quite well-behaved and were staying right where their papas and mamas told them to stay!

  Most folks have a tendency to think that anything with the name "lice" has to be bad.  Well, while these are called bark lice, they look more like a type of fly.  They live in tight knit communities of anywhere from fifty to a hundred critters.  They do not harm the tree nor do they harm humans.  In reality, they probably do a big job of keeping the tree healthy by eating potentially harmful molds and dead plant material.  

  So, if you find a mass of bark lice on your tree, do not get all gung-ho with the chemical sprays.  The critters are there doing us a favor.  They are like custodians of the trees!  That said, I do not think I would like them to infest inside the Little Bayou House!  That might be a little much even for me!