Grasshopper Watch!

   Since the first of April, we have been battling the hoards of Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers.  Millions (yes, millions!) of these things hatch out in the spring.  Each "mound" of hatchlings finds about thirty of the brick red critters seeking sunshine as they dig their way out of the ground.  While they are in this stage, they are relatively easy to get rid of but give them a day and it is a different story.  They turn black with a red stripe and then are fast little buggers!  Like I said, each mound contains about thirty grasshoppers and those mounds are about two feet apart over this whole hillside which should give you the idea why I said millions.  We do what is called the "grasshopper stomp" which was far easier when there were three kids to help.  Now...I am old.  I try.  Thankfully, Mark has found that the cheapest bug spray works on them so he goes around spritzing the critters.  Two months (April and May) of little critters and now (July and August), we fight the three inch long, multicolored adults.  Those we missed months ago are coming "home" to mate and lay eggs.  They would not be so bad if they did not eat everything in sight...so we try to get rid of what we can.  We are constantly on "grasshopper watch", it seems.

  I did find a different grasshopper and allowed this one to live in peace.  I have no problem with the critters that are not trying to take over the world!  On one of the navel orange trees, there was a huge Obscure Bird Grasshopper.  This was a lovely female as she was a good three inches long.  (Males are much, much smaller.)  I was impressed with the gentleness of the critter as she stayed put on the same branch for several days and allowed me to photograph her without being alarmed.  Perhaps she knew that she was safe purely because she only nibbled the leaves and did not strip the entire tree!  

  Have you ever wondered what is behind that name?  Obscure Bird Grasshopper may not seem to be the most logical title to bestow upon an insect but, if you delve into the whys and wherefors of the reason, it is perfect.  First, the obscure part.  Most of the time, we tend to think of obscure as being another word for being kept out of sight or hidden.  Well, in Latin (remember all those hard to pronounce names given to plants and critters?...yeah...those), obscure can also mean dusky or dark.  This critter is pretty brown so the name fits.  Now for the bird part.  If you ever have the opportunity to literally "poke" one so it flies, you will see how the name applies.  The bug is impressive with its flight abilities and does resemble a small bird!  

  It is sad to have to make a decision of what lives and what does not but, purely for the sake of the gardens, the Eastern Lubbers have to go.  If there were only a few, they would be allowed to live in peace just as the Obscure Bird Grasshopper does.  I normally stick with my mantra of "Live and let live." but I depend on my gardens to stock the pantry shelves for our food.  A nibble here and there...no problem!  A complete destruction of the plots?....not happening.

The Entertaining World of Moth Names!

  There is one thing that you can be assured of when you live on a bayou.  We have bugs.  Lots of bugs.  We have the usual pretty insects like butterflies and moths, the pesky types such as aphids and roaches and we have the biting sorts like mosquitoes (tons and tons of those), gnats and deer flies.  We just have bugs.  In fact, we probably have a lot more than most folks as the water gives many a perfect place to breed.  Sometimes, it is just not fun being outside with the critters.

  This morning as I was out in the gardens, a moth caught my eye.  The moth was catching some sun rays on the old sundial that sits in the middle of the garden.  Even though I was working in this area, the moth insisted that the dial was its roost.  If I got too close, the critter would take flight only to come right back to rest on the sundial. I figured this was one of the adults that came from the billion or so caterpillars that ate every plant in sight for a while earlier this spring.  That caused me to do a bit of research.  Luckily for the moth, I was wrong.  The caterpillars from this one eat tickweed and not tomatoes.  Whew. This moth was called a Hoary Edged Skipper.

  While studying the different moths around here, I became amused at some of the names.  Then a question...why cannot I find any of the amusingly named moths?  The name of my moth was cute but not near as entertaining as some of the others.  There were moths with names such as Abbreviated Button Slug Moth, Attentive Crocus Moth, Baltimore Snout Moth and Bold Medicine Moth!  I went on to find Confused Woodgrain Moth, Decorated Owlet Moth, Fingered Dagger Moth and Harnessed Tiger Moth.  The list went on with the Io Moth (cool name and story), Mournful Thryis Moth, Old Wife Underwing Moth and a Pink Spotted Dart Moth. The names kept getting better and better!  There was a Polka Dotted Wasp Moth, an Orange Patched Smokey Moth, a Sleepy Orange Sulfur Moth and a Somber Carpet Moth.  Giggling the whole time, I found the Badwing Moth, the Joker Moth, the Beggar Moth, the Scribbler Moth and the Wedgeling Moth. Those sounded like they could have been characters from a superhero cartoon!  

  The fact that there are some pretty amusing names given to bugs makes me realize that our entomologists must all have a great sense of humor.  How else do you come up with these names?  It is easy to understand the naming of the Luna Moth but a Promiscuous Angle Moth???  Hmmm??  Really now??  This all makes me want to check the beetles next!  Who knows what fanciful names they may have! 

Smelly but cute!

  Critters are a special interest of mine.  I am not sure why but I want to know what makes them tick.  I want to know how they hunt, how they raise their young and how they survive in a world that is seemingly against them.  Every chance I get, I hike the hillside and marshes to observe whatever I find.  Usually, I am pretty good at identifying them but, every now and again, one throws me.  Now, it has been two in two days.  Yesterday, the slender twig ant was a new name for me.  I knew it was an ant but did not know much about it.  Today, another critter and another mystery became my quest.  This time, a bright green bug was found on the ti plant.  It was about the size of a penny....round and flat.  I had never seen this bug before so I decided to play with it a while to get a good look at it.  The bug was very docile and did not attempt a getaway nor did it "attack".  In fact, it sat calmly on my hand before I let it retreat back into the leaves of the ti plant.

  Now that I found out that this bug is the nymph stage of a stink bug, I may come to regret that decision to let it live.  Come spring, this little rascal's descendents may ruin a good number of my tomatoes!  Yep.  The flat, green bug is in the 4 instar of becoming a full blown stink bug!  Had I known, I probably would have smacked it just to protect the gardens.  Well, maybe I would have.  Look at how cute that little critter is!  Maybe I would not have.

Bugs on Parade

  There is a never-ending parade of bugs when you live on a Bayou.  Our springs go sort of like this. First, grasshoppers.  I am not talking about the cute, little green critters but the humongous Eastern Lubber variety.  They hatch out in masses of millions (no lie, no exaggeration).   We try to kill them but the sheer numbers make it impossible.  Then, termites.  Yep, the most vile of critters because they eat your house. (We are still battling them.)  In the midst of termite swarms, deer flies begin to appear until there are so many that hikes are a thing of the past.  They bite...hard.  Large, red, itchy welts are the result.  Those deer flies are not a happy.  Then...then...fleas.  If we are not watchful, an outbreak of fleas can mean trouble.  With all of the furry critters that roam the woods and marshes, it stands to reason that fleas roam there, too.  Fox, coyotes, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, mice...well, just about every furry critter around carries the fleas so we have to be diligent to not let them infest the yard and house.  These are the critters invasions that irk me the most but there are others...lots of others.

  The Bugs on Parade thought jiggled around in the brain this afternoon as I was filling the bird feeder.  The feeder was hung near the jasmine/rose arbor which also houses a rogue wisteria.  It was on one of the long wisteria shoots that another sort of "parade" was happening. At least, these were some of the more pardonable insects that invade the place.  Leafhopper bugs were lined up for a great length of the vine.  These were small and nigh on transparent making me realize that these were newbies.  There must have been a recent hatching of the Leaf-mimic Leafhoppers and the little ones climbed from under the leaves where the eggs had been deposited.  Once they reached a vine, the little critters lined up to start their lives.  Ok, Little Leaf-mimic Leafhoppers go eat to your hearts' content before you get sprayed along with some of these more vicious critters. 

Its April...

  Its April.  April is definitely NOT my favorite month.  Not that I have anything against any particular month on the calendar, it is just that April has this way of gifting things that I do not wish to have. April on the Bayou means a lot of things but three of the most irritating events occur during that month.  The first of April means that I have to start doing the "Grasshopper Stomp" which is a "dance" that the kids named when they were young.  I used to gather all three of my kids and any others that happened to be visiting into a dance festival in the yard.  There, they could stomp all of the Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers that they could find.  The "Grasshopper Stomp" became an annual event as well as a necessity.  Those critters have a tendency to take over the place if allowed.  During late summer, each female lays about a bazillion eggs (actually, about 250 but when you are stomping them it seems much more.) that overwinter underground.  Then comes the warm sunshine of April and those eggs incubate and hatch. The entire ground turns a rust color for a few hours before turning black.  At this stage, the critters are relatively easy to kill as they tend to congregate in mounds. After a few days, however, they all go their separate ways and it is hard to find them.  Then, a few days later, they become munching machines and can strip a garden in a day. It is sad that nothing eats these grasshoppers as they are toxic.  I can only imagine the mess I would be in if I did not at least attempt to eradicate a whole slew of them during their hatching stage.  There would nary be a green leaf left in the yard.  These critters get to a hefty size of about three to four inches in length and keep right on munching throughout the entire summer.  It is not good.  April brings some bad things.

  As I mentioned, there are THREE irritating events that April brings.  The second is gnats.  Gnats make their itchy presence known as soon as the weather warms but are hugely noticeable in April.  These critters bite until you feel like you are on fire!  There is not a good time to be outside even for a few moments if it is a calm day.  We always hope for wind.  A lovely, stiff breeze of about 15 mph is desired for its cooling and for its ability to blow the gnats into the next county.  Bad thing...there are not a lot of repellents that work on gnats.  Smoke is about the only thing that rids the air of the critters so "smudgepots" are a must on the Bayou.  Then with the smudgepots burning, you just have to choke your way through the day....BUT!...the gnats are not there to bite....except if you exit the thick, black, cough-inducing, breath-stifling, choking smoke of the smudgepots. 

  The third menace to plague the Bayou during April is termites.  Yep.  April is termite swarming month so just about evening time, everyone has to hustle inside, draw the drapes, turn off the lights and hope for the best.  While these critters are not as "bitey" as the gnats, they do cause problems.  Not only will they quite literally eat you out of house and home because they do quite literally eat your house and home, when they swarm they are everywhere.  Termites are not choosy about where they land when they swarm.  They sort of flop about in the air all the while bumping into each other.  That misguided flight pattern does them no good until they spy a light source.  Then they hone in on it and make a beeline toward it.  If that light source is a house, the termites squeeze through any opening they can find to swarm inside.  Swarming inside means that they now bump into everything inside the house....humans and pets included.  The critters are on beds, sofas, tables, in the refrigerator, in the toilet, on the ceiling, on the floor, on the walls AND in your hair.  Ugh!  Light fixtures become darkened with their dead bodies, foodstuffs can become infiltrated and drinks are dotted with floating termites that try to swim in your sweet tea.  They are nasty. They are wood-munching terrors.  They eat houses.  Enough said.  At least the frogs and lizards are fat.

  So, it is no wonder that while everyone else looks forward to April as it heralds in spring, I abhor the critters it brings.  The Bayou has enough critters that I do not need them swarming all over the place.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that just about every third year, we get midges....swarms of midges...so many midges that the Little Bayou House has to remain darkened during those swarms, as well.  At times, the windows are so covered on the outside that you cannot tell whether it is daytime or nighttime. Thankfully, they do not bite, do not eat my garden and have yet to take a bite out of the Little Bayou House!  Out of the FOUR Horrors of April, midges are the least annoying.

  Come to think about it, this is that "third" year.  I guess I had better soon start noticing if I need to draw the curtains closed and douse the lights.  Ugh!  April, why can't you play nice???  Living on the Bayou ain't for the squeamish, that's for sure.

What a Change!

  First impressions can be deceiving.  That old fable about the ugly duckling transforming into a beautiful swan rings true more oft than not.  In the insect world, nymphs and larvae can be down right creepy looking.  They usually have spines, markings that look like extra eyes or even mimic venomous critters.  This is all a bit of self preservation designed by Mother Nature to make sure that the little squirts actually make it to maturity.  Sometimes those critters don't get much prettier but with some, the transformation is incredible.  Dragonfly larvae are about some of the creepiest looking critters alive but once they morph into adults, their looks change drastically.  Caterpillars turning to lovely butterflies is another example of the "Ugly Duckling" miracle.

  This morning, Son called my attention to a critter crawling on the rim of a large bucket used in the garden.  Obviously, the insect did not have a lot of intelligence as it kept on its endless journey around the circular top without stop.  Round and round and round it went as if on some epic trek.  We pondered just what the critter was.  It was not the prettiest thing around, for sure.  I was positive that it was the nymph of either a ladybug or of an Asian beetle.  Both bugs are actually sort of ladybugs and  look similar so it only stood to reason that the nymphs would, too.  I just could not figure which critter was doing the hiking.

  After a bit, we decided that this must be an Asian beetle as we have seen more of those than the ladybugs.  Just a few days prior this sighting, we were wishing a swarm of ladybugs would find the aphids in the pear trees but none came.  Perhaps the Asian beetles will feast upon the same aphids, that is, if this goofy nymph ever completes its journey around the bucket rim.

Spirals of Helpers

  It is oftentimes that we become so accustomed to our surroundings that we overlook many marvelous things.  Take today, for instance.  The backdoor had been used dozens upon dozens of times as each of us either fed the cat, hauled scraps to the compost pile, fetched an item from the shed or merely used that door instead of either of the others. Not once did a fresh occurrence even draw attention to itself until Son went out to feed the cat (for the third time today).  When he made the discovery, he came in to inform me that he found a "spiral".  Well, that called for an investigation!  Spirals are interesting things no matter what created them!

  On the outside of the screen door, a grouping of white dots spiraled their way into a one inch loop.  Each dot was connected to the screen by a wispy thread.  To be more precise, there were thirty-eight pinhead sized dots on the screen. Aha!  Although most folks would probably be quick about whisking away the dots, these shall stay put and hopefully will hang there until maturity.  These are Green Lacewing eggs and the larvae that will hatch from them are a boon for the garden.

  Green Lacewing larvae have a particular fondness for aphid larvae which are the bane of most organic gardeners.  We fight all plant-eating critters only with natural methods so having the lacewings drop their eggs near the garden is a good thing.  While the adult lacewing feeds only on nectar and pollen, the larvae munch on any soft-bodied insect and on insect eggs.  

  So...now you know!  If you see a spiral of minuscule white dots floating about on wee threads, your garden will be a much happier place.  Leave the eggs to hatch and feel good that you did not have to use harmful chemical sprays on your plants!  

Friend or Foe!

I write a lot about gardening since that is what I do a lot. Today is no different..today I write about bugs! There are bugs that do much damage to a plant but there are also beneficial insects to have in a garden. I try not kill spiders..at least not the ones of the garden variety since they are "good" friends of a garden. (Some, I gladly squish..Black Widows, for example. I was bitten once!) Ladybugs are also great garden friends as they feed upon aphids. One of my favorite friends of the insect world is the Praying Mantis. They are so called by the appearance of their front legs that are held in a "praying" position. Mantids eat so many other bugs that they are literally an "insect insecticide"! They have no qualms about eating anything that moves if it is smaller than them, which in itself might seem strange as the females do resort to cannibalism soon after mating. (Note..the female is much larger than the male making him an easy target for dinner.) They are remarkably adept at hiding among the plants which not only helps them find prey but also protects them from being eaten. This one is climbing on my clothesline pole so it was an easy find. Perhaps there are many more among the pole beans and maybe a few on the bell pepper plants, one can only hope! Praying Mantis..friend!

I was out and about early this morning and noticed that some of the miniature gourds were chewed off at the stem. I inspected the gourd..it had definitely been attacked by something with vigorous gnawing habits. I immediately thought that perhaps a mouse had ventured into the garden without regard to the ever watchful eye of Ms. Put, the resident mouse-catching cat. I peered under the leafy gourd vine hoping to perhaps find more evidence of the culprit. Not only did I find evidence, I found the evil-doer itself! There munching contentedly on another tiny gourd was a huge grasshopper! These particular grasshoppers are about three inches long as adults and can chew their way through massive amounts of vegetation every day. Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers are not ones to have in a garden. Even as tiny nymphs they have voracious appetites. They start out life as very small reddish brown nymphs that, with the heat of the sun, turn shiny black with red stripes. After several months, they evolve into huge yellow, red and black grasshoppers. Their bright red wings are of little use as they are only about a third of the length of the body. This grasshopper does not fly and can only jump short distances. It is remarkably clumsy for an insect which made it easy to catch and "dispose". Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers..definite foe!