Tall weeds and a new toy

Spring is just busting out like crazy now, and I have a new camera which I am still trying to get used to. It's got options for "special effects," which the old camera didn't offer. Here's one used to capture the Bottle Chandelier.

(Note: I put the bug pictures at the bottom of the post so you can bail out if you are phobic. On the positive side for fellow arachnopobes, there are no spiders, just a bee and another insect)

Yellow Columbine gets the "illustration" filter.

Maybe the most interesting filter isolates the color red, and removed color from everything else. It worked really well with the poppies. Another feature kicked in when I took this one - it informed me that it had detected a blinked eye. Ha ha! Very perceptive Ms. Camera, but he's not going to open his eyes any wider than that. Ever.

We got our first sunflower of the year, and it is a perfect beauty, even without this effect that is supposed to make it look like a painting.

No special camera effects on the rest of them, just some close shots of a HUGE black bee that has been visiting the milkweed. It's not a Bumble Bee, but a Carpenter Bee that goes by "Xylocopa micans."


Again, no special effects, but just a shot of a bug that is ALL OVER the milkweed. Turns out it's called a Milkweed Bug. Harmless, except to milkweed, which is a problem for us since the milkweed is much needed for butterflies. We are not going to discourage the MW bugs, but instead are headed out to buy some more milkweed plants - so maybe there will be enough to go around.

Winter beauty

The yard is so full of butterflies!! Mostly Monarchs Queens* but there are a few others I haven't identified by type. It has been very, very dry so there is not a lot for nourishment, so they are ganging up on the Tropical Milkweed. So beautiful.

* [correction] These butterflies pictures are Queens, which I discovered through a comment with this link.

Putting on some miles

Pulled into a parking space and just happened to notice that my car was RIGHT THEN rolling past 140,000 miles! Mr B has the same year and model (2000) and his has about 155,000 on it. I've never had a car that went this far!

And speaking of going a long ways, check out this hitchhiker I picked up on Friday. I was driving home in rush hour (and it IS an hour long commute but there's not much RUSH about it or I would get home in half that time) and I see this bold grasshopper riding outside on the passenger side. He moved around quite a bit, despite being blasted with winds as high as 50mph. Look at his antennae blown back by the wind. I started worrying about him (which seems to be my main pastime - worrying about stuff), because I was afraid he was going to be dislodged to meet with a sudden splat behind me, so I started driving more carefully - like having a baby on board. ;-)

He rode the car all the way home to the driveway after riding at least 5-6 miles, then flew away after I nudged him with a leaf.

I wonder if this was a joy ride or absolute terror for this awesome little dude?

Spring?

Well, there are actually roses all year, but this one was particularly pretty and perfect in the front yard, so I had to take a picture. There was a robin in the backyard last week, but in this area I don't know what the significance of that event. Birds are abundant but robins seem to be rare. The main sign of Spring's return seems to be the appearance of crane flies. A lot of people think they are "giant mosquitoes" or "mosquito eaters" or some such thing, but they are neither. They are only interested in some old dead wet leaves and mulch, and do not want to nibble on you or your pets in any way. When these guys show up, I think of Spring, and too soon they are gone and replaces with the mosquitoes of Summer. After the hellish Summer we had last year, I am not looking forward to this one.

...and now, in butterfly news...

Time to push that scary spider further down the page. I try not to be a speciesist but spiders still shake me up. How about a butterfly or two?

We've got a lot of these right now. They are called Bordered Patch, and like Monarchs, they go for the Blue Mist like it's crack.

This is a chrysalis that was formed like an earring hanging from our stone kitty memorial sculpture. It has since broken open, and I hope it's because we have a new butterfly. This chrysalis belonged to a Black Swallowtail, which you can see in all its beauty here.

Big ugly Brazilian Wanders to Wisconsin Walmart.

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get ready

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I just had to to a screen grab of this because it really appears that Walmart is trying to sell you a defective spider. You should really avoid Walmart if you are spider-shopping.

Actually, the opposite may be true. In this real story, a couple ended up with a furry surprise in their bagged bananas they bought at Walmart.

Now my bananas are freaking me out, even though I don't buy them at Walmart.

More flowers and stuff

We are deep into Spring! It's been warm a lot lately, generally in the 80-90° range. Last month's Blackfoot daisies are joined by a bunch of Shasta Daisies.

The emergence of the gorgeous Red Yucca blooms have brought at least one hummingbird back into our little habitat. I had been feeling sad knowing that both store-bought hummingbird feeders had been routinely maintained for some time without any "customers."

 

No hummingbird photographic evidence available (all the birds leave ASAP when we go outside), but here's a weird bug that looked a little like a bee or a wasp - but after looking at those eyes I decided it had to be a fly. Turns out this is some kind of a Hoverfly (a.k.a. Flower Fly), and is beneficial for gardens for pollination and aphid control.

"Don't swat me... please??"

This Week in Bugs

On Saturday, MrB saw these gorgeous moths, motionless in this position, and just an inch away was their eggs were deposited (which look like very tiny green grapes). I was very careful not to disturb anything, because I love having these creatures, they are so big and beautiful. From head to head in this picture, it measures about 2.25 inches. The next day, I noticed that they were still motionless, so I was rather touched by how they had mated, produced eggs and then died mating. Awwwww. Well, on Sunday afternoon they both moved. It was only a few inches, so at least one of them is not dead yet (I guess theoretically the live one could have nudged the other one's position). By Monday they had moved even further apart, but they are taking their time. I guess they are just hanging out with the family unit. Bugs! It will take an "insect communicator" to figure this one out. These are called "Giant Leopard Moths" (or "Great Leopard Moths") and they favor hanging out on this exact part of the porch. I'm just going to try not to disturb this little family and see what happens.

This bug scared me a little. He was over an inch long and looked intimidating. I wasn't sure if he was a giant fly, wasp, or what. Turns out, he's a "Robber Fly." It will bite you if you handle it, but apparently is is not looking to bite humans. They eat some bugs I'd like to get rid of (like wasps) but also others I want to keep, like bees and dragonflies.

This fly will not get swatted, he is just part of that backyard jungle, survival of the badassedest.

(I think I just made up a word. Hey Sarah Palin, does make make me similar to Shakespeare?)

Summertime

This weekend was mostly spent getting household stuff done along with cleaning, shopping, and MrB doing yard work. Decided to take the plunge and replace our 13 year old mattress. It seemed OK to us, but I think all the mattress commercials we see have finally gotten to us - it was not so much the mentions of the dust mites but it was the dust mite feces grossout ads that gave us the willies and made us go shopping.

Also finally took down the last of 3 cat-ruined miniblinds in the bedroom and replaced it with another old-fashioned room-darkening vinyl shade (with sheers in front). I'll tell you what, those things have made a noticeable difference in reducing the heat levels in our poor unfortunate upstairs westward-facing windows.

You gotta either beat the heat, or embrace it. Here are some July scenes from this Central Texas backyard. I love love love the crape myrtle blossoms that are filling up the paths right now. Beauties.

This guy was flitting around everywhere. I don't know if he/she is alone. Best I can tell, it's a blue mud-dauber wasp (this one seems to be living in the ground in the garden path) of the type that likes to hunt spiders. Go for it girlfriend! What a beauty. I will give her a wide berth though, and plenty of room to stretch out.
This is a spiny fence lizard, the lizards are getting bigger around here now that there are fewer neighborhood cats.
And here's the sunflower harvester. Even after that many sunflowers are removed, it hardly makes a dent in them. I feel itchy just looking at him.

Ugliest. Hat. Ever.

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The guy in this ad also does a TV ad for his pest control company, and does the entire thing with this tarantula on his head. I guess he will turn your pests into his pets.

Oh man, between this and the Spam with Lima Beans with Elmer's Glue sauce - I think it needs to get prettier around here, and fast.

Midsummer

I prefer to think of the Summer Solstice as "midsummer." It is still viewed as the middle of summer in many countries (although not the USA), and it makes perfect sense to me that when you reach the peak of something - the point after which it begins to diminish - that's the middle of it.It's been full-on summer here for at least a month, but it will continue like this until the end of September, so climate-wise it's not the middle of it (or the beginning either). I'm one of those people who who likes the other southern seasons better than summer, it's a balance.

The yard, both front and back, is most noticeably full of sunflowers now. The tallest ones are about 9 ft tall. MrB has been working his butt off out there in the heat. There's the daily maintenance of filling the bird feeders and changing the birdbath water (which always needs it), plus the weekend stuff which can run into hours. I can't take it, personally. I could survive the heat but the mosquitoes run me back in quickly.

I love the details in the pics, like in the one above you can also see a ladybug.

As for out-and-about events, they are usually weekend things except for very special events. I've been in no mood for the outdoor heatfests/free concerts that happen all summer... not with this humidity and my foot problems. Am planning on finally scheduling a visit with a Podiatrist. I've had aching on the sides of my feet for awhile, and I believe that the standing and dancing I did at the Eric Johnson show last week has created a cyst on my foot. I am really unlucky when it comes to physical activity - it usually ends with me at the doctor. Oh well.

The rest of summer is going to be very busy on the day job, vacation days will be few, and any time off taken (whether it's vacation hours mostly spent at the vet's office, or my sick time) will probably have to be made up due to workload. Come on, October. I'm already ready for it.

Spring bugs

Saw a couple of swarms of these insects flying upwards from the ground. There were thousands of them. Unfortunately, they are almost certainly Swarming Termites. Chem-Free has been called. They are probably not an immediate threat to the house (especially since they are not IN the house), but call me freaked-out anyway. This is one of those "remain calm" situations. Not gonna happen.

Let us pray... er... prey.

David Bowie honored with spider

[LINK] It's large with reddish-blond hair, named Heteropoda davidbowie, and endangered. Read more about it at the link.

This is my "not another big damn close-up spider picture" version. If you want to see all the hairs and eyeballs, click here.

Why?

Why is it that right before bed, instead of being able to wind down with a few last minute check-ins to my favorite spots, that I end up image-googling some hideous frightening hairy beastie that just so happens to be parked right outside the front door? This guy is about 3 inches (click on the image if you really want to see it larger), and MrB thinks it's a wolf spider but I think is a nursery web spider.

So here we go again, with page after page of huge images of spiders to give me the willies, and I don't mean the good Willies.

This spider is big enough to trigger my phobia, so I won't be going out the front door for awhile (and we just got rid of the wasp terror!)

Scream image taken at Alamo Drafthouse.

Spheksophobia

I've always had bug phobias. I try to coexist with the bugs these days, living in closer quarters helps with the fear... sometimes. I not want to kill critters just because I don't like them (should that be a death sentence?), it has to be because they present an immediate danger. Scorpions, fire ants, and mosquitoes (mosquitoes not painful but carry viruses) are killed. I'm an arachnaphobe, but spiders get to stay unless they are dangerous and too close. If they are small and harmless I'm OK with them... pretty much... and if large and harmless I cringe and ignore.

Wasps are another one that I'm phobic about, but I just avoid them if possible. We had a nest of wasps [EDIT: We have identified these as European Paper Wasps, Polistes dominulus, an invasive species which is more aggressive than native Paper Wasps) right by the front door on the porch light fixture. MrB took down the nest and sprayed them, but instead of the problem being solved, the rest of the colony waited there, and then later when he went out the front door, they ambushed, stinging him twice in the ear and once on the eyebrow. This was on Sunday afternoon.

We started reading up on them right away: a wasp can sting repeatedly without dying, and they do become aggressive after they've been attacked. They will chase you. If you are stung, they inject a pheremone that marks you as an enemy of the nest. One report warned "don't think that you can immerse yourself in water to escape, they WILL wait for you to surface." OK, I am 100% freaked out now, but I am charged with handling the spray now because MrB is "marked."

Monday when we got home, we see that a bunch of them have congregated on the peephole of the front double door, just a few inches from where the other door opens. Those bastards! What are they trying to do? Look inside at us? Here are some shots I took through the hole from the inside.

I had to go out there and spray them (through the garage, the front door is not to be used, and I have a warning sign on the sidewalk for visitors, solicitors, Girl Scouts and Jehovah's Witnesses). GAAAAAAHH! I am terrified! I did get the ones trying to live on the peephole, but the remainder are congregating way up high where it will require a ladder, and yes, they are right above where someone would be coming out the door. Chem-free will come out if there's a nest, so we have to live with them until a nest is constructed.

Man, I hate killing stuff. But these are too close, just too close, and there's too much hatin' on both sides of this war.

Spheksophobia: the fear of wasps