Smart idea! I am guessing that's what happened w/ that horned tomato worm I inadverdently foung the other day. I left it and the branch it was on, which I had trimmed off my Iochroma, on the driveway while I took care of other things and when I went back it was gone- vanished w/o a trace! Glad if the birds got it!
Giant wasp this morning
Well ok then,
I'll step up to the plate and defend cicada wasps....by darn, lol. They ARE actually sort of fun to watch tho they will definitely make you hurt yourself trying to get away from them if you don't know much about them. And yes....I've waved a flip flop or two at them myself. :D I didn't want to be in the middle of preparing my garden soil next year and find alot of half-eaten cicada corpses! bleccch :p i've seen those odd worms too..rjuddharrison. Sort of slimy and flat with a hammerhead. I didn't know they ate earthworms! Thought they were in the slug family. p.s. I keep my digital camera by my back door. I NEVER know what is right outside. I love that!
I keep mine by my back door as well but even that isn't close enough sometimes. I started trying to wear it with the strap while I was gardening but it gets in my way and full of dirt. I wish there was a better answer.
When I work in the yard, I wear comfy medical scrub pants. The pockets are big and roomy with plenty of space for the digital camera in one and in another I can carry a set of pruners to do a little deadheading or trimming back with as I look for picture opportunities.
That's a great idea...it would also keep my legs and ankles from being bit up...though it is much cooler to wear my swimsuit where I can hose down when I get too hot. No room for a camera there though!
I usually leave mine at the garden throne ...the chair..you know...the one your whole garden is designed around - and when you sit down for you favorite beverage..the entire garden looks exactly as it should for a moment or two, before you get up and start tweaking this and that..
Then I end up leaving the camera out..but I have been pretty lucky...I am still shaking my head about the wasp, ...then picking up the cicada...clueless about either...now...thingmygigie worm banes..
One thing I would like to know..if they can completely live in water, because.....something that fits the description is found in my pond...I figured they came with the tropical lilies.
PS.....call me RJ - Randy Judd
and yes ..Wenona and Naomi are kin ..that is if you count a 1.5 inch thick geneology book stuffed full of Judds
This message was edited Jun 23, 2006 10:59 PM
Greenie! You garden in your SWIMSUIT?????? You are one brave soul, baring yourself for the mosquito buffet.
The scrub pants are comfy, roomy and cool. The material is very light and does not become heavy and waterlogged when I get hosed down myself, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not. ;-) Forgetting that the digital camera is in my pocket when getting doused is probably going to be a detriment to its life of picture taking. :-p
RJ--I do the exact same thing with my garden throne!!!!! I'll get my cushion all nice and plumped up, I'll settle down into my throne with my fav beverage, emit a sweet sigh of relaxation and all is well with my world,..............well, for a few minutes anyway until I start the tweaking activities, too. That is too funny. I am so glad that I am not alone in my disease!
I haven't a thing to offer you regarding info about the planaria, although I think they are pretty neat. I have never seen a land planaria, but then again, I can't say I have ever gone looking for any either. It'll be just my luck that I will get to encounter one next week since I've said that now. LOL
Ok, this thread started out about giants. Giant wasps, giant cicada killers. Well, pshaw, pshaw. Allow me to introduce you to...A GIANT CLICK BEETLE:
This fella is also known as the EYED ELATOR. I can understand why.
How about this perspective:
Edited to add: Those are hubby's fingers. I was not at all keen on picking it up, although he assured me it was harmless. Harmless, shmarmless--that sucker was BIG!
And this my friends is my entomology lesson for the day. ;-))
This message was edited Jun 24, 2006 2:26 PM
Oh man you guys are really making my valuim usage increase! aahhhaahhhaaahhh! I believe they are harmless but I wouldn't want to touch them either! Yuck!
Bikini Gardening? hmmmmmm I think I live in the wrong neck'o da woods >:) lol
Yeah we've got those clickers here too ... they come in all shades and sizes. However, I don't see the big eye'd ones much.
Indeed . . . ya gotta keep the camera handy. I'll post my pics of that Coral Snake I had for a visitor yesterday, soon as I get a chance to load them from the camera.
About the planaria...A couple of years ago, after a rain storm, I picked up from some rainwater runoff, what looked to me like a two headed earthworm. Could not figure that guy out. But it was dead. Drowned. Then lo and behold, what should appear but this ugly, horrible (and I like bugs!) slimy hammer-headed beastie - as it withdrew from the earthworm. It had inserted itself through an opening (made or part of the earthworm - I know not) where I learned it was digesting the earthworm's innards. Then I saw an article about them in some horticultural magazine. They were wanting anyone who had seen them to let them know, as they were spreading across the US and the scientists were tracking their movement. Since then I have seen several more, always with water - in the drains, for example. I salt them and then put them in plastic ziploc bags in the trash. I take great care to make sure that I have gotten every teensy cell of the critter, because they can grow a whole new one from just one cell. I remember seeing planarians in Zoology in college - under the microscope! Never, ever dreamed they got this big!
CJ
This message was edited Jun 24, 2006 4:20 PM
Yeah...you know I like bugs too, but there was something repulsive about that axe head...Science fiction creature or something..
Is the click beattle the guys that --- click at night ? Those are cool looking...I grew up in Liberia, West Africa -..talk about big bugs...whoa...at school during wood shop - they had a giant halogen light at night...When I would get to class. there were so many cool bugs -- moths as big as two hands put together, rinocerous beatles..my brother and I use to fill our lunch buckets up with bugs, like we were trick or treating..then examine them when we got home....and they were all live! That was a great experience...was before the civil war..
Ha!! I am glad someone else does the chair thing... I was doing garden stuff all morning, then picked up ot at work this afternoon...and alls I can think of is my chair and a glass of wine..
Rj
lol hill5422
I've lived in South Texas all of my 41 years (except for 6 years in Boston) and I thought that I had seen every sort of creature that slithered, walked, crawled or swam in this area. Mostly because I always sought such things out. But never have I seen a CLICK BEETLE! Man o man...now thats something to be proud of! Hey...wait, I did see a rhinocerus beetle once. It was dead tho...probably from the heat! Well, in that case, I want to show all of ya'll a photo of whom I call "Big Mama." lol..she lives in my hybrid Crown of Thorns and hides everytime I come out onto my back porch. But that early morning, she was near one my hummer feeders and was reaching for a hummer in this photo! Just a common black female jumping spider...but beeeyootiful nonethless... :)
lol RJ,
I have a favorite chair too...to watch the hummers, sip a chilled frappaccino and contemplate some deadheading and mowing.. pure unadulterated heaven.. :) Nice to know that others enjoy such simple things as I do...
Hears a toast to "the garden chairs" where sitting takes place more in our minds..hhhaaa..okay some lazy days..
I think jumping spiders are my favorites....they have charactor
lol Txt . . . you sound like me @ critter hunt'n. . . that's too funny.
I've got Rhino Beetles out here all the time. I'll have to send you one ;)
Anyway . . . As promised, here's the photos of that Coral Snake encounter I had yesterday :) (I put them in the Wildlife section)
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/618592/
lol RJ,
Well hey...I'll toast a glass of agave juice in the name of "garden chairs" any ole time. I only drink ice tea and frappaccinos tho...lol
he he....GD, I've alway been a shameless tomboy. I can't kill anything and nothing ever escapes my diligent curiosity in the garden. Hence my garden chair and digital camera. ---->--->--@ AND my binoculars and bird book. I would love to have some rhino beetles in the garden...but they would probably scare my anoles away! lol..and I'm trying my darndest to get them established in my garden..... :)
This message was edited Jun 24, 2006 4:58 PM
Regarding swimsuit gardening: If I do it during the heat of the day, no squitos. If I do it in the morning or evening, then I have to deet first, which I have to do anyway regardless of what I'm wearing. They are SO BAD! My neighbors are too far away to ever see me too or I wouldn't dream of wearing a swimsuit to garden. On the "tweaking" note, we have a great covered porch, complete with ceiling fans and rocking chairs but I swear I can't relax for more than a minute or so before I spot a weed or spent flowers or something...and off I go!!
I'm with you greenie, I can't sit in one place very long either. I am up and moving around soon after. I do enjoy my hammock though. I like to lay there and watch the birds more than anything though. Anyone want to see the critter I found yesterday? http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/618417/
lol ok TxT . . . you can come beetle hunt'n out here anytime, but ya gotta bring your binoculars so we can peep at Greenie :D
I'm the same way . . . I rarely kill anything, but I shoot everything (with a camera ;) ). Even the poisonous snakes - unless they leave me no choice. The way I figure it, the critters have as much right to be here as I do and if for what ever reason they're a threat to me or my pups, I generally try to relocate them to a more suitable location.
NO PEEKING!! =)
My hubster found a snake the other day out by our "shop" (a working building that we mainly use for storage). He brought it to the sliding glass door, holding it by its head. It was longer than he is and he's over 6ft. We tried to look i up online but couldn't find it. He laid it in the lawn and antagonized it a bit with the hoe to see if it would strike. It finally did but it really took some poking. We finally determined it was not likely poisonous and let it go. We're the same way...if it's not a threat to the kids or the dogs, this is their planet too!
Yeah..me either...cockroaches however seem to have their own category...oh skeeters...but for the most part, spiders and other bugs get nicely escorted into the outdoor living room.
It has been a goal of mine to try and propagate lightening bugs back intown... I found a paper on the internet on how to raise the larvae... I think however aside from too many lights, that the mosquito spraying may have an impact...(you know the larvae of lightning bugs eat earthworms too) I still would like to give it a try ..ya never know..
I don't think I sat more than 30 seconds in my chair today...but...got alot of my to dos done...
There will be chair time later on...the city sprayed for mosquitos last night, so I may be able to leave my sqeeter swater down . My deck is really my living room..I am outside as much as I can be.
I'd love to be outside more often but I've also been a mosquito magnet (since I was little) plus I'm at least a little allergic to all bug bites. Mosquito bites get about the size of quarter to a half dollar on me. It's misery. Now if there was only a way to make DEET smell like berries!! =)
Right? and for some reason I wipe my face of with the back of my hand and I'm tasting deep woods off...aarggh...I won't let them win though
I know...every once in awhile it tastes like I'm 12 years old at summer camp !
Goodness,
In a way, I feel sorry for you guys suffering thru the skeeter clouds...but then again, I'm jealous of all of the rain that ya'll are getting which is producing the little buggers! lol....Don't worry, greenie67, I don't peek at anything but the private lives of bugs and flowers...(lol GD)
RJ, hope you have a lot of success propagating lightening bugs. I remember chasing those on summer nights as well as catching those *brrrrrring* cicadas. I do miss the sight of them on warm dusky evenings, esp. after mowing my yards. I've heard that fire ants have also helped to speed their demise, along with the poor ole horny toad. :(
We have had hardly ANY rain which is killing our water bill. The mosquitos just love us I guess. Lucky me. We have had a couple of lightening bugs which is awesome. I grew up in Wisconsin and they were always around in the summer so this is fun!
I recall several years ago seeing a few fireflys out this way but now that you mention it have not seen any in quite a while- I bet it is the mosquito spraying that has impacted them- I have to tell you I never really see any change in mosquito population when they spray. I think it's not all that effective against the targeted buggers. I have seen the results of blanket spraying of insectisides and it's not really a good thing.
Ok I don't like bugs but if they don't...bug me...lol...I don't bother them; it would be better if they weren't so creepy looking.
I have some friends who live out in Alvin, and I have never seen such a display of fire flies in my life..it was awsome...So in theory I would try to get the larvae there...but reading this guys paper, it does look to be a bit of trial and error and some chemicals involved.. he is a biologist...
I believe there are multiple reasons that contribute to the missing fire flies...although..my friend who lives right next to white oak bayou..has a few....
Well let's get some of the larvae and experiment!