Daily Musings - page 18

What does it pay Andy? maybe I'll join.LOL

Al, it pays attention to good pics, lol.

Ewwww! I hate grasshoppers! But that is a good picture of one of those evil things.

Great shot! Aren't you glad they are smaller than us. :)

I went to pick a dead tomato branch. I looked and saw this.

I got closer - and took the picture close, and got the heebie jeebies

Not happy with this tomato sucking creature that was lurking, killing and eating. So my DH cut the horn.

This monster starts to spew his juices.

Juices drop by drop and starts to shrivel up.

More juice and is shriviling up to a dried monster. Ok - what the heck do I do? All I have is Sevin powered form and Orthero liquid spray. I have nothing natural.

I HATE THESE THINGS

Gross!!!

Yes it is Gross! I guess I will go and spray the garden with Orthero. I have 73 tomato plants and it will eat them. Normally where there is one there is more than one.

Just the other day I said - usually the end of July and the begining of August the horn worm comes out. Since it it mid August I said to myself. I am free of these.

Oh well

Does Bt not work on them??

Schick, you just killed your best natural insecticide. That hornworm was infected with parasitic wasp eggs.They would have soon killed it and spread to other hornworms.
Andy P

PS, using Sevin also kills the 'good' bugs that control the 'bad' bugs. Throw that stuff away.

Oh - I was going to ask what all those little white things were! I'll have to remember that.

I did not Sevin the garden. I am the great procratinator (sp). I left the worm on the junky table and went back to look at it last night and it was gone. So everthing survied. I tried to find another horn worm low and high with no avail.

Schickenlady:

For once, procrastination has paid off! LOL!!

Your thread on this horn worm has been a most educational experience. Thank you!

Speaking of that Andy - did you find out what the immature form of your hummingbird moth is?

One that sticks his tongue out and throws spitballs.

I thought it was one that knew all the words to their song - then forgets as they get older.

FYI Re: Hummingbird Moths. Click on each species to see what the caterpillars look like.
http://www.birds-n-garden.com/hummingbird_moths.html

Andy the grasshopper looks great... wow... so close...

I found this in one of my roses....needless to say I took out... I want no bugs in my roses... even good ones like bees should just say away!!!!!

Looks like some form of modern art - Cristo maybe. You might get an ID in the butterfly forum.

Thanks ngam. It looks like they didn't call it a tomato hornworm - so I don't think it is.

Caught a small fly today.

Thanks for the link, Ngram. I knew mine was a Snowberry Hummer but not what the caterpillar or larva looked like. You also save me a Long search, lol.
kassia, that doesn't look good. Ask for an ID on the bug ID forum.
Al, that's a Hover fly. Real cool little critters.
Andy P

see.... they should stay away.....

beeeeeeeees..... they are everywhere.... this year it's so much!!!!!

Andy - I'm used to the bigger hover flies I guess. I think you have a robotic hummermoth this year ;)
Kass - yellowjackets have some predatory benefits I've heard - so he was searching for food - not eating your flower.

Kassia I agree. This year the bees have been so abundant that they have kept my hummers from the flowers, and even the humming bird feeders. I did get a tip here on DG to spray "pam" on your feeder. It absolutely works. (be sure to spray the bottom also). I watched the bees back off from the feeder - they kept trying to return but were repelled. Yahoooo, my hummers are all over my feeders again. Have a great day. :)

Hey daiseycat:

Would spraying pam keep the ants away from the hummingbird feeder as well?

Gotta try that. Do the hummers get slippery?

Victor - I don't think they land, or do they?

x, C

Oh yes, Carrie - hummers land all the time. They land on the power lines, they land on the flowers sometimes, they land on the rim of the hummingbird feeder, and they land on the branches of trees. Yep. They land.

Candyce yes it does. In fact, the ants were the reason I tried it. The bees were a bonus. Victor, there are slippery characters everywhere. ;)

Thanks, daisey! I'll have to try that the next time I change the little darlings food. Great tip!! And I am so glad you mentioned it, as we have been battling the ants on the feeder for years! Of course, it probably doesn't help that the feeder is hung right outside my bedroom window and the ants have easy access!

Schickenlady - that is one gross worm! But I learned a lot from your posts on it. Thanks.

I have good luck in keeping the ants off my hummer feeders by putting vaseline on the top or on the wire it hangs from. I have used Pam on my shepherd's hook also and that has worked too. I haven't tried using Pam on the feeder for the bees....but I will give that a try too. The bees are starting to zoom in and hover around the feeder, keeping the hummers away. Then the bees end up toes up in the feed....ugh. The water cups that hang above the feeders also work for me.

What kind of hummingbird feeder do you-all recommend? I never knew we could get them in New England! last year one visited my honeysuckle and a thought it was a fluke. This year I have a lot of red and pink monarda and if you sit out long enough, you will see one. Amazing!

xxx, Carrie

Carrie - I have a few different kinds and they are just the kind you buy mostly in good hardware stores (my favorite kind of store). I don't waste money on hummer food. It is easy to make your own. My formula is one paper cup of sugar to four paper cups of water....bring the water to almost a boil, but not a rolling boil. Let it cool and it's ready to go. I store any that is left over in the fridge. I also have a lot of flowers that hummers like, so they are buzzing all over the place here.

Carrie - I have three types; the hot air balloon type, the inverted bottle w/bottom dish type, and the humzinger - an alien spaceship type. The hummers like each type, but I'm going to switch all of them to humzingers (brand name about $15) as they are far more stable in the wind.

I guess they came for the pink and red monarda, or the coneflowers (?) or phlox (?). My 13 y.o. daughter saw one today, and she hates "helping Mommy with her plants" etc. So she came running in the house yelling "HUMMINGBIRD ALERT!!! HUMMINGBIRD ALERT!!!"

All the Hummzingers hang. I saw some somewhere that go on a stake - would that be stable enough?

xx, C