The Zinnias are fading. They are bug eaten, losing their color and the leaves are dying.
Each morning I cut off the spent flowers and water the pots. They like this attention and keep growing new, much smaller flowers... but the nights are cold and their lives are short.
This morning there were bees and butterflies flying around the flowers and then... a lone Bumblebee arrived. This was part of his journey through the flowers...
It's wings are beautiful. It's fuzzy body so soft.
I love these critters. They are the stuffed animals of the insect world.
There were other insects sharing the last of the Zinnias.
The small and lovely Gray Hairstreak butterfly.
And this ragged American painted lady, that looked like it had been in a rather bad fight. The left wing was badly chewed up.
Three of them were flying around the Zinnias. This one seemed to be following me.
"Well, I'm posing! Are you going to take my picture or what? I'm waiting. "
( Do you see the two Spotted Cucumber Beetles hiding in the leaves? It's like a high rise apartment for these little beetles. They're everywhere. )
They are very destructive little insects. My mom use to call them Diabrotica, which is the Latin name for them... Diabrotica Undecimpunctata. Say that fast, three times in a row.
I love this photo because I think this is why these bugs are so attracted to the Zinnias. Look at this. It's like a beautiful candy factory... all glistening, colorful and filled with pollen. Willy Wonka would love this.
Just remember... red and black ladybugs are good. They eat aphid. Green and black Cucumber beetles eat anything they can get their little mandibles on. Between these guys, the grasshoppers and the yellow finches my Zinnias struggled all summer. That's why I buy the seeds by the box. I seed the Zinnias all over the place. That way everyone can enjoy them.
And now... all of a sudden, the honeybees have arrived. Didn't see many all summer.
Right now, they are everywhere. There's probably a hive of them in a hollow tree somewhere around here. If you've been worried about the lack of honey bees near you, don't worry. Most of them are all here at our place. Did you know that the queen spends her live mating and laying eggs. She will produce a colony of 60 to 80 thousand workers. She is treated like a "queen" and is fed royal jelly, while the larvae get bee bread (a mix of honey and pollen). The rest of the story is kind of brutal. It's a bee-licious soap opera out there. You can read about it here.
Want a really interesting bit of information?... listen to this. By passing food mixed
with saliva to one another, members of the hive form a chemical bond
with each other. Maybe that's why passionate kissing is so popular with humans. Not sure where that came from. My brain sometimes moves in mysterious directions.
"Well, hello there."
It's so fun to go out there and use my 105mm macro lens to capture these little guys. I can get up close and personal without scaring them away. Plus, I believe that if you don't show your fear of them and move about slowly, they think you are just another, rather big, bug and they go about their business without worry.
My favorites are the Bumblebees. We have a bond... an understanding. Who knows,,, maybe they have been dropping saliva in my coffee cup when I'm outside in the mornings. Kind of a gross thought... but the honeybees do it and they form a bond that way.
I shall watch my coffee cup very carefully from now on.
"CARL!"
"Stop looking for lizards. You'll never catch one. They're too fast... Carl, Are you listening to me?"
I went out this morning looking for something to take pictures of. I wanted to find a bee or some cool Praying Mantis... or, yes, some spiders on their webs. I was on a quest to find all things "little". My "big" camera, the Nikon, is in the camera hospital, in Stockton, being cleaned and having a small operation to replace a worn out part. So I'm using my Canon Power Shot A520. It's a challenge to see what I can do with my old point and shoot.
I really like this little camera. I always keep it in my purse so I can catch shots without looking like some kind of camera professional from the local newspaper. You can be sneaky with a camera like this. The Canon is easy to use and even through it doesn't have the options that my Nikon does, it's a great little camera.
First I went outside and did some watering, weeding and messing around in the garden. Messing around means playing with the dogs, laying down on the chaise just listening to different sounds and watching the big vultures circle overhead. It's a privilege of retirement.
Then I decided to take some a picture of the grapes...
...when I felt something on my arm. I looked down and saw that someone was crawling on me.
It was less than an inch long and just the cutest little cricket you've ever seen. I don't know why he (or she) decided to hitch a ride but there it was, enjoying the view and acting quite friendly. I guess I should have been concerned because Wikipedia says that they are predatory and omnivorous, eating both plants or animals. But, it was so little... and cute. Wikipedia also says that they are harmless to humans. OK, I like that.
I guess it's true because it made a big, and I mean BIG, hop and disappeared into the row of grape plants.
Did you know that there are 900 different types of crickets out there in the cricket world? We better hope that they don't unionize and pack on some weight. They have been known to cause a lot of damage.... of Biblical proportions. Oh wait! That was locusts, which are grasshoppers. Sorry.
So I walked around looking for more little creatures....
On the Elizabeth Taylor rose I saw a bee so loaded with pollen that it could hardly fly...
...and a very young Praying Mantis landed on the Agapanthus but was moving too fast for my camera.
I only got this blurred shot...
It reminded me of an old movie called THE DEADLY MANTIS.... do you remember?.... "This was the Day That Engulfed the World With TERROR".. It was 1957. and back then... this movie was scary.
Take a look...
This is how my mind works. I love to think about some little creature in a different way.
A prehistoric Praying Mantis is "released from the Arctic ice to bring destruction to the modern world".
I could see this huge Mantis coming up from the river across the canyon heading straight for Jackson. Oh no!
And then, as I backed away from this impending doom, I almost fell over the wine barrel with the French pussywillow in it. As I struggled to maintain my balance I saw this..
These are Giant Willow Aphid...
Thousands of them... and listen to this:
The giant willow aphid is found only on the stems of willow (including pussy willow and Austree). The size is approximately 3/16 of an inch with long legs that make it look even larger.
Bark aphids feed on sap from inside the twigs. Heavy infestations and severe sap loss may result.
And can you believe this?
All these wingless females practice "parthenogenesis". THEY DON"T NEED MALES.
They lay eggs without mating. They give birth by themselves. Wow!
That could be another movie all together. This could revolutionize the human world, couldn't it?
Now.... think about these little ladies being, oh, maybe a couple of feet bigger and walking the earth
....with us.
Scary thought isn't it?
It would be THE ATTACK OF THE DEADLY GIANT APHID.... like a movie... only REAL.... and guess who would win?
I'm telling you if these little insects, in my garden, ever find some of Alice In Wonderland's "drink me" bottles, we're in trouble.
Makes you stop and think doesn't it?... or maybe not.
I have a vivid imagination.
So, tomorrow, I will save my French Pussywillow from these "giants" with some insecticidal soap or "horticultural" oil.... as soon as I read up on what these remedies are and how they work.
Well, I enjoyed my morning looking for Littles.
The only thing that would have been better is that The Bean and his brother (my grandchildren) would have been here to make stories with me.
That would have been perfect.
Perfectly perfect.
But then I would have had to explain this.
You know.... the stink bug "dance". But one of those stink bugs doesn't look so good. I think it lost it's head... or is that a third party hiding in the leaves? Oh, good grief. I may have to delete this photo. I don't know what's going on here.
