Rat thoughts

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This monster is just outside my bedroom window.  It is a female Argiope aurantia, the Corn Spider or Black and Yellow Garden Spider



Getting these photos was a real bother.  It's so humid outside my camera fogged up the instant I stepped outside, so had to leave my camera on the deck for a while to acclimate.  Then I had to hurry with the pictures because of a sudden thunderstorm.

Butterfly closeup (clicky to zoom in)


Catterpillar closeup.   These guys are hard to photograph because they never sit still.


Spider waiting on the doghouse.


Hardcore bugsex!  Avert your eyes, children!

We've been having a serious invasion of millipedes lately.  Millipedes are harmless to humans, they're not poisonous, they don't bite or sting, and they don't eat furniture, books, human food or anything else usually found inside a home.  When they get inside a house, it's by accident and they usually don't live long; millipedes like cool, dark, wet environments, something most homes are not.

For several years now, I'd see the occasional millipede inside the house, but they were fairly rare.  Until the past week.  This year has been unusually wet, which probably accounts for the HUGE numbers of millipedes (and other aquatic insects like mosquitos) that I've been seeing outside.  And now that it's fall, it's time for them to migrate.  That means a dramatic increase in the number of millipedes that have wandered into the house.  Prior to this week, I was finding maybe a millipede every few weeks or months at most.  Now I've been dispatching dozens in a single day.  And there are hundreds more outside.

Stepping on them isn't very effective, because they like to hang out in corners so I can only get them with the edge of my shoe, however their exoskeleton is strong enough to withstand that.  I can only squish them if I catch them in the open.

While waiting for the dogs to do their business, I saw dozens of the darned bugs crawling around on the steps.  I tried stepping on them, but it wasn't helping much and there were more bugs than I could stomp.  Then I saw a tool for working with electric fence wire lying on the steps.  The edge was a bit sharp, so I tried pressing it against the middle of one of the millipedes.  Sure enough, it sliced the bug clean in two...

And then the head end started crawling off like nothing happened!  AUGH!  ZOMBIEPEDES!

A Plume Moth, possibly Hellinsia homodactyla.  They're sometimes called "airplane moths", for obvious reasons.  I couldn't get the camera to focus through the glass for a picture of his underside, but it held still while I went outside and took a macro photo of his dorsal side.

Moths are a lot harder to identify than butterflies.

You never know where they'll be hiding....



I guess this explains how they're getting so dirty all the time.  And I just gave them a bath a couple days ago after they came into the house caked in mud.



Looks like this hackberry butterfly has gotten lucky more than once.  I guess those eye spots really do help distract predators.

I didn't realize just how important that bug zapper is.  The bulbs are failing, causing the thing to arc and flicker and generally sound not good, so I unplugged it.

It's been off for about three days and the place is absolutely swarming with bugs.  I just sprayed myself with Off and tried to go outside, then I probably looked like an insane man trying to swat at all the bugs that were all over me.  I just wanted to spend the evening on the front steps, listening to some music and playing with the goatlets, but the bugs sure put the kibosh on that real quick.

I managed to dig up one spare bulb from the old bug zapper, and there should be another, but I can't find it, so I guess I have to go out tomorrow and buy another.  This zapper takes two bulbs and both appear to be failing/failed.

It's been pretty chilly out the past week or so, but today it jumped into the 70s and the bugs suddenly came out with a vengeance.  So far I've killed at least 87 132 flies inside the house.  Eighty-Seven!!!  One Hundred Thirty Two!!!!! WTF?  There's also a few dozen ladybugs inside as well.

The bugs hang around outside the doors and as soon as someone opens one, they come pouring in like a dam burst.  The sticky fly strips on the porch are totally covered; I guess I need to put up some more.

Fortunately temps are supposed to drop to near freezing tonight, so hopefully that, plus my skillful use of the flyswatter, will take care of the problem.

At least it's not grasshoppers.  My roommate who's lived here for quite a few years tells me one year the grasshoppers were so bad, they started eating the metal window screens!  I think I'll take 87 flies over millions of metal-chomping locusts, thank you.

It's been pretty cold the past week or two, but today was quite warm, up in the 70's.  The bugs have absolutely exploded outside.  There's several dozen flies buzzing around on the porch, but it's the ladybugs that are the real problem.  There are several hundred ladybugs just on the porch.  There are clouds of them zipping around outside.  And they're somehow getting through the weatherstripping on the front door so there's a couple dozen ladybugs crawling around the walls and ceiling in the living room.  I don't particularly want to kill them, because ladybugs are a beneficial insect.  Hopefully the weather will take care of them naturally, it's supposed to be much cooler and rainy the next few days.

At least it's not mosquitoes.

A hoverfly, not hovering.

Despite their black and yellow coloration, hoverflies are not related to bees or wasps and are totally harmless to most animals.  As larva, some species of hoverfly prey on aphids, while as adults, they feed on nectar and pollinate flowers.




That's not a snack treat!