Yard guests

[Manalto]

You're lucky they didn't set up housekeeping under your front porch. You know it would be the day you have an important early meeting and you'd startle one - PFFFFFFFTTT!!!!

You should submit those photos to National Geographic!

[Lily left the valley]

You're lucky they didn't set up housekeeping under your front porch. You know it would be the day you have an important early meeting and you'd startle one - PFFFFFFFTTT!!!!

You should submit those photos to National Geographic!

[Lily left the valley]

A few days ago, I spied this little one in our parsley. Apparently they love parsley from the research I have done so far. I had no idea!

It's an eastern black swallowtail caterpillar, and the pic below I took yesterday. Nothing has snacked on it yet, thankfully.


This is what it looked like when I first saw it on the 22nd.

[Manalto]

They tend to favor plants in the carrot family (Apiaceae). I usually get a healthy population of them on my bronze fennel but not this year.

ETA: I spoke too soon. Black Swallowtail caterpillars abound, mostly early instars and some small guys (and gals) who look like your photos.



I know they're common, but satisfying to see nonetheless. Also, this is the first year I've seen several Monarchs.

[Manalto]

When I first started getting rid of weeds in the front foundation, I noticed that I disturbed a praying mantis. From what I've seen, they tend to stick around; maybe they're territorial? Anyway, he or she was disturbed - but calmly so - again, when I did some watering this morning:

[phil]

We do get other species that bump into the glass. So far, no birds, just insects that I've noticed the occasional hover then bump test or outright wham (not that loud, but give you the idea of impact for their size).

I got a chuckle out of the Bee movie , where he keeps bumping the glass (Seinfield's voice)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_AZgoP2Jig

[Manalto]

Funny.

I'm told that's how you can get rid of a yellowjacket nest in the ground. If you put a clear bowl over the hole, they'll bang themselves into the glass until they die. (They'll burrow around an opaque bowl.) It sounds cruel until you accidentally disturb a yellowjackets' nest, and then it seems like great restraint.

[phil]

I had a massive wasp nest in between the original siding of my front porch and the inside which is also original siding. I didn't want to take the siding apart and put a clear plastic tub over the opening they used most often. They would fly in and just bounce around, not smart enough to go back in and find a different exit. I taped it to the side of the house with that red tape they use for tyvec. the wasps could eat through the tape, but most stayed in the tub and I made a little hole to spray in bug killer.. I had to keep adding bug killer as the container filled up with wasps.. It worked really well and eventually I had a big pile of dead wasps. at no time did they seem to want to go after me, en mass. good thing. I stepped on a nest as a kid and never forgot the experience of getting stung lots of times all at once. at one point there were so many I;d set foot on the porch and could see them streaming home from every direction near dusk.

[Manalto]

...never forgot the experience of getting stung lots of times all at once.

I feel well-equipped to sympathize. It's a nasty experience. As someone involved in landscaping, I've encountered yellowjackets with unpleasant results more than once. The worst was the time I decided to cut down a small volunteer oak tree on my property line. I used a bow saw since the tree was only about 3-4" thick. What I didn't realize, as I took my stance to do the sawing, was that my left foot was covering the opening to a yellowjackets' nest. When the tree fell and I shifted position, my focus was on the fallen tree so in the few precious seconds it took me to notice the cloud of angry wasps streaming out of the hole, it was too late. If you run, they follow you. (If you stand still, you're insane.) Each wasp will sting, shift position a few inches, and sting again.

[phil]

I was a little kid and I ran home across the street. similar situation we were climbing in old growth tree stumps and I had stepped where I shouldn't have. Headed full on for the little kids swimming pool. I think I had been pre programmed with this image from cartoons of a swarm following someone and the solution was always to jump in a pool. When I was about to jump in I turned around and they weren't there..I got my mom's attention pretty quickly.