Thanks to the praying mantis shown above, aphids and other insects are not eating our plants. Of course, we have gophers devouring the nasturtiums. The mantis rubs its front legs together when it is in prey mode/pray mode. This one is a few feet from our front door.
Category Archives: insects
Painted Lady Sighted…
Other than the cabbage white, there haven’t been any butterflies of note in the Carmel Bay area until I saw a painted lady on a trail at Point Lobos this week. But there was only one that day as well as plenty of poison oak.
Goldenrod Crab Spider
Yesterday I spotted a goldenrod crab spider hiding in chrysanthemums (top photo). Its bite is poisonous to insects but not harmful to humans other than to cause skin irritation. The bottom photo was taken a few years ago when this type of spider trapped one of our honeybees. For this reason I am not aContinue reading “Goldenrod Crab Spider”
Ladybug in Sports Mode
I’ve seen ladybugs fly, crawl and be still, but yesterday I saw one scamper. This bug moved so quickly I had to use “sports mode” on my camera and even at that I missed the shot. The issue here is that I got down on my hands and knees in the dirt to get closerContinue reading “Ladybug in Sports Mode”
World’s Smallest Ladybug
The flower with the cobwebs (posted two days ago) now has a tiny ladybug of sorts on its petals, a subtle reminder about how humans are vastly outnumbered by insects of all shapes and sizes.
Didn’t See Those Webs
Our flowers are blooming and so are the cobwebs. I didn’t see them until I enlarged this photo–checked the other flowers and, yup, cobwebs, save for the geraniums. One of my earliest childhood memories was a visit my family made to a very old woman who lived alone in a house built in the 1780s.Continue reading “Didn’t See Those Webs”
Syrphid Fly
I threw a mix of herb and flower seeds into a raised bed last October…and waited. Boom! They have arrived. Despite the damp weather, there are no aphids about thanks, in part, to the syrphid fly, a small bee-like insect that loves aphids. Don’t know where this fly came from, or if, in fact, itContinue reading “Syrphid Fly”
