Any Strange and Wonderful Visitors? Photos please!

I was spraying my plants for mold and a new friend startled me.

New Frenemy? They eat my bean leaves without mercy. Thank goodness I have a cat that will dispatch them. All I have to do is show her, "Here he is."

Grasshopper of some sort?

sanderson wrote:New Frenemy?  They eat my bean leaves without mercy.  Thank goodness I have a cat that will dispatch them.  All I have to do is show her, "Here he is."

 
Lilly does that with flies when I say "Git em!"  Soon I hear a crunching sound...gruesome.

No strange visitors yet...hardly any bees even.  If it wasn't for the ants I don't think my strawberries would be forming...

CC

I picked one of those multi-colored caterpillars off my flat leaf Italian parsley day before yesterday.  I didn't get a pic because a neighbor's 6 year old was fascinated by it and took it to keep inside to see if it will pupate and a chrysalis will appear.  He would not be persuaded that it was not a monarch butterfly caterpillar because they had been studying them in school.

Did it look like this?



I found this great site!
http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Caterpillars/Caterpillars%20of%20North%20Texas.htm

grownsunshine wrote:I was spraying my plants for mold and a new friend startled me.

A locust or such creature at the  end of its life ..I say this  as it has turned from green to dark brown .  How big is it  ??

I got the fright of my life a few days ago , picking out a few weds out eh flower beds when suddenly a large wasp whizzed past my nose and latched on to a hanging down bell shaped flower .
 The thing that made me jump was the size of it , as I watched it come out eh flower several more were doing strafing runs past me to the flowers .

 I realised something was amiss so nipped indoors for a glass jar and a lid .
 waited till one got well in  one of the bells & captured the bell C/W wasp in it , screwing the lid on tight .

 I came inside and felt quite queasy at the monster when I looked at it with a magnifying glass .
Had a look on line and couldn't readily find any similar UK native wasp that was 35 mm long from front of its head to the butt end . because of the numbers visiting the flowers I think I can safely say they are worker wasps s not drones or queens.
 

 Well one thing's for sure, there was no way I was going to try and photo it alive outside the jar in Macro with my nose a mere 9 inches away ..I'm not that stoooopid ...HONEST !   

 I decide the best way to despatch it would be to pop the jar & wasp in the freezer for a few days whilst we are away on a long weekend ( again )
Tonight when I took it out I noticed it has shrunk a smidgeon & has darkened from the bright yellow of the emoticons to the 12 th colour yellow down on the font colour button chart .
I hope to take some pictures tomorrow in good light ( stick it on a mount  by using a big darning needle or two to get a better sense of things.

 Its face has changed from day glow green to a yellowish colour .. it was the green colour that made me feel queasy ...pure bloody evil it was .

Wasps can be frightening -- especially if you're outside trying to eat a sandwich with meat on it -- but I think of most of them as the good guys. Some hornets are so huge that it's hard not to get the willies, though. Sounds like you found a real giant.

camprn wrote:Did it look like this?



I found this great site!
http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Caterpillars/Caterpillars%20of%20North%20Texas.htm

Yep!  That's him!

Great web site.  Thanks for the URL.

I found this guy in one of my boxes this morning:
Looks like something under a microscope, right?  I guess it's a form of dog vomit...

This one gives you an idea of the size of it:

CC

Today I found this fella in one of my boxes enjoying a lunch of toad!  I love my toads but I let him live.  I read where Garter snakes eat slugs, too!

and

found this today....haven't identified it yet

This is not a caterpillar.
It's a mold "bug" on a wilted squash blossom from all of the sauna like conditions in NW Georgia lately.

FeedMeSeeMore wrote:This is not a caterpillar.
It's a mold "bug" on a wilted squash blossom from all of the sauna like conditions in NW Georgia lately.

Kind of neat looking.

I left this cute li'l guy to live out it's last days munching on the leaves:


CC

CapeC....Is that a hornworm?  If it is, it can destroy a tomato plant in a couple of days so I wouldn't let it live.  Ugh.

Yes it is, QB.  But I want the wasps it's hosting so I'll leave it there.  I think it's pretty much paralyzed or on the way out since it doesn't move any.

My yard seems to be a plethora of different kinds of wasps this year.   

CC

CC, That's rather fascinating to have this event happen in a member's yard and to capture it as a nice photo.

A friend sent me this through FB. Click on the caterpillar to see what emerges. Beautiful. http://www.ba-bamail.com/content.aspx?emailid=19420

Thanks for that link sanderson. Amazing photos. Such diversity in nature.

Beautiful!

I'd have to wonder about #5 though - almost looks like a tarantula, lol!

Wish they had a pic of a luna moth... I saw one as a kid. It was sleeping on our screen door. My dad found it & showed it to me. I think I was about 7 or 8...? Absolutely gorgeous!