Apr 30, 2011

BIG STINKERS!

In nature it's always something. My eyes deceive me once again as I glance outside at the glass table on the deck. The object was bright red, not a paint stain because it was moving. I scrambled for a pair of glasses and sure enough it was moving. Are those legs I see? For this I need a magnifying glass. I scrambled for the magnifying glass and go in for a close look. Eww, a curious group of tiny red-shelled spiders huddled together and when one moved they all moved as if it were one spider instead of 100 or so.

My skin wasn't crawling too badly at this point because I thought "awww, they must be baby ladybugs how.... cute?" But wait a minute, don't ladybugs come from butter flies or cocoons or something? So I took a photo and planned a Google investigation for later.
Then there was the pesky hard-shelled triangle shaped bug sitting on the same table only it was dead. I recognized this guy as the kind of bug I thought ate one of my favorite potted plants last week. The plant was fine when I checked it that afternoon, the next morning it was a shadow of it's former self. I photographed him for a Google later too.
It didn't take long to find out that the triangle shaped guy is a "Stink Bug". Notorious for eating fruit and veg in the garden. Plenty of writings about them on line, but because they're apparently difficult to control everyone wants to sell you the big secret to obliterating them.

I scrolled a little further and low and behold, there was a photo of the tiny red group of bugs. Turns out they're not ladybugs but baby stink bugs. Now my skin is crawling and I can't wait to get back to the table with as much poison as I can find around here and kill every one of these buggers. YUK!

And just to drive home the fact that creatures, critters and crawlers have us humans out numbered, we found a copperhead snake cooling it's jets under the chestnut tree last week.
This exact spot is where my dogs lay every single day. They love to eat the chestnuts and they love to sleep in the shade of that tree. Now and forever more my skin is crawling. This is no place for sissies, that's the truth.

16 comments:

  1. Ok, that is creepy. I hate the snakes, and we have been having alot of those guys too, the rattlesnakes-- our dogs found them on our walk, and luckily we called them off, But those red bugs? those are strange.

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  2. The snake creeps me out! The stink bug - I HATE THOSE THINGS. They destroyed my squash plants last year!!

    Get this..baby ladybugs are ugly! I was killing them for a while until I decided to investigate them and learned I was killing the wrong bug!

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  3. life is for REAL!



    great post


    Warm Aloha from Waikiki


    Comfort Spiral

    ><}}(°>


    ><}}(°>

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  4. Yikes, I live in the middle of a bunch of woods! NEVER seen the RED spiders AKA baby stink bugs BUT OMG, snakes Yes Ma'am!

    We cleared our land to build our house NINE years ago and the year after that... we saw MANY copperheads! I don't like snakes, even the good ones:)

    Enjoy your weekend with the critters:) HUGS!

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  5. its Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom right there in your little domain - all you need now is Jacques Cousteau and Larry the Cable Guy.

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  6. I'm sorry...I can't come over any more!

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  7. Doggiebloggy: already have my Larry and in case he gets too far out of line, his twin brother Harry so we're all good thanks.

    HTB: Ohhhh yes you can and I aim to prove it.

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  8. Beautiful place you live...snakes and bugs notwithstanding....maybe you could train the snake to eat the bugs....mind you it is very satisfying to squish stink bugs.....spurshshsh!!! Good morning from Australia

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  9. Well I learned more than I really wanted to know about stink bugs, a few got on my back porch.
    I poured some dish washing liquid around my house for the snakes, I heard that snakes don't like it, when the slither and their skin moves apart it gets irritated. My friend kills one or two every year climbing up the side of her house to the attic.
    betsy

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  10. OMG, that snake is awful! And the bugs aren't much better! I say it timee for snake away and bug spray!!

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  11. Don't worry, I'm on my way to protect you.

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  12. Mr. Fresh... Love your site. Very much. Glad you decided to do that instead of following aspirations of becoming a porn star. Question: why don't you entertain comments on fresh garden? very frustrating, i have much to say. keri

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  13. Stink bugs and snakes give me the hee-bee-gee-bee's... We've got them here in the land of OZ too, as well as lots of other creepy crawlies.I hope you don't find any more of the serpent variety around your place. Thanks for your lovely comment on my blog too. :)

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  14. Creepy, yet interesting!
    Thanks for sharing, I truly enjoyed the visit. ;D

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  15. Copperheads eating chestnuts? I thought I'd heard it all. Copperheads eat mice, rats, bunny rabbits, frogs, ducks, squirrels, and pretty much any other small animal it can get its fangs on. North American Pit vipers are wait and strike predators. And, yes lady bug larvea have a nasty bite as well. Did you know some farmers actually put lady bug eggs out in their fields because the larvea are so good at controlling other pests?

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  16. Thanks for the post! I too found these in my yard ( a few inches from my vegetable garden)and thought they were baby ladybugs, but the markings looked a bit odd, so I also googled it. I went through several pictures before coming across the life cycle of the ladybug and found that they are not at all cute when babies... So I kept looking to see what they were and I found your post!

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