Friday 21 June 2019

Bugs

21st June 2019
We heard our first cicada today.  
From now on there will be an increasingly deafening chorus from sun-up to sun-down.




This year was the Spring of the Daddy Longlegs.  They've all disappeared now but for a month or so they were all over the place.  To my huge amusement some people complained about our huge mosquitoes when they saw them.  Daddy Longlegs eat mosquitoes but are themselves harmless, just long legged




For a few weeks a couple of these would fly through the window as soon as I opened the shutters in the morning  and I'd have to rescue them from an upside position, balance them the right way up on the windowsill and disuade them from returning.  One crawled along the floor and disappeared under the couch before I could grab it.  I couldn't be bothered tipping up the heavy couch and left it to its fate.  2 days later it crawled out again, quite healthy but not too happy I'm sure.

Greeks call them 'golden beetles' and if you watched 'The Durrells' you would have seen the rose beetle man with a dozen of these tied on to his hat with a long piece of cotton.  Louisa paid him to set them free.

This year is also the year of the snail.   Dozens, nay hundreds of them in everyone's garden.  We'll be eating them on 26th July.

Last year we had an over abundance of grasshoppers and wasps but this summer, so far, touch wood, there are very few of either.  

We have seen a couple of huge spiders, inside the house.  One is somewhere behind the desk I'm sitting at now.  Sometimes I startle him and he scutles into hiding.  I don't mind as long he stays out of sight.  I've never seen such a huge spider, about the size of a walnut.  And there's another out on the verandah.  He spends his time weaving webs to catch flies and such so I don't mind him either.

In the cool of the evenings we watch the chameleons darting up and down the walls and watch the frogs jumping from one piece of  garden to the other.  They jump out of the way when I water in late afternoon, hiding behind pots and under denser foliage.

So far we are mosquito free as well.  K sprayed for mosquitoes a couple of times, some bio friendly spray he said.  It seems to have done the trick.  We can enjoy an evening drink without slapping ourselves or slapping on a layer of  'autun'.

Gerald Durrell would be in paradise here.



19 comments:

  1. I have to read the book again, I loved it very much. There is indeed a lot of activity around you when summer comes.

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  2. Loads of flying things and I love watching the lizards at night. They make a high pitch noise and are really good hunters

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  3. What is his secret for freedom from mosquitoes?????

    Super that you are not seeing a lot of wisps. They are scary.

    It is refreshing to see a post, with this title!!!!! Everyone must have some. But no one seems to post about them. LOL Funny, since they are a big part of summer, everywhere.

    So far this year, we have been very lucky, with no real mosquito presence. (That may be, because I have not ventured out much---They ADORE me!!!)

    How about butterflies and honey bees? Do you have them?

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    1. Dont know what was in the mosuito spray but it worked. Fortunately they dont really bother me. Weird how the y aim for someone and not others
      There are a few bees and butterflies around, more bees soon I should thin as my expanse of mint goes into flower. They usually love that

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  4. I am not usually an insect lover but anything that eats mosquitoes and flies is OK by me!

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    1. I'm not fond of insects but it is ants that annoy me more than anything. And flies. I will happily spray both with whatever we've got!

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  5. That huge spider sounds a bit scary. Don't know why as it won't do any harm - assuming it is not a poisonous one.

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    1. I wish I could find that darn spider and remove it but it scuttles away very fast when disturbed. Hopefully I'll find it curled up in a corner one day and vaccum it up.

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  6. We've had a few days of noisy Crickets, but they seem to hide again if the weather isn't to their liking. My venom is currently aimed at some long thin black 'wasps' that build earthen nests that look like Peanut husks all over the place. We find them on books, in clothes, on lightbulbs, etc. Horrible things.

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    1. We have those wasps as well. Not so many this yearm so far, touch wood. Amazing where you find their nests. Ifound one in a keyhole the other day. That got remved very quickly.

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  7. The green insect reminds me of the greem shield bug we get in Ireland. Perhaps they're related? I don't mind spiders. The only thing I don't like about summer is the flies.

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    1. Japanese beetle or green june bug seems to be the english name for these beetles. They look like scarb beetles to me. Maybe that's what they are. Probably green shield is another name for them or they're closely related
      Not so many flies this year though a swarmed appeared out of nowhere last weekend when we were bbqing meat. Luckily it was sun down and they disappeared with the sun

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  8. We get huntsman spiders as big the palm of your hand.
    As an arachnophobe I cannot handle them at all!
    One was in the house while hubby was away. I vacuumed it up screeching the whole time and left the vacuum cleaner out the front and made my dad clean it out lol

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  9. I've heard a lot about australian spiders but one as big as the palm of your hand, no way!! I'd be hunting it down with the vaccum and sceeching too!!

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  10. We have our share of insects here in Canada as well, but mosquitos and black flies (not like a house fly) are most annoying. They LOVE me and I react badly to bites. The big green beetle you showed looks to be about the size of our June beetle (which hasn't showed up yet - everything is late this season!). June beetles are a dark shiny brown. -Jenn

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    1. Some people attract these biting insects and others, like me, are left alone. Wonder why

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  11. Daddy long legs are the worst, they combine the look of a spider with something that flaps near your face! YUCK! This is the first time ever that I have spent money of screens for the doors and the windows we open. So many midges and what looks like a small mosquito. They seem to bring the bats to the garden. I am glad they are eating the damn things. We have something here that was formulated at a university in Scotland called Smidge. It does work on stopping things from biting me. (I am that person who is always covered with bites. In Porto Cheli someone told me this could be that I will develop diabetes? Nice right?!

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    1. Diabetes. What a load of codswallop!
      I know loads of people who are always bitten by mosquitoes. Our 85 year old neighbour, not Vaso, no mosquito would dare to bite her, instant death for the mosquito, anyway another 85 yr old who is always covered in bites but is another sprightly lady and certainly diabetes is not one of her problems.
      I'm glad we've got screens too, keeps the flies and mosquiotes out but also the wild cats!

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