Present
Bug Hunting
My nephews have been visiting lately and one of our big things is to go outside and see what kind of bug we can find. I grew up with four brothers and raised two boys, so I am very much up on bug hunting. My nephews like to take pictures and then let them go. Over the last couple weeks with my nephews we have mostly found cicada shells and grasshoppers. It started with the oldest nephew finding a live cicada in our front yard. Over the years my boys and I have found many cicada shells. None of us had ever found a live one. We got a picture of it being carefully held, but when my nephew set it down it flew away before we could get a picture. We found several shells over the next few days, but no more live cicadas.
We saw a lot more grasshoppers than usual, but it took some time to catch one and get a photo. While we were out exploring, we walked over to our neighbors and looked at some of her flower garden plants. While feeling the softness of a Lamb’s Ear plant we noticed some kind of bug on a mint plant I had shared with her. We got the picture but have not identified it yet. During our little exploring walks, we have seen or heard many crickets and other common insects. I am so pleased to see yet another generation of nature lovers and their inquisitive minds, ever searching and learning about the world around them.
A Wasp’s or Hornet’s Nest
Our neighbors were weeding some tall weeds by the back of our garage. They got quite a bit weeded and suddenly started getting stung. After running back in the house, they called to let us know not to go back there until the hornets or wasps settled back down. Our neighbors said they did not see the nest, but they thought it was on our side of the fence either in the tall weeds or on the side of the garage.
My youngest son was fascinated by a show about an exterminator and how he would catch and release most pests but not wasps or hornets. He would send for a beekeeper if it was bees. One of our friends grew up with his dad owning a pest control company and my son enjoyed watching him and asking questions about how to handle different pests. So, my son has overseen all critters to decide what needs done ever since.
The next morning when I got up my son and I went back to investigate. I showed him where they had been weeding and he could not find anything. We saw wasps flying over head but no nest. Finally, my son decided to go around to the other side of the fence. It appeared they were hovering above a log that was laying against the fence. He could not tell whether the nest was in the log or in the ground behind it, so he decided to pull the log out and took off running. A swarm of wasps came up like a small cloud, so we decided to go back in the house until they calmed down. I let me neighbors know not to go back there yet so they would not get stung again.
We got busy with other things and my son had schoolwork to do so we forgot about it until late and it was too dark to worry about it by then. The next morning my son and I went back to see if we could find the nest. With the log pulled out and the wasps fairly calm my son was able to find the nest. He instructed me to go back to the house and tell the neighbors not to come out until he was done. Shortly after that he came in and said he used a full can of hornet spray, which usually will kill a large nest, but it did not seem to phase them. He had also used some type of firework to blow it up but even that did not work.
My son and my husband headed out to the garage and looked through all the possible insect sprays. We usually try to do everything organically, but this size of a wasp nest just survives almost anything, and my neighbor is allergic, so we felt it was more important to get rid of the wasps quickly. He finally found something our exterminator friend left behind and sprayed it with that and then set off a mortar left over from the Fourth of July. We stayed in the house while my son was handling it, but when I heard the mortar it was so loud it startled me and I ran to the back door and yelled out to my son to see if he was okay. He said yes but do not come out now.
I little while later my son came in and was so excited. “Mom you have to see this, come here” he said. So, I went in the kitchen and he had the wasps nest laid out on the counter in sections. He said he got the queen and that means they will not rebuild the hive. Gently using the tweezers, he placed the queen where I could get a good picture of it. He then got two of the workers and placed nearby so we could get a shot showing size comparison. The queen is always quite a bit larger. The next step was to pull some of the eggs out and look at the development from beginning to those about ready to hatch. After I got a picture of that, he found some about to hatch that were not phased by the poison, so he put everything on a couple of paper plates and placed them in our deep freezer.
After all was done, I sent some pictures to my niece to let her know what we had to use for a home school lesson for her sons. When my nephews got here, we pulled the nests out of the freezer and checked out everything. We began researching to see if we find out whether they where wasps or hornets. We found a comparison page and the queen looked exactly like the Yellow Jacket Wasp. We then looked to see whether it was called a nest or a hive. Bees use hives but wasps make nests. The Yellow Jackets chew wood to make a pulp and build their nests. Some are quite large. Years ago, we had a hive up in one of the trees that was the size and shape of a soccer ball. That is another story and if I happen upon the picture of it one day, I may tell that story too.
My Pet Bee
My Pet Bee
My pet bee, loves mint, especially when it is blooming. This bee has followed me around all summer when I am out working in my gardens. Early on in the Spring my brother called me. My husband was watching a movie, so I went outside to hear him better. I needed to go out in the back yard anyway to tend to some of the things recently planted. While we were talking this big bee started following me around. She never got close to me but stayed just out of reach on me right side. I mentioned it to my brother and he thought it was interesting but not surprised because I’ve been fascinated with anything and everything living since the time I can remember.
The next day went I went out to work on my yard and gardens in the back yard, I noticed that bee was still there and she continued to follow me around. I thought maybe the hive was nearby and I have all kinds of things planted that would interest bees. I soon got used to this bee following me around the backyard. When I went out of the fence to work on some things that are further back , we have four lots, she still followed me. By this time I really didn’t think about much. Sometimes I even looked over and said “Hello Bee”
My brother called me as he does now and then and I was getting to go out and sit on the front porch. We were chatting as I grabbed my water and headed out the front door. Getting comfortable on my wicker chair, so we could have a nice long chat, I looked up and their she was in the front yard. I mentioned to my brother and he said “Really, the same bee you were telling me about following you around your back yard?”. “Yes same bee” This happened several times, but it never bothered me so I let it be.
Then came the day she was pollinating the mint i grow along the side of my house. I had my phone handy so I decided to see if I could get a good picture. I took a few, but she kept moving around the bloom she was working on so I decided to try for a video. I was thinking if I could get a good enough shot I would be able to look up what kind of bee she was. She looked a lot like a bumble bee, but no stripes, just shiny black on the end. Sure enough I was able to find out what kind of bee she was. A carpenter bee and it said the females are loners. They mate in the spring and leave there eggs in old wood. They drill a tiny little hole, leave the egg and enough pollen to feed it when it hatches then they close up the hole with the saw dust they made when drilling the whole. After that they go on there way alone the rest of the summer. That is is how I came to think that my pet bee was a female.
Past
Watching my nephews has brought back many memories of bugs and other critters that my older brother brought to my attention. The first being the hive of bumble bees from the “Yellow House Bees Versus Tulips” story (9/2/2020). There have been many other bugs and critters encounters with a couple of my brothers and both of my sons.
Look what made a home in the shed – 2018
A couple years ago my youngest son went outside to clean out the shed where he kept several of his water and Nerf guns, as well as a couple toys that he made for various Halloween costumes. He came in after awhile and told me to come out and look what he found inside his home made toy. I expected it to be a spiders nest or a stink bug or something similar. Instead it was a birds nest with a few eggs in it. He was worried that the mama bird would not come back and wanted to know what to do with it.
I had recently read an article from bird rescue place. They had said touching the nest would not prevent the mom from coming back, or if a baby fell out you could pick it up and put it back and the mother bird would still come back and care for it. So I suggested that he put the toy back up on the inside wall where it had been, and just wait and see if she came back. My son went back to cleaning out the rest of the shed and ignored the nest. Mama bird soon came and sat on the fence to watch. Eventually she went back in the shed and sat on her nest.
The rest of the summer she sat on the nest until her babies hatched and she continued to feed her babies until they were ready to fly. My son continued to use the shed all summer and just ignored the bird and let her feed her babies. He got a close up of the bird’s nest in the shed both with the eggs an when they hatched. my son could come and go and work on projects in the shed and Mama bird just went about her business of feeding her young. She seems to accept him as a guard for her babies. I believe they were sparrows. Reminds me of a song my dad used to sing, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”. That makes me happy.
Blue Racers versus Rattle Snakes – Briarwood Lane
One of the encounters with a younger brother (6 years younger), was short but memorable. We had moved to a little house in a wooded area. A large section of woods was on our property and we used to follow the trails just to see what kind of things lived back there. My younger brother, age five, was an avid fan of Marlin Perkins on “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”. After watching a show about Blue Racers, a nonvenomous species of snake that is amazingly fast and known to chase humans, but will only bite when annoyed, my younger brother became fascinated with snakes. Although the Blue Racer’s bite is painful it is not poisonous and causes no permanent harm.
One day after his daily walk through the woods looking for whatever might be there, he came home carrying a tiny baby snake. He asked me if I would get mom to bring him a jar that he could put the snake in. Mom came out, took one look and had him drop it in the jar. Then she said to let our older brother have it so he could put tiny holes in the jar lid. Little brother handed over the jar and went in the house to wash his hands or something on that order, per Mom’s instructions. I could see the look of panic in her eyes but somehow, she managed to keep it together until little brother was out of sight.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Mom told us it was a baby rattle snake and they are more dangerous than an adult. Mom had read that in one of her many books about everything. My older brother agreed to take the snake back out in the woods and kill it. She insisted that we not tell my younger brother but instead told him that it escaped before my older brother could get the holes punched in the lid. I cannot really remember for sure, but I think we were told not to let my younger brother go in the woods without our oldest brother supervising him.