the year of the bug

i figure, if the chinese can have the year of the rat...i certainly am entitled to have the year of the bug! an "annus hexapoda" if you will.

this summer has had a few spells of cool, followed by wicked spells of hot, Hot, HOT and dry weather. that and the fairly non-winterlike winter we had signals one thing...

BUGS!

the nasty little things...whatever they are...have practically chewed my potato plants to a nub!

 then there's the annoyance of flying, buzzing life forms (other than Sweetie of course!) in the house!

thank you Wikipedia for the photo!

a few weeks ago we squished a ginormous one of these in the garage! she was huge...and shiny...and glossy...and we stepped on her! sorry Mr. Ghandi! 



seriously...you should try taking a photo of flying...stinging insect!

 i don't mean to give all of bug-dom a bad name. there are plenty of bugs around that are useful. take these little lovelies...happily pollinating my flowers and vegetable garden...at least the parts the nasty bugs haven't eaten yet!



thank you Wikipedia for the photo

 i've seen more swallowtail butterflies this year than i have for decades! they look so beautiful flitting through the backyard.

thank you Wikipedia for the photo

 and then there's these guys...bumble bees...genus Bombus! they've been buzzing all over my yard this year.

there's a whole other world out there about identifying and locating hidden pockets of rare bumble bees. it's fascinating...they use identifying factors like color, eye placement and cheek length...like i'm gonna get that close to one! although these fuzzy little guys are nearly always calm and peaceful...kind of like the winnie-the-pooh of the bee world!

the chinese invented the whole "year of the [insert animal here]" thing...so i'll just bow to the orient and tolerate the yin of the earwigs, slugs, flies and other irritating insects and celebrate the yang of the bees and butterflies.