Sunday, May 23, 2004

Ack! Bugs!

So I was posting the other night, and right in the middle of a thought, what should I spy with my little eye?

Holy crap! Big F'ing carpenter ant crawling on the wall!

Man, it was like it was bug night at the homestead or something. Bug in my hair earlier in the evening. Ick. Bug on the keyboard. Another spider in the bathroom. The b'giant ant! And then two three four fly-things buzzing around my head while I was sitting at the computer. WTF?!

* * *

In an only marginally related note, the carpenter bees are back again.

On the whole, carpenter bees are pretty cool. They're big, like bumblebees, except with shiny black butts that remind me of the "Bullet Bill" or "Bob-omb" Nintendo characters. They're fairly non-aggressive and do this cool hovering thing that makes me think of sci-fi alien scout ships. (I'd swear the picture I have in my head is from a movie but I can't think of it.) And it appears that they're good pollinators, too.

But carpenter bees also bore into wood, which is not so cool. And seeing as they're buzzing around the roof near sections of exposed wood (damn, I've been meaning to deal with that), it may be time to start checking out pest control services again.

* * *

The reliance and concord have finally started leafing out. Sadly, the himrod and mars still aren't showing any signs of life (it was a rough winter, we're fearing the worst). But the reliance leaves weren't looking particularly healthy -- they've been stunted and discolored around the edges. Upon closer inspection, we found these little green bugs which we're thinking are some variety of leafhopper nymph.


We bought Pyrenone today. It's supposed to be organic.

Hope so.

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