Bugs

When you live in a climate like ours where it is warm and humid most of the year and where the winters are mild, bugs of all sorts are a part of daily life. But right now I am fascinated by the variety we are seeing on our plants and flowers and I tried to take some pictures for you (you can click on them to see them bigger, which might help with some of the smaller bugs).

Of course I always love to see ladybugs in our garden taking care of aphids which seem to like certain plants. In the picture below it's hard to see the ladybug as it blends in perfectly with the flowers of the beautiful tropical milkweed.

The reason we planted these plants a couple of years ago was not for the pretty flowers, but to attract the caterpillars of the monarch butterfly. We were so happy to see a few of them chomping down on the leaves this year. As far as we are concerned, they can keep on eating.

Here's a new bug for us (on our fig tree) and I had to do a bit of research, but I found out that they are Kudzu beetles and were first spotted in our area 2009. They eat not only kudzu (which is a good thing as this plant is invading the south), but also legumes, which may be a problem as they multiply. They won't hurt our fig tree or the figs, but will soon fly on to find food elsewhere.

This little guy below I have no idea what it is but I found his colors so pretty, I had to snap a picture.

All the flowers right now are attracting all sorts of bees, wasps and flies. (If you click on the photo above, you can see the bee's perfect yellow and black stripes.)

The yarrow especially is abundant with all kinds of flying creatures.

I love seeing the bees so busy!

I have lots more garden photos which I'll share with you in other posts. Don't want to overwhelm you...

In the meantime, I wish you a beautiful Monday!

❧ Silke