I had the pleasure of helping harvest, along with a bunch of other volunteers, over 450 lbs of Bearss Limes, Valencia Oranges, and Satsuma Mandarins this morning with SoCal Harvest, a local charity group. While finishing up, one of the harvesters mentioned her orange tree at home was covered in what looked like road dust, soot, or black sticky dirt. Based on her brief description, I told her it sounded like her tree may have a fungus commonly called sooty mold. She…
Happy Halloween from Hanbury House! I find lots of spiders in the yard all the time, and finally managed to get a couple of pictures of my favorite, the Bold Jumper. According to BugGuide.net Bold Jumpers are classified as Phidippus audax, and can be easily distinguished by the green fangs and three markings on the abdomen. The Bold Jumper is a highly variable species, and the markings on their back can come in white, orange, or reddish, but they always…
Over the course of the last few weeks, I have been dismayed to find more than a half dozen dead female Valley Carpenter Bees, Xylocopa varipuncta, in both the backyard and the front yard. I don’t think the dog is responsible for their deaths because I also found one on the ground at K’s house across the street last week. Plus, the dog doesn’t hunt bees out front, nor have I ever seen him go after these, just honey bees. Disclosure:…
Well, it turns out, I actually need to deal with it by DOING NOTHING. I was out weeding and deadheading on Wednesday afternoon and I was dismayed to find so many aphids on the new growth of my Mexican Flame Vine, Senecio confusus. My first instinct was to start squishing or get out the high pressure hose nozzle! But after taking a closer look, the vine was also covered in newly emerged tiny lady bug larvae. They discovered the problem…
Pesticides cost lots of money, especially organic ones. A carton of iron phosphate type snail bait sets me back $10 to $15, depending on volume, and it needs to be reapplied every few weeks. Hand picking is generally as affective as using chemicals, and a whole lot safer, but I don’t always make time to do it. However, the bug bounty hunters are often happy to do it for me. My kids, as well as a few of their friends,…
I am real a nerd that at 41, I still like to play with bugs. I love butterflies probably the most out of all insects; they are like floating or flying flowers in the garden. A couple of Saturdays ago, like a child, I was outside scooping up caterpillars in the yard, off the tree trunk, on the side of the house, just about everywhere in the backyard. I secretly brought them inside with a few branches of Chinese Elm…
For many years, I have kept a little statue of Saint Francis in the backyard to remind me to be thankful for what we have in our little home and yard. We have been generously blessed by our Lord in so many things. The feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi is October 4th, so I thought it was appropriate to post about this today. His feast day is often celebrated with the blessing of the Animals in many Christian…