The Beetles at Toys R Us Japan

Many department stores sell beetles. This is the beetle display at Toys R Us. These photos were taken with an iphone. Click on them to enlarge them.

This shows some of the items that are needed for the beetles.

This beetle has a plastic cup of yellow jelly to eat.

The pink plastic thing in this case is to hold a cup of jelly. Some of the holders are made out of wood.

Nets (on left) for catching bugs, insects and beetles are sold, too.

There was also an ant farm (upper left hand corner.)

These photos were taken with an iphone.

Name This Beetle

I don't know her name, but she's cute as a bug!

Can't find a match in my bug book.

A friend told me she is female. And a flower eater. Anyone know her name?

BTW, these photos were taken with an iphone.

Found

I disturbed this caterpillar when I replaced the morning glories with fall plants. It will be a hummingbird moth. I thought it had already taken off but it didn't. It ate the morning glories and then went under the soil in the planter.

This is what it looked like before it went underground. In the middle of September, it was green. Sorry, this is a photo of a pooping caterpillar. Or is it? I thought that was its mouth.

Soon, it turned brown and black.

It turned black and then went underground. I saw it wriggling around on the ground trying to move the soil. I put it back in the planter.

I disturbed this slug when I added flowers to the pot near our entrance. I think it's going to be a Japanese rhinoceros beetle. Sorry, this photo is blurry because there wasn't much light. I was gardening in the early evening. I put this back under the soil, too.

Summer Pets

This was the Japanese Rhinoceros beetle Little Brother had last year.



He would walk up and down Little Brother's arm. He would sit still for his daily brushing. Have you ever heard of brushing a bug? It's not easy, but Little Brother took care of it. This beetle was a lovely pet.




This was the beetle that Little Brother bought this summer. It was from Indonesia. It came with its mate, a smaller female. Like the Rhinoceros beetle, they ate from jelly cups made especially for them.




We set up this new bigger bug box for them with wood shavings and pieces of logs. The day we brought them home, the male beetle scratched Little Brother. That cooled the relationship from the very beginning.

The male beetle was always in attack mode. It was able to fly up and out. I ended up feeding and taking care of them. I had to use tongs to put their jelly cups in the box. It was almost impossible to brush them. It was a good thing we had bought the box that was disinfected. Dani or mites couldn't live in the box. Mites feed on beetles. Both beetles passed away recently. First, the female and then the male. All of our beetles are buried in the garden.

I have decided I don't particularly appreciate this summertime petship. Especially when I have to do all the work. And especially since it was a battle (with the beetle) the whole summer!

Bugs, Bugs Everywhere

It's only the beginning. Of summer and BUGS. There are all kinds of bugs here and they all have names. I mean names that people know. In Japanese. I bought a book of bugs and there were over 15 ladybugs, all with different names in Japanese. Bugs and plants also have names in Latin and that is the key to figuring out if they are located in other parts of the world, too. We all use those names to identify them. Unfortunately, the book I bought doesn't have those names. That was an oversight on my part. There was one book at the store that included them. I'll have to either buy it or look them up on the internet. If you know any of them, let me know.

Have you ever seen anything like these? The first two pictures are of the same bug. I took two pictures to show you how big it was. It was sitting on a raspberry leaf.

Later today, I was in the garden and felt something on my arm. I thought it was a mosquito and was about to swat it. I looked down and it was a teeny, tiny praying mantis jumping around on my arm. I let it jump onto a plant. I'm glad I looked down! He will eat uninvited and undesirable bugs in our garden.

On our way out the other evening, Little Brother and Big Sister found this on the side of the house. They told me that it was one of the most expensive native beetles. This is the season of catching or buying beetles and other bugs. We decided to leave it alone. Little Brother had just bought a male and female Malaysian beetle earlier that day. The male looks a lot like this one. We're going to have even more bugs as the summer months continue.