Ladybug

Click to enlarge the picture. Believe it or not, this will shed its outer shell and become a shiny round ladybug. Click here to see more about ladybugs.

More than One!

I've been watching over this little praying mantis that lives on our lily. (We only have one lily bulb.) I check on the praying mantis every day. He's peeking over the lily stem at the camera. Click to enlarge.

We have more than one baby praying mantis, though. Here's another one.

And this one was in the front of the garden on the emergency supplies shed.

 

As I watched him, the wind blew him all the way down to the bottom again.

I think they all came out of here.

Spider

This spider was hanging in mid-air. It has been cold lately, but today was a warm sunny day. I wonder where spiders go when it's cold.

Saving Earthworms

That's not to say that we have an earthworm collection. For some reason, we come across a lot of earthworms squirming on the hot pavement. There's a place down the street from our house that we call "earthworm crossing". Whenever we see one that is alive, we save it by putting it into cooler soil.

On the way home from the hardware store today and after my dragonfly experience, I saw this one. I took its picture then picked it up and moved it. I had to carry it quite a distance to find cooler digs and it was mighty slimy. I couldn't take any more pictures. Not even one of a dragonfly in the right spot.

Repelling Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are still biting and we're still using repellent incense. I'm not sure what you would call this in English. The green spiral is an incense that is put on a stand, lit, and placed in the pig-shaped decanter to burn. Pigs are a very common design for the decanter. Smoke from the burning incense comes out of the pig's mouth and kills the mosquitoes. It is a common summer scent. Walking through the neighborhood, we can smell it wafting from gardens. The can with the rooster on top is full of these green spiral incense. The blue green device next to it is a lighter. I have recently seen the lighters sold in the U.S. for grills.

The blue electrical device has a bottle of mosquito repellent in it. For the picture, I put a bottle next to the device to show you what it looks like. The repellent vaporizes and kills the mosquitoes.

Aunt has a device that emits a high frequency sound that kills mosquitoes. We use that sometimes, too. There is also a plastic bracelet that is supposed to keep them away. Mosquitoes don't bite Big Sister and me. Papa and Little Brother are the tasty ones. I put the incense in the garden long before the children come home from school. Mosquitoes don't seem to be as bad in wider, more open spaces, so children usually go to the park to play. Besides, there's not much room to play in most gardens. We don't have yards like in the west.

Mosquito Net

The mosquitoes in our garden were really bad again this year. They are still bad. Little Brother saw this in a summer catalog and thought we should get it. Mosquitoes find him tasty.

Funny enough, there are much smaller versions of this at the 100 yen shop. They look just like this. They are supposed to be put over plates to keep flies off. I sent several to my sister because she barbecues outside a lot. She likes them because they fold up.

In our old house that great-grandfather built, we didn't have screens on our windows so we needed such kinds of things. Now, we have screens.

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!

Old Summer Friends

It seemed the cicadas started up a little late this year. They climbed out from under the dirt and have "sung" nonstop ever since. We have a lot of these holes in our garden. We also have several of the brown shells they leave behind.




This was the first cicada I have seen this summer. He stayed on this wall for a long time.

Cute as a Bug

I think this bug is cute! She lives in our garden.




I scooted her onto a cement block wall to try to get a picture that shows her blue legs. She was rather slow and she didn't try to get away.




She turned to look at me.

I think I found a bug like her in our bug book, but the picture doesn't show blue legs. I think her name could be gomadarakamikiri. She's in the beetle family. Her body is about 2 inches long. I couldn't find a bug like her in the books at the book store so I don't know her Latin name. I'll keep looking...