Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Garden Update - Alive with Creepy Crawlies


This is creepy...


and this is crawly!


Not really, I actually do have some pictures of insects. If you're into that sort of thing, that is. The pic above is a night shot of a regular cricket who appears to be enjoying the eggplant leaves that I've prepared for him and his friends.


This, I think, is one of the Bell Crickets which send me to sleep at night with their gentle clicking sounds. The Japanese call them Suzumushi, because the sound they make is a bit like 'su zu su zu su zu'. Either way, they sound a lot more relaxing than the crazy cicadas that crackle away all day long. Thank god they sleep at night like the rest of us!


This one is an enemy, or at least he is when the pumpkins are little. He attacks soft pumpkin leaves and won't give in until they are dead. He's not a pest now though, since all the pumpkins have grown up and their leaves are too tough for him.


This one, I have no idea. Don't get many in the garden, but he seemed pretty tame so I took a shot.


This is my buddy the Preying Mantis who inhabits the top right hand corner of my Goya plant. He is a real character, and he engages with me if I wave a stick around in front of him. He soon gets tired of my games though and creeps back under the leaf where I can't see him.


This one is another pumpkin basher. Like the rest of the insects which used to attack my baby plants, his teeth just aren't sharp enough to get through the big heavy leaves now.

Quite interestingly, I went to see an old bloke down the road the other day who I chat to from time to time, and he had a snake in his garden right there, right then. Apparently it's really rare to find them in your garden, but this one was about a metre long and it looked really scared. His friend Kimura san said it wasn't a dangerous variety, but still, a snake is a snake. Don't like those teeth!!