End of Summer 

We recently marked the official “End of Summer” on our calendars but it’s still awfully hot here. I just cleaned off my computer hard drive and found some images from summer that I had forgotten all about. The shedding lizard looks like it’s wearing a little hoodie. And look at this lacewing larva feeding on an aphid. These larvae are also called trash bugs because they attach bits of detritus to their bodies to disguise themselves. Look closely – this trash bug is using a bit of shed lizard skin in its costume:

Here’s another trash bug from the bamboo. Our stand of bamboo is infested with scale. I think this is why it is always full of adult lady bugs and their larval stage. But it also has loads of trash bugs so I wonder if these are a different species that eats scale or maybe even lady bug larvae:

I parked myself in the bamboo every day for weeks and managed to see quite a few newly hatched lady bugs. They are pale pink when they emerge and take about three hours to turn dark and get their spots.

We planted a lot of different sunflowers this year which attracted a lot of bees:

Our pear harvest was decent this year, although things have definitely changed. We used to harvest in the fourth week of August; like clockwork, the pears we fat and ready to eat. For the past six years, they’ve been ripening earlier and earlier and now they are ready to pick in July, a full month earlier. Climate change?

I really don’t mind sharing pears with this little critter and its family, but it would be nice if they took more than just a bite out of each one!

Closing with an unidentified bug down in a mandevilla blossom – a moth, maybe?