A few weeks ago, my friend, Miz Shoes, shared with you a small swarm of juvenile lubber grasshoppers. I had several swarm-lets, my ownself, and as much as you can knock ’em off the plants, chase ’em down, and stomp on ’em, you just know you’ve missed some. Probably a lot.
And you’d be right. Here are several adult lubbers making a banquet out of a large ornamental philodendron in a large planter box outside my front door. They’re everywhere. In the Birds of Paradise and other shrubbery, too.
Their brilliant color and a stinky secretion they emit when cornered, tells any bird that might think to make a meal of one, that it’s poisonous. It’s not, but Nature has a way of defending even the most destructive pests, doesn’t she?
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Michelle at Rambling Woods is hosting Nature Notes, a weekly meme dedicated to challenging us to take a moment out of our hectic lives and notice the seasonal changes – large and small – taking place in nature all around each of us, in our own little corners of the world. Please visit Michelle and all the other participants, and maybe take some of your own Nature Notes!
RJ…Oh geesh….That was an oversight or over-site…There are so few people that participate that you think I could keep track…sorry RJ….. My daughter is slowing recovering from shingles and has to be moved by the first week in August to take her new job..Stress seems to run in the family. But given that she was totally bed-bound the last time, this is better with the antivirals that they can give you in the first 48 hours of shingles symptoms…Those are some tank-like looking insects..I wish something would eat the japanese beetles that are in one part of the garden…
Oh boy, those are really making some short work of your plants.Ouch :(And yes, mother nature has some funky ways to protect her small ones 🙂