Share pics of garden "friends"

Sally, that really is neat. Leave it to Claypa to know it's name!!

claypa, suunto and kennedy agree, and I have added this arrowhead to Bugfiles

Sally, what a great picture to add to the bugfiles. It shows the arrowhead perfectly.

I took this early this month... it was hanging out on my deck.. a barn spider

Nice shot, Onewish.

wooo-sure that wasn't an early halloween decoration?

Wow...I am so impressed w/ya'lls pis....awesome job!!

it can hang around for halloween that's for sure!!

I saw about 4 of these guys on Tuesday. Are they more abundant this time of year?

In July and August, I kept seeing what I thought were baby Mantis.

Cool Stormy, lucky you! 4 in one day is a nice # . You know they are cannibals, that may be all that survived after they hatched.

I don't know Lady. These were not in any part of the garden where I saw the others. It seemed like there were quite a few of them through out my beds in the summer. They seemed to be about an inch and a half long at that time. Do you know how many eggs they generally lay at one time? I was thinking about buying some egg cases when I bought the other beneficial bugs, but the process of care for them seemed fairly involved, so I didn't. They I saw the babies and was glad that I hadn't spent the $.

Not sure of how many egg cases they lay, but there are 100 to 200 babies per case that hatch out all at the same time. They also travel some distance, did you every have one fly right at you, that makes me jump everytime LOL
I did find a egg case on the corner of my fence several years ago but it was already hatched. I would have loved to see that happen.
I wonder if yours are ready to lay eggs, looks pretty swollen to me.

more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis

Thanks, Lady. That was a good read. Glad I didn't buy them as it says they also eat beneficial bugs, I remember wondering about that at the time. It said that their largest predator is slugs. Guess I'll make sure to be more vigilant with the ammonia treatments this fall and next spring. The slugs were terrible here this year.

I don't have big problems with slugs, oh, I have some. I think my frogs hunt them down at night. Maybe you should consider putting in a frog bog. lol

Which reminds me....Sallyg, how are your tads doing?


King of the pond!

Wow, what a great shot, Lady. LOL, I need to finish all of my current and planned projects, before I dream up any more.

Just call him "Three Toes".

WVR, Great photo, pesky subject! LOL

Birds were very busy today, here's a couple on my deck railing

A couple more

Vwr, wonder if he got caught in something, or was he trying to raid a metal bird feeder.

cute little House Finches, Jen

Did you all see This weeks "You supply the Caption" ?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2688/

That's definitely a situation that justifies acute lead poisoning.

LOL Stormy... Randy and I carved these pumpkins only to be met with the same fate

and ate them all face first

ladyg- i have two tads remaining, skulking about in the bottom of my goldfish tank in the basement. No change!

Allison, I almost broke down and bought a pumpkin yesterday until I saw your post. Ungrateful little vandals!!!

Sally, how long will you keep them? Do some of them take more than a year to morph?

we are still going to buy some and carve them up... just not putting them out until halloween day... they will have to stay in the garage until then.. the one was whole and they broke through and ate it ... I was wondering if any of the seeds were going to germinate the next year... no such luck

Allison, The last time I put some out, there weren't even any seeds left. The voles ate every one.

oh geeze

stormyla, I think it was ladyg who told me some take two years to complete development. I guess they'll stay inside with my goldfish till spring.
I have often put melon seeds out in compost and seems like no critters eat them. You'd think any kind of cucurbit seed would have food value.

I wonder if coating the pumpkins in vaseline keeps them away, they didn't touch mine.

you put Vaseline on them?

They say when you carve them to spread vaseline over the cut parts and on the inside, supposed to last longer.

never heard that... good to know thanks

Does anyone know who this is?

Isabella (moth) a.k.a. wooly bear, Pyrrharctia isabella

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/1713/

Thanks, Claypa. Knew I could count on you! Are they beneficial to anything?

Some say they can predict the Winter weather by their stripes---or something.
Don't know if that counts as beneficial....Gita