more wildlife

[sunnybob]

Just to make a change from a 2 metre black snake, I was sitting reading the other day and felt that "tickling" sensation of something walking across me.
If its a spider, its death by extreme prejudice, but turned out it was the only insect I can abide.

We have a 4" female preying mantis resident in a small bay tree. Its obviously that time of year. I deliberately went and fetched the screwdriver to give a sense of scale. Thats a small phillips head.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Have you spotted their eggs? Look like this:

Less than an inch long, and stuck onto random objects like flower pots, fences etc. Just in case you didn't know, now you can start looking out for them, and you will find them everywhere.

I'm surrounded by kittens at the moment, and they torture and kill everything, especially cicadas. Very noisy death from a cicada - like killing a clockwork toy.

 

[sunnybob]

Cant say I have, but then again gardening and cleaning is 'er indoors department. :lol:

Cicadas in the olive trees get hunted by sparrows, of which we have a surfeit; only thing they're good for is ripping ciadas wings off so they cant escape and then eating them. Just wish they'd take the wings away with them. :roll:
After an episode a few years ago when I managed to get infections in both ears at the same time I have lost some hearing in the high range, so the cicada's noise doesnt bother me as much as it used to.

These baby mantis are so tiny you can see through them, and barely feel them even when they walk across bare skin.

 

[sunnybob]

Picture of mummy mantis on a sliding fly screen door.
The mesh is about an 1/8" square

 

[Trevanion]

No more bug.

 

[Lons]

We rented a house in Coral Bay a number of years ago and my wife said " they like their garden ornaments in Cyprus, I wonder if we can buy one of those green insect things over there on the fence, nice pressy to take back for my mum". "Go over and take a close up photo" I said ( wickedly ), she did and almost fell back into the pool when it took off and flew past her face. :lol:

It had to be 4 or 5 inches long and to all intents and purposes looked like a shiny plastic toy.

 

[sunnybob]

I tolerate mantis. Dont want the big ones on me, but apart from that. they're fine. Spiders get instant and violent terminosity wherever they're seen. And that raid is useless against the most common household pest here, and thats tiny ants.
Ants walk miles for a single grain of food, and its totally impossible to keep your kitchen ant free.

 

[selectortone]

No more bug.

Yeah, That's the ticket. Don't understand it, so kill it.

Me, I'm more of a live and let live kinda person.

 

[sunnybob]

You would change your mind if you lived here. EVERY food item not airtight sealed is covered in ants in 5 minutes flat.
Bake a loaf of bread? last one I got two slices before the ants discovered it.. Any scrap of food, anywhere except in the fridge. Open the dishwasher, the plates inside are moving untill you start the wash cycle.

Its impossible to stop them, bleach and disinfectant doesnt even slow them down. Only violent chemicals give you a day or two breather before they come back.
Thankfully they only appear in the summer.
Live and let live? I dont think so. (hammer)

 

[selectortone]

You would change your mind if you lived here.....

Perhaps not. I spent six years in the tropics (three in Singapore, three in Hong Kong) as a kid. My Dad was in the RAF. In Singapore our bungalow was opposite an area of virgin jungle on the perimeter of Changi aerodrome. We had all sorts of creepy crawlies slithering, scuttling and flying into our bungalow every night, attracted by the lights. No air con back in the 60s so the veranda door and all the windows were open all day and in the evening until we went to bed. Shutters (no glass windows) open all night. Never bothered us. My parents encouraged an interest in natural history and we kids loved it. The chit-chats (little lizards, two or three to a room, that lived on the ceilings) hoovered up most of the flying intruders. The only nuisance I recall was mozzies, but burning mosquito coils kept those little b*uggers at bay.

 

[Trevanion]

And that raid is useless against the most common household pest here, and thats tiny ants.
Ants walk miles for a single grain of food, and its totally impossible to keep your kitchen ant free.

You're obviously using it wrong Bob...

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Put a new lightbulb in the outside light last night, and it was immediately mobbed by hornets. At least I now know we have a hornet nest in the tree opposite the house - not for the first time.

As an aside, two unrelated cases of black-widow spider bites 50km up the road. Never mind - probably not fatal. It isn't easy living in paradise.

 

[sunnybob]

You would change your mind if you lived here.....

Perhaps not. I spent six years in the tropics (three in Singapore, three in Hong Kong) as a kid. My Dad was in the RAF. In Singapore our bungalow was opposite an area of virgin jungle on the perimeter of Changi aerodrome. We had all sorts of creepy crawlies slithering, scuttling and flying into our bungalow every night, attracted by the lights. No air con back in the 60s so the veranda door and all the windows were open all day and in the evening until we went to bed. Shutters (no glass windows) open all night. Never bothered us. My parents encouraged an interest in natural history and we kids loved it. The chit-chats (little lizards, two or three to a room, that lived on the ceilings) hoovered up most of the flying intruders. The only nuisance I recall was mozzies, but burning mosquito coils kept those little b*uggers at bay.

That explains it. having lived there as a kid you grow up accepting things around you. :lol:
As a kid in central london, all I had to deal with were house flies and the occasional daddy long legs spider, and even then I hated spiders. :roll:

 

[sunnybob]

Put a new lightbulb in the outside light last night, and it was immediately mobbed by hornets. At least I now know we have a hornet nest in the tree opposite the house - not for the first time.

As an aside, two unrelated cases of black-widow spider bites 50km up the road. Never mind - probably not fatal. It isn't easy living in paradise.

Its tough, but somebody has to do it. 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[sunnybob]

Late last night, after a cooling dip, came out of the pool and almost trod on this.
But dont worry, it only has 4 legs so its safe. Not more than 3" long.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[sunnybob]

Oh what a week of animation!
I walked into the downstairs toilet and saw a 4" centipede writhing around on the floor. I havent seen one of those since the first week we were here, which is 12 years ago now. I really, REALLY cant stand those things, I would usually get 'er indoors to remove it, but just for once, 'er indoors wasnt :shock:
I had to get it out and over the fence all by myself. Couldnt bring my self to take a pic of it, just too gruesome. :roll: :roll:

 

[Jonathan S]

Saddle back cricket on our breakfast table.....this one liked banana..... over here our cicadas are quite below 25°, I actually quite enjoy there noise.

Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk

 

[sunnybob]

This is getting silly.
We dont often get much wildlife but the last few weeks have broken all records.

Last night while watching TV a tree rat came across one wall, saw us, and scooted off over another wall.
So this morning I had to brave the jungle on the other side of our wall and cut back all the wild growth that the rat used to give itself a leg up.
While cutting away I disturbed a mole cricket, which is one of the ugliest of all the ugly creatures.
I'm expecting richard attenborough to spring out of the bush any minute now. :roll: :lol:

 

[gog64]

Well I am blessed (or cursed, depending on the weather) to live on a small farm in an AONB. The wildlife is so varied and there is so darn much of it, it’s easy to become blasé. This year, as normal, we have been totally mobbed by bees. Masonry bees, bumble bees, honey bees, some days the air is thick with the beggars. We haven’t used pesticides in the 22 years I’ve owned the place and my neighbor is a fruit farmer, so that helps. This year we’ve had 3 swarms of honey bees try to set up home in the house or outbuildings, some of which we’ve managed to rehome with local bee keepers, the others we’ve been able to “work around”.