Ode to the Bug, um, er...Insect...

Last summer's drought meant more than a lack of moisture. There were no bugs. Really, there were no bugs. So, no bugs, no bats. No insects, no birds...the insect eaters were hungry or migrated to find food.

Much of the color was gone from the spring and summer. Much of the music of the summer was absent.

This year's insect experiences have pointed out that we have to take the irritating with the lovely so
I have been taking stock as insects, bugs, and the other creepies have appeared the past few weeks...in our yard, in the house, along the walks...who did we miss last year and who do we wish we missed this year?

We missed:

dragonflies
butterflies
skeeter eaters (crane flies)
moths
lightning bugs
true bugs
pop beetles in small numbers
June bugs in small numbers
cicadas
grasshoppers hopping out of the grass and weeds and surprising the dogs


We did not miss:

skeeters
roaches
little midges
crickets (This was a hard one, but they are nasty even though their song means summer.)
pop beetles in numbers (esp. the one in the living room we heard night after night, but could not find)
June bugs in large numbers (makers of scary noises at my windows late at night)
grasshoppers eating everything they can find
those crazy things that fly up your nose
flies
gnats

Other creatures we did not miss:

pill bugs
snails


Other creatures present last year that are back in greater numbers:

spiders (just wish they didn't weave their webs across our paths)
earthworms



My friend, Steve (aka the central Texas dog-whisperer) is a photographer too. He took all but two of  these amazing photos of bugs and such. I begged and he let me share them with you...

[Actually, all the amazing photos are Steve's. The last two are mine. While they are just OK, I worked hard to get them and crop them so I am including them.]

 Bee and dandelion

Bee and gaillardia

Bee and spider wort

Butterfly and ?

Butterfly and "beggar's lice" (wild carrot)

Woolly worm (not sure what caterpillar this is)

Butterfly on grass

Same type of butterfly as with the wild carrot - better photo of the insect, but I love "beggar's lice"

Tiny bee or wasp

A true bug on cactus

Bee on sunflower

Spider with prey

Butterfly with an unfamiliar wildflower

Garden spider - master weaver

Grasshoppers

More grasshoppers

OK. I took this photo in my garden. It was almost a "Where's Waldo?" photo as the greens are all the same...

Another of my photos - unknown insect on purple leather flower (clematis)





I should note that I love insects. This obsession began with the children's 9th grade biology insect collection assignment. It continues...