Plague?

I have had a few free hours to work on a project during the past couple of weeks. But there is a "plague of beetles" at the studio where I work. They are everywhere.

The first day I noticed the beetles they just wandered around, mostly drinking from the places I "shook off" my hands after washing (OK. I don't wear gloves when playing in the mud so I wash my hands 10 or 20 times in the 4 or 5 hours I can bear the heat of the studio).

When I came back to work for a few hours earlier this week most of the critters were six-legs-up. A couple ran around (dangerously close to my inattentive feet). I crunched a few by accident. Feeling a little guilty, I left the survivors a small butter container lid of water - it was actually a test. I thought perhaps I would find them crowding around it when I returned, but someone came and cleaned (yea!). There are still beetles for a while, but they appear to be on the wane. I think their time has come and is going.

But it wouldn't be a Texas summer without plenty of replacements. Last weekend at Dinosaur Valley State Park we were bombarded by clicking grasshoppers as we walked along some of the trails. I wondered about that. They are subject of one of those biblical plagues, no?

And now I have discovered they are here and here in numbers.  I met a friend for breakfast today. We meet at a small restaurant in a good sized strip-center. The parking area is huge and primarily hard-top/black-top/ tar and gravel - whatever you want to call it. And today it was inhabited by grasshoppers...hundreds (thousands?) of grasshoppers. Why they were in this inhospitable area is a mystery. Why weren't they in the grass? This is one of those plagues one must watch. They will find the grass and yards and flower beds all too soon.

That's all, just thoughts on the masses of insects responding to increased food supply because we have had a little rain. I am pretty fond of the six-leggers as a general rule, but I like them in reasonable numbers. And we still have the cricket invasion to come. That seems to happen annually, rain or no rain. They are already starting to sing there evening songs. Bummer.


BUNNY UPDATE:

I discovered where they bunny has gone. He ate all my collards and moved across the street. The neighbor just mentioned that they have a cottontail in their garden. We are glad he has found a home and another food supply.

NOTE: Looks like it is not just us. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/nyregion/during-cicadas-swan-song-many-wonder-if-they-missed-the-show.html?hp