02 May 2017

free fish food

the morning's pickings off my one small rose bush: tiny caterpillars. I knew they were there from the holes in the lower leaves. It's very hard to see them but I found out if I get down low and look up at the underside of foliage, caterpillars show clearly against the leaf with the light behind them. I'm sure I looked funny to the neighbors, crouched down with my head under a rosebush. The real trick is to pluck them off gently, so I don't squish any. They are going to be a feast for my fishes tonight! (This is a very tiny jar, by the way- it's smaller than a baby-food jar. It's one of those little sample jam jars you get when served hotel food. I save them just for this).
The rose bush will feel relieved now as well. It's recovered from that late cold snap weeks ago. I was going to knock off more aphids and other tiny insects into water for the fishes too (all over the rose bush buds). But noticed last time I did that some were bright pale green with clear wings. Looked almost like lacewing, but too small. Want to verify to myself that they are winged aphids before I drown them.

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