some stuff

I was going to call this post "all the squirmy wormies" but then started writing about more than just the worms, so. 

I realized that along with a bit of houseplant and fish tank neglect, I had been ignoring my worms lately, too. Had not fed them in a long while. Which actually made emptying the bin easier- they had been comsuming their bedding so really there was only a layer of carboard chips on the top to remove, the rest was mostly finished vermicompost. I didn't sort out the worms and unfinished bits by shaking through a handmade sifter like usual- the bottom two-thirds of the bin was too damp, and very compacted. 

Instead I loosened it up by hand and then picked out the bits of still-recognizable cardboard, and the individual worms that hadn't been in the first handfuls out of the feeding corner, or off the top layer. It was just a few hours, over two days, spent sitting by the bin carefully going through it. I didn't see any worm eggs. but there were plenty of tiny baby worms, so they've been breeding not so long ago. Worms in my hand.

Some are yellowish, but not too many. None of the worms felt tacky, they all had good moisture and most are healthy pink. I did notice lately it had been drier, so at that point I had sprinkled in some water, and started feeding them again hoping they'd all move to that corner. It never works completely, there's always more worms to pick out of the rest of the bin. I'm sure if I just kept the ones scooped out of the top layer and food area, that's plenty to keep the population going. But I still feel like "rescuing" as many as I can, knowing those that get thrown out with the vermicompost to fertilize the lawn and garden, will just die overwinter.

These tiny millipedes were in the bin. More than I've ever seen before, and I found a pile of dried-up ones off to one side behind the bin- has a spider been eating them there? They curl up in little silvery spirals. Picking worms individually out of the bin allowed me to leave behind most of the millipedes to get tossed out into the yard. I hope.

Then I started trying to get some plants in better shape. Groomed a bunch of houseplants, and those on the deck. Trimmed back some of the geraniums that had got leggy, and replanted the cut stems.

Sprayed with soapy water/oil the ones that seem to still have bug problems: chocolate mint, ginger mint, stevia, the cuban oregano- 

whose leaves are all so small right now I feel it must be suffering

I went to pick out this dead leaf that had drifted into my basil plant- and noticed somebody was on it

a little mantis!

This plant that's still new to me, the self-heal, is starting to bloom-

Another pic of my fish today- I think I should add to his name: Tucker Firetail

wildlife in the yard

I am pretty much abandoning the garden for rest of the year. My ankle is not better from accident three months ago, doctor said it shouldn't still be swelling and sent me to phyiscal therapy. Evaluation there said I did too much way too soon, have to "take it easy" again, avoid all heavy work- that includes squatting to pull weeds and more stairs than strictly neccessary- so now it's difficult to do the minimal to keep the yard looking decent, or tank water changes either for that matter. 

We've eaten the last few rutabagas, the remaining beets are pretty small and pathetic. Tomatoes all look iffy. I still have plenty of chard, collards and yellow squash. And the cowpeas are finally making pods! But I keep forgetting to go pick them tender, so probably will just harvest as dry seed later. I thought my cardinal climber vine was going to bloom way too late to feed any hummingbirds, but there's plenty of flowers now, and I see a hummingbird come by regularly, visit every bloom in methodical order. It's often here when I'm washing dishes, so lovely to see it out the window. Once I saw two hummningbirds, swerving and zooming at each other in the air- fighting over rights to my little flower patch? I'm pretty sure they've been feeding on the black and blue salvia on the sideyard too, but I haven't been over there in a while honestly. 

So here's some pictures of a few wildlife glimpses I had in the past week or so. Marbled orb-weaver spider

Preying mantis- I found it on the sliding glass door above my chocolate mint and basil plants-

and a few days later on the stored coldframe.

And a fox! passing through the neighbor's yard behind ours.

brown mantis

I finally saw a mantis this year. 

A medium-sized brown one. On the window glass.

I coaxed him onto a leaf and relocated to the table where he climbed up the edge of a flower pot, 

to take a few better pictures.

small mantis

I went to cut back the stems of milkweed which has died off, and found a little preying mantis. Never expected to see a small one so close to end of season!

The striped pattern is my sweater cuff, that's how little this guy is.

It jumped down, crawled through the grass, clover and mock strawberry

Looked backwards at me! You can see its pupils- I didn't know they could look around the back of their head 

critters

 Fat broad-head skink on a stump

Leaping insect that definitely eats plants. I think it's a katydid? My youngest protested when I said I would "recycle its body into worm food" so we released it in the woods behind our neighborhood during a trail walk. 

Insect I found in the garden on the sunberry bush. Don't know what it is, but the front legs definitely look like they aim to grab others- predatory. 

I keep finding and doing away with the striped beetles, only one at a time now so their numbers are diminishing. And brown stink bugs. And there's lots of whitefly on the sunberry, leaves full of small holes. However this doesn't seem to affect the fruit ripening, and the whitefly appears to be more attracted to the sunberry plant than to the chard in the next garden spot, so I did nothing to deter them. If sunberry acts a trap plant for me, that's great. 

Tiny spider with front legs held like a scorpion- only I couldn't get close (on the turtlehead):

And today also on turtlehead I saw the first preying mantis! 

Brown one

caterpillars eat squash

Pictures from earlier post were yesterday, these are from today. In the morning I saw immediately the milkweed is almost completely barren. The caterpillars have been chewing off the ends of stems, and nearly eaten the two longitudinal zucchini slices I'd given them. They even ate through the skin.

 I tied on two more. A lot more caterpillars are eating it now.

I removed their competition, the tussock moth caterpillar. My youngest wants to try and raise it in the mesh bug house we have.

Later in the day I brought the caterpillars butternut squash, not wanting them to be limited to one food source. A few started to feed on that, as well.

But quite a few were wandering- crawling around in the vinca or the grass. Were they searching for more milkweed? getting moisture from the dew? Looking for a good spot to pupate? I don't know.

One crawled up the retaining wall and wandered around there for a while.

At first I picked them up and moved them back, but I don't know if handling them is harmful. And if they have a reason for wandering off, I should leave them alone.

I was dismayed later in the day to count only thirteen caterpillars, half are gone. I hope they found safe places to build their chrysalis, but it's also possible they got eaten. One of the bigger brown skinks was lurking in the vinca (looked fat and healthy). There's also a large preying mantis hanging out on our porch (my stepson thought it was a "freaky stick insect"). I haven't seen a mantis since this one, so glad it's around (maybe the same individual, grown bigger)- but I think both are predators that will eat monarch caterpillars.

The mantis is bold, too. I tried to get a close photo of its face, and it leaped straight onto the camera, threatening me!

mantis

Saw this little predator in the turtlehead the other day. Just twice the size of the last one I spotted (maybe it is the same individual). It was under a leaf (I rotated the image)

which I slowly turned over so I could get a better photo,

before it leaped away from me.