Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
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Category Archives: Insects Since I’ve had a few people email me, I thought I would just create a new post concerning the hive of Honeybees that appeared in my Maple tree yesterday. I don’t recall how I numbered my possible options yesterday on what to do regarding the hive that suddenly appeared in my Maple tree, but I… I went outside to feed the Koi and noticed there were several insects flying around. From a distance I thought they were flying ants, but as I was a little closer, I noticed they were bigger than an ant. Sure enough, they were bees. Not an extraordinary large amount, but enough that would sure hurt…  We’re in the dog days of summer where temperatures are in the upper 90′s and the heat index is around 104-108 degrees. It’s also the time that whenever I take my lens outside I can expect a bit of a wait before I can start shooting due to the condensation on the lens. Presently we…  I saw this interesting little moth on the pool decking. I had to do quite a bit of searching to figure out what it was, but determined it’s a Banded Sphinx Moth.  I think I took this shot, but I told Leecy she probably took this picture just to make her feel good (she may have taken this picture as she was experimenting with my camera). We have lots of Honeybees right now all over the garden. Some are on the flowers, and some tend to have…  The Common Green Darner Dragonfly that I placed on the Zinnia yesterday evening was still here this morning. He was covered in a light dew and the light was just starting to fall on our second Zinnia garden.  Here’s something you don’t see every day. We were cleaning our Butterfly enclosures this evening when this large Dragonfly flew right in there. I don’t know if he was old, confused, tired, or what, but he just stayed right there so I went and picked him up. After he stayed in the palm of my…  I need to get a few things off my chest (actually just one thing). This drought. It’s driving me nuts. This whole weather thing is driving me nuts actually. On the East Coast they’re flooding. Down here in Texas we’re drying up. Is this the effects of global warming? What will this wacky weather mean… Okay, I’ve done it. I’ve cataloged most all my books. I still have some computer books at work I need to catalog, but for this blog I think I’m complete. I’ve organized the books into sections and I’ll also make the list available for download should you choose to keep it as a reference for…  The Purple Martin parents are working full time feeding their young. One thing I’ve noticed this year compared to previous years, is that the insects are smaller. I haven’t seen them bring many Dragonflies which has been their favorite food in years past. This year the most common insect seem to be Grasshoppers which the…  I could tell we were going to have problems with the Monarch Butterfly Chrysalises in the Butterfly Enclosure several days ago. All of the Chrysalises were a yellow brown color and didn’t look too healthy. Whether these were infected or parasitized Chrysalises, I’m not sure, maybe a combination of both. You can see the Chrysalises…  Our Sassafras tree is really putting out some nice, soft leaves. I was casually checking the leaves to see if any Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars were feeding. I then saw this small insect, but I have no idea what it is It was definitely eating the leaf, but I don’t even know where to look to…  It was a cloudy, overcast, somewhat windy day, so not the best day to take pictures. Leecy pointed out this Carpenter Bee (I think that’s what it is, not a Bumblebee) flying around the Wildflowers. I wasn’t really expecting much from the pictures, but I’m actually quite pleased with how they turned out. While I…  In addition to the Cedar Waxwings behaving in an interesting way, I also witnessed a Monarch Butterfly do something I’ve never seen before. Today, I released one of the Monarchs that eclosed a couple of days ago. The Butterfly got a nice draft of wing, and gently floated to our Maple tree. That’s when it…  Thanks to Sheryl for posting a comment and identifying this insect. This appears to be a Mydas Fly, and they are not very common, or at least not from what I could tell from doing a little bit of research. They are listed as beneficial insects on this page. The authors of the page linked… |
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