Buggy

The end of summer is always full of bugs. The flies are out of control (at least here in Lehi) and myself and my neighbors have contests to see who has the killed the most in a day... the average being around 30! Nasty.

The garden is full of critters too. We saw a katydid on our driveway last week and I wish I had taken a picture. They are so pretty! We've also seen a praying mantis, and wasps have built nests in our playset.

About a month ago I started noticing holes in my petunias, tell tale signs of caterpillars. Within weeks, all the flowers were gone. So frustrating!! 

One day I decided to catch a few culprits.  Sure enough, the plants were full of them!

My squealing assistants helped me catch them and put them in a jar for observation. Well, really it was just to keep them from ever returning to the petunias, but the kids loved watching the crawl and scooch around.

We caught about 20, but it didn't make a dent. Still no petunias. When I think about all those green caterpillars still out there, it gives me the creepy crawlies.

The same day we noticed a wasp and a grasshopper fighting over something. Yep, it was a caterpillar! We tried to tell them no fighting needed, they could take as many as they wanted!

Last night the man of the house decided it was time to get rid of the cat face spider above our porch. They are harmless to humans, but they're huge and creepy looking, and it was pooping on our porch! Who knew that spiders poop?

As we were playing at dusk we caught sight of this weird flying beetle dragging a dead spider. Ewww! As much as I'm not ready for cooler temperatures, they do have the benefit of killing off the bugs for the year!