Bugs . I ’m not generally a fan – I do n’t need them in my house , my hair or my stuff – and it ’s taken a sight of maturity , mini - freakouts and online gardening ( read : counseling ) groups to add up to the acceptance that sometimes we want them around us and our garden . And sometimes we do n’t .
I include , however , that my bug designation science are woefully unequal . It just so materialise that a few really beautiful hemipterous insect are all garden monster ( I ’m speak about you , you rotten little leaf - ground ball that circularise ‘ the yellowness ’ to all my milkweed works ) and sometimes ugly bugs should be our best friends ( pirate bugs – bleeech – plus they bite and I do n’t typically consider anything that would bite me my friend ) . But anyway …
Every year I discover some new fauna hanging around my flowers , but I generally take the peaceful approach if they are n’t conversant , leaving them be unless I can actually see a art object of my plant in their mouth . I ’ve even started letting spider endure despite the fact that they perfectly terrorize me . And the truth is that some bugs are really interesting and kind of fun to watch do their thing . And some hemipteran fill me with admiration – like , how could the universe have create something so intricate and strange ?
A fairy-ish aphid with a wispy cotton-ball tail.
Case in full point : A while back , I was outdoors planting some new perennial into an area of my garden , and I saw this beautiful petty creature come floating by . It was like a little diminutive jot of cotton wool hover and float through the air and I thought , “ What the heck isthat ? ! “
So I started espouse it around trying to get a closer look , and I saw that it was a gorgeous trivial thing with blueish shimmer wings and a frondy , feathery looking trunk and touchy little legs , and it did n’t really fly so much as FLOAT and I cogitate , “ Holy cow , that looks like a FAIRY . That ’s so peculiar – my yard must be blessed . But really , what could it possibly be ? ”
Then I saw another one and then another , so I spent 15 minutes watch over them around trying to get photograph of my little wizardly creatures . I had NO IDEA what they were , but I figure Auntie Google might , so I typed into my web web browser , “ small ashen feather bug ” and Google recognize EXACTLY what I was talking about and even finished the conviction for me . I was so unrestrained I almost could n’t catch one’s breath .
I clicked on the first connectedness in the search upshot , expect some wonderful , capricious bug to come up , but instead what I got was “ Asian woolly hackberry aphid , ” and I consider , “ Well , I do n’t even have any hackberries so perhaps it ’s hunky-dory . ” But then I read they cause a powdery mold on your plant , and I noticed the powdery wait leaves on my lilac and I was like , “ Oh heck no , you malefic piddling fuel-air explosive – Mother Nature , hold my beer . ” Then I turn my hosiery on jet atomizer and hunted down and killed every one of them .
And then I posted this story in a horticulture group on Facebook and some lady come back and enounce they are actually pretty harmless . Now I ’m a murderer .
That was an emotional hair curler coaster I did n’t expect from a solar day in the garden . And now I ’ve never seen them since – I ’m figuring if any escape , they told their ally to outride out from the crazy lady with the garden hose . Oh well . Live and learn .
Cynthya Porter is the editor ofNorthern Gardenermagazine . A professional writer , photographer and editor for 20 + years , she ’s freelanced for USA Today , Huff Post , AAA Living , Minnesota Monthly , Midwest Living and more .
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