cairistiona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cairistiona) wrote2024-08-01 08:16 am
cairistiona) wrote2024-08-01 08:16 am
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Well, it's not as cute as a lady bug...
... and is an example of how nature is messy.
This is a robber fly:
It looks fearsome and could be if you tried to pick it up (who would??) or accidentally put your hand down on top of it (ouch, nasty bite), but it's fairly docile towards humans (thank God). It's a predatory insect that goes after just about anything from aphids (yay) to butterflies (boo) and, rarely, even hummingbirds (BOO) (see what I mean about nature being messy?). I see them every summer and while they've never bothered me, looking at them still... bothers me in that same way that the movie Alien bothers me. Not my favorite insect, but I still recognize its overall importance in the ecosystem, so... live and let live. (It helps that they really aren't aggressive at all. If they accidentally land on you, you can just lightly brush them away. They won't automatically go into Murder Mode the instant they land on you like horseflies or sweat bees.)
Now back to the pretty side of nature.
We really do have a right swarm of Great Spangled fritillaries right now.
They love the swamp milkweed. Everything seems to love the swamp milkweed. If you're on the bubble about whether to grow common or swamp milkweed and don't have room for both, go with swamp. Also let native violets take over your lawn, since Great Spangled lay their eggs exclusively on violets. You will reap a harvest of lovely brown spangled flutterbies all summer.
They also really like the coneflowers:
I'm not deadheading the coneflowers, sacrificing additional blooms this year in the hopes for lots of seedlings next year (plus leaving the seedheads all winter will give birds something to eat). Supposedly coneflowers spread easily via roots and freely self-seeding. *fingers crossed* Since this is basically a chaos garden planted with the idea of letting nature do its thing with minimal assistance from me other than maintenance like weeding and putting down compost in the fall, I'll be thrilled if the garden turned into nothing but coneflowers and milkweeds. But there are other plants in there that will likely hold their own against a coneflower/milkweed onslaught, like black-eyed susan, ironweed and goldenrod. My plan is to let them all battle it out and see what wins. *g* I might occasionally step in and thin something out, since I do want a season-long succession of flowers so there's always something for the butterflies to eat, but laziness will work in my favor, methinks.
Happy Thursday, all.
This is a robber fly:
It looks fearsome and could be if you tried to pick it up (who would??) or accidentally put your hand down on top of it (ouch, nasty bite), but it's fairly docile towards humans (thank God). It's a predatory insect that goes after just about anything from aphids (yay) to butterflies (boo) and, rarely, even hummingbirds (BOO) (see what I mean about nature being messy?). I see them every summer and while they've never bothered me, looking at them still... bothers me in that same way that the movie Alien bothers me. Not my favorite insect, but I still recognize its overall importance in the ecosystem, so... live and let live. (It helps that they really aren't aggressive at all. If they accidentally land on you, you can just lightly brush them away. They won't automatically go into Murder Mode the instant they land on you like horseflies or sweat bees.)
Now back to the pretty side of nature.
We really do have a right swarm of Great Spangled fritillaries right now.
They love the swamp milkweed. Everything seems to love the swamp milkweed. If you're on the bubble about whether to grow common or swamp milkweed and don't have room for both, go with swamp. Also let native violets take over your lawn, since Great Spangled lay their eggs exclusively on violets. You will reap a harvest of lovely brown spangled flutterbies all summer.
They also really like the coneflowers:
I'm not deadheading the coneflowers, sacrificing additional blooms this year in the hopes for lots of seedlings next year (plus leaving the seedheads all winter will give birds something to eat). Supposedly coneflowers spread easily via roots and freely self-seeding. *fingers crossed* Since this is basically a chaos garden planted with the idea of letting nature do its thing with minimal assistance from me other than maintenance like weeding and putting down compost in the fall, I'll be thrilled if the garden turned into nothing but coneflowers and milkweeds. But there are other plants in there that will likely hold their own against a coneflower/milkweed onslaught, like black-eyed susan, ironweed and goldenrod. My plan is to let them all battle it out and see what wins. *g* I might occasionally step in and thin something out, since I do want a season-long succession of flowers so there's always something for the butterflies to eat, but laziness will work in my favor, methinks.
Happy Thursday, all.