I thought I would give a brief description of the insects I have encountered so far. Some aren't that bad while others would probably thrive in hell.
I have spotted lacewing eggs on our balcony which is wonderful, especially since I have seen a lot of scale, which makes a good lacewing food.
Praying Mantis abound in all sizes, shapes and colours. Grasshoppers do their own bit of work on plants and the millipedes are the size of small snakes.
There are driver ants, which are mostly on the ground and are like the Florida version of fire ants. I am not sure if they are meant to drive you crazy or just drive up your legs and bite all at once.
There are your common kitchen ants that get into everything, the flour moths which, by the way, can survive in a sealed can of hot chili peppers and then there are the Central African fire ants.
These nasty buggers are very large and red and make nests in rolled up leaves in the trees. When you prune or touch or do anything to these trees they come whipping up your arms, legs etc. and make pruning just about the worst task imagineable. This kind of stinks as pruning used to be one of my favorite things to do to a fruit tree.
The last bug of the week is a masses of hundreds of a very nasty, poisonous-looking caterpillar that was all over a Safu tree today. I made up a concoction of tephrosia overnight last night to test on the fire ant and also used it on this caterpillar. I will look for caterpillar death tomorrow...for today, the ants live on, like no poison was ever sprayed all over them. The quest for fire ant death goes on.
Until next time,
Ange
