Notes from my patio

Grampa Don said:
Pretty good rain last night. Cloudy but clearing today with a little sun.

Yesterday I noticed a tiny speck on my bathroom wall that moved. I captured it in a pill bottle and put it in the freezer overnight. Today I took it out and examined it with a magnifier. It is a tiny beetle just a little over 1mm long. I took this photo through my microscope and did a Google search on it.

View attachment 485483

It's a common carpet beetle. I've never seen one before. The beetle only lives a couple days and is harmless. But, its larva lives a couple years and eats organic fibers, leather, and photographs. And the larva isn't much larger than the beetle and looks like a tiny wooly caterpillar.

Hopefully this guy just stumbled into my house and I don't have an infestation to worry about. So now I have to be on the lookout for tiny specks that move.

It's always something.
Click to expand...

Your microscope photos are amazing. Can you keep them in a group with the identifying information?
 
Grampa Don said:
Pretty good rain last night. Cloudy but clearing today with a little sun.

Yesterday I noticed a tiny speck on my bathroom wall that moved. I captured it in a pill bottle and put it in the freezer overnight. Today I took it out and examined it with a magnifier. It is a tiny beetle just a little over 1mm long. I took this photo through my microscope and did a Google search on it.

View attachment 485483

It's a common carpet beetle. I've never seen one before. The beetle only lives a couple days and is harmless. But, its larva lives a couple years and eats organic fibers, leather, and photographs. And the larva isn't much larger than the beetle and looks like a tiny wooly caterpillar.

Hopefully this guy just stumbled into my house and I don't have an infestation to worry about. So now I have to be on the lookout for tiny specks that move.

It's always something.
Click to expand...

Your post is very interesting... to those of us who like insects and nature. ☺️

But of course we don't like those tiny larvae eating our belongings!
Keep us posted on that, as you keep a close eye out.
 

Grampa Don said:
My pomegranate is beginning to leaf out already, maybe because of the heat we've been having. It still has a few of the old leaves on it.

View attachment 484533

Here are some photos that aren't new, but I want to share a few of the insect visitors I've had. The first one is a morning glory plume moth resting on my kitchen door screen. The skinny wings fold out when it wants to fly.

View attachment 484534

Next is a katydid on my patio cupboard. I rotated the photo to make it upright. Pretty thing.

View attachment 484536

This is a cute little leaf beetle. He's only about a cm long. See his little black eyes?

View attachment 484538

And finally, a spider mite on the bottom of a geranium leaf. This was taken through my microscope. Did you know that geranium leaves were spiky underneath?

View attachment 484542
Click to expand...
Love these pictures, Don.🙂
 
Sunny and warm today, but another storm coming this weekend.

Some drama in the back yard. I went out to check the hummingbird feeder and noticed a squirrel near the garage. Then I noticed a Cooper’s hawk sitting on the bird bath. I figured this might be interesting. Will the hawk take on the squirrel, or vice versa? They were about equal size.

I don’t know if the squirrel saw the hawk or not. He just kept hopping around, but was getting closer to the birdbath. The hawk just sat there. Finally the squirrel was right under the hawk and he did a surprising thing. He raised up on his haunches and stared at the hawk. They were nose to nose about a foot apart. The hawk flipped his wings a bit a couple times, but held his ground. The squirrel just kept nosing around the bird bath. Finally it just headed off towards the pomegranate and the hawk flew off.

Squirrels are pretty brave. I once saw one chase off 3 crows that were after its peanuts. And, I’ve seen a cat stalk a squirrel and the squirrel didn’t seem to be too worried.

Here's a better picture of the carpet beetle.

beet2.jpg
 
Since some of you liked the photos through the microscope, I'll post a few more. This is an Aedes mosquito. They are an invasive species here and can carry yellow fever. I used to see more of them , but this year I've only been bitten a few times.

aedes mosquito.JPG

This is a boatman fly. A very tiny fly that sits and waves its wings like it's rowing a boat.

boatman fly.jpg

An aphid.

aphid.JPG

And lastly, a tiny fungus gnat. Its larva causes root damage in plants. It can be a house plant problem.

fungus gnat.jpg
 
Grampa Don said:
Pretty good rain last night. Cloudy but clearing today with a little sun.

Yesterday I noticed a tiny speck on my bathroom wall that moved. I captured it in a pill bottle and put it in the freezer overnight. Today I took it out and examined it with a magnifier. It is a tiny beetle just a little over 1mm long. I took this photo through my microscope and did a Google search on it.

View attachment 485483

It's a common carpet beetle. I've never seen one before. The beetle only lives a couple days and is harmless. But, its larva lives a couple years and eats organic fibers, leather, and photographs. And the larva isn't much larger than the beetle and looks like a tiny wooly caterpillar.

Hopefully this guy just stumbled into my house and I don't have an infestation to worry about. So now I have to be on the lookout for tiny specks that move.

It's always something.
Click to expand...
Keep an eye on them. I am currently fighting an infestation. I have seen a couple larvae i disturbed when cleaning. Had to tear the bed apart and hose it down with Raid multi-insect. They have destroyed the fabric on one side of the mattress.

I'm trying to stay on top of regular cleaning and spraying. I get them every year. Not sure if they're coming up from the basement maybe.

Good luck.
 
MarciKS said:
Keep an eye on them. I am currently fighting an infestation. I have seen a couple larvae i disturbed when cleaning. Had to tear the bed apart and hose it down with Raid multi-insect. They have destroyed the fabric on one side of the mattress.

I'm trying to stay on top of regular cleaning and spraying. I get them every year. Not sure if they're coming up from the basement maybe.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I sure will.
 
Sad part is I had no clue they infested homes. I just kept killing them and figured they were just seasonal til I ended up with a bunk mate at 3 in the morning. 😭
 

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