Bugs Suck - Literally

An anecdote. My husband looked at our aquarium and asked, "What is this on top of the fish tank? It looks like bird poop. How would bird poop get on top of our fish tank?" I, with my vast entomological knowledge (HA!) said, "It's probably a moth that looks like bird poop." And it was!

Okay, that was a really boring anecdote. But it does prove a point...

Today was a very buggy day. Also a very muggy day, but that is not particularly germane, I suppose, unless it was the gross, humid weather that brought out all the bugs. It's actually kind of difficult doing this blog today, because I really have to make some tough choices about what to include. There's a pretty clear winner for Backyard Bug of the Day, but of all the many bugs I got pictures of, which do I share, and which do I just hope I see another day to make them BBotD?

Well, let's go with what I know.

This is the Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Ordinarily, trying to bite me will automatically disqualify you from becoming Backyard Bug of the Day. I had to make an exception for this bug, though. I smacked it, but then I had to take picture of it. Because it appears to have the most glorious eyes in the entire world!

 Smacking it didn't kill it, it just sort of stunned it. Hardy little bugger.  And now I am not sure if it was trying to bite me, or just licking sweat off of my skin. That sounds creepy, but, hey, we're talking about a bug here.

A bug with these eyes!!!

This guy tried to bite me, too.

This will NEVER be Backyard Bug of the Day, but I am posting it so those who do not know the enemy will recognize it if it ever attacks: This is a deer tick. I know you can't really tell how small it is, but you can at least maybe get an idea from the level of detail of my finger in this picture? If you have one on you, remove it. Kill it. Don't let it give you Lyme disease. This one didn't get me, but I found out later that another one did.

Speaking of those that would suck the life out of others...

I am seeing a lot of assassin bugs lately.

More suckers?

 I am not 100% certain, but it kind of looks like bug has a parasite of some kind - near the top of the head. It's kind of ironic that bugs get bug bites.

I am finding sawfly larvae of all different kinds lately, all over the yard.

This one seems to have gotten itself into a predicament.


Some bees were working industriously on the trunk of our old Christmas tree leaning against the porch:

And these two bugs were busy keeping up the insect population:

We went out again tonight, and found a plethora of bugs on the porch when we got home, but I am only going to show you one (okay, not true - the ladybug-like bug above was one of tonight's porch bugs), because I have never seen it before, and may never see it again. The others I still have hopes to features as BBotD some day. But here's the extra bug for you:

So, that's the last bug for today, but there's still more to see!

Backyard Bud and Bloom of the Day:

 This is called Dame's Rocket. I have no idea why. But hey, at least I know the name!

The flowers look like butterflies!

Daily Dandelion didn't come out the way I thought - I took it in a hurry...

We've got some tame strawberries coming along.

And I got a Backyard Bird of the Day:

I have no idea what kind of bird this is (shocking, I know). And I took the picture with the macro lens (it was what was on the camera), and so this is really zoomed in, and that's why it's kind of pixelly. There were two of these birds, and they seemed like they were courting, so maybe there is or will be a nest around here?

Last but not least, some Arachnid Appreciation:
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This jumping spider seemed to appreciate my husband's arm. It was quite the day for getting bugs on us - my husband got a tick bite, too!