damn japanese beetles doing a lot of damage

the japanese beetles were exceptionally vicious this year.


they ate so many of the green bean leaves that they completely stopped producing beans for three weeks while they grew more leaves.






i ended up going out with my bucket of water 3-4 times a day picking them off. this is from ONE picking. i had to throw away the trap i had, and the stores were ALL completely sold out of more traps. i went to four stores.


and not just the beans, they were on my raspberries too




all these bugs on just ONE leaf


they even were on my new blueberry bushes!


and on the purple leaf sandcherry




i hate them.

wild caterpillar

i found this crazy caterpillar


turns out its a Hyalophora Cecropia








the caterpillar will turn into this pretty moth http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/kwhcecropia.htm

my garden


sunflower


big fat fuzzy bumblebee


tomatoes


green bean flowers are weird looking

corned beef and rutabaga, pear mold, and japanese beetles

rutabaga!


chopped up


corned beef


rutabaga and carrots cooked in the leftover corned beef juice and water


corned beef, carrots, and rutabaga. the rutabaga goes really well with the corned beef with its ever so slight cabbage taste.


parker pears with its fungal infection


rubs off onto fingers (though doesnt actually rub OFF the pears, its still there)


red daylily


another red daylily


figures the unwanted pink one would be prolific


picture to try to help me locate what flowered where


japanese beetle damage to green bean leaves


japanese beetles on green bean leaves, they cling to the undersides, making them harder to find and pick off by hand.


more damage






slightly blurry japanese beetle




eggs of SOMETHING laid on a leaf. dont know what.


beetle trap that i bought two of last year. i dont recommend this kind. it unzips on the bottom to empty out the beetles. the beetles are still alive and can fly away when you unzip it. you have to dump them into water, let them die, strain the water off, and throw them away. the zipper broke the first time i opened it and i had to duck tape the bottom closed. and rain gets in the trap making a disgusting sludge at the bottom of dead and alive bugs and guts that gets all over your hands when you empty it. next year i'm using the kind with disposable bags. tie it off and be done. so gross.

amount of japanese beetles caught in only 3 days in one lure trap. they were HORRIBLE this year.

my first (and only) blueberry!

the mamma chia drink i love is on the right. i tried making my own version on the left. my chia seeds didnt swell as big as theirs no matter how long i let them soak or how much extra juice i added (i shook it up before i took the pic). but my homemade version was still good. not quite the same but still good. i picked up apple raspberry juice and have been washing and reusing the two bottles. its too expensive to keep buying.


i made spaghetti with rotini noodles. interesting. they hold a lot more sauce and that was nice. but its a lot more noodle too. i still like ghoulash/elbow noodles best.


another puzzle


with the branch coming down, lots of other twigs and sticks fell too. this does NOT include anything off those branches, just the other random shit i picked up so the mower blade wouldnt dull.


filled up the previously empty firepit


my lone blueberry. it was good.


the butterflyweed attracted lots of fuzzy bumblebees. i like the fat fuzzy bumble bees.




the indeterminate cherry tomatoes were too much for two of the old short tomato cages i stuck on the very end. they fell over.


growing watermelon


another melon


i like the colors


green bean flowers. they're funny looking.


really funny looking. but the bees like them.


i like this day lily. bright red, wide petals.


more of the pink peach day lily that i did not buy. (i only bought red ones from a daylily society's hand dug and hand labeled sale)