Spotted Lantern Fly

Face to Face – Day 676

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Spotted Lantern Fly – Standoff; Photo: L. Weikel

Face to Face

There are a lot of different things I’ve considered writing about tonight. But it’s a lot. Everything going on right now is calling on us to figure out who we are and what we believe in, and that can be overwhelming on the best of days. Sometimes it feels appropriate to address what we’re all dealing with, face to face, precisely because we’re going through an existential crisis – both individually, in many cases, and most definitely as a country.

But I’m also acutely aware that we can only take so much. At least, I assume you sort of feel the way I do: I care. I am vociferously passionate about the myriad challenges we’re facing as a country (and a planet). But at the same time, it is abundantly clear to me that we need to pace ourselves. We need to make sure we don’t make the mistake that some long distance runners (or even shorter distance, I suppose) make when they spend it all just a little too early and ‘hit the wall’ just short of the finish line. That’s just heartbreaking to watch when it happens (and I imagine it must be an utter nightmare to personally experience).

I’ve met my enemy; Photo: L. Weikel

First Face

So tonight I’m just going to share a couple of different face to face encounters I’ve had over the past day or two.

This afternoon I was searching for a pen on the glider I occupy when I’m working from my porch. I whipped off one of the cushions and this beast was right there looking at me, as surprised as I was. It even raised its little arms in a defensive posture because it knew. It knew it had met its fate. The beast had been discovered by an avowed Spotted Lantern Fly assassin.

I may have been the one to shorten this moth’s life, but if you take a good look at its eyes, you know it would’ve done the same to me had it only had longer legs.

Katydid ready to jig – Photo: L. Weikel

Second Face

The second little one I’m sharing with you is a katydid we encountered on our walk yesterday. Spartacus actually came upon him, thinking he was dead and possibly as tasty as the praying mantises that all too frequently fail to make it across the road at this time of year. (Sheila’s favorite autumn snacks – which Spartacus is developing a taste for in his maturity.)

What I particularly like about this katydid, beyond it’s much less sinister eyes (compared to the Spotted Lantern Fly) are the way its feet are designed. Its feet look like they have little boots attached!

It almost reminds me of something Jiminy Cricket would wear.

Evening Reprieve

So there you have it. A light little photo essay on my recent face to face encounters with the creatures in my natural habitat.

We need to pace ourselves so we don’t hit the wall – not only before November 3rd, but even beyond. Because let’s face it: who really thinks the nightmare will be over on November 4th?

Katydid – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-435)

Two Visitors – Day 667

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Bumblebee – Photo: L. Weikel

Two Visitors

While I worked at my laptop on the porch this morning, I entertained visits from two distinctly different creatures. One of my two visitors was beautiful, but terribly destructive and most unwelcome. The other was not only beautiful, but also singularly and adorably focused upon fulfilling its purpose of being a master pollinator, making it a most welcome and appreciated guest.

Busy Bumblebee – Photo: L. Weikel

Little Bumblebee

I was delighted when the bumblebee you see in these photographs started immersing herself in the begonias hanging off the edge of our porch. These blooms have been – bar none – the best flowers to grace my porch probably ever. This particular hanging basket of creamy peach, brilliant orange, and dazzling yellow faces has consistently churned out blossom after blossom since early spring.

When this bumblebee showed up this morning, bouncing from one blossom to another, intently burying its head, thorax, and abdomen deep into the begonia’s sensuous petals, I grabbed my phone, hoping to get close enough to capture the intimacy of the moment.

As you can see, little bumblebee was more than happy to show me its best side and allow me to document its efforts to being the best pollinator in its age group. I was especially fascinated by the big blob of something sticking to one of its legs. It could be pollen, I suppose. But it actually looked, to me, like a part of the blossom’s plumbing.

Anyway, I was over the moon that bumblebee permitted me to get so close and capture some shots of it without seeming perturbed at all by my presence.

Photo: L. Weikel

Unwelcome Intruder

As I stood on the edge of the porch marveling at the details I could see in my bumblebee photos, I felt something thwack onto my left shoulder. In fact, I could just barely see it in my peripheral vision, but I had a feeling I knew what it was – and I was not happy.

I flicked it onto the floor in front of me and – sure enough – it was a spotted lantern fly. UGH. Shocked and appalled at the audacity of this intruder to actually hurl itself onto my body, my loathing overrode my initial, natural inclination not to kill things. Knowing they are extremely quick to evade capture or death, and before I even thought twice, I stomped on it.

They don’t belong here. They’re killing our trees.

Within the span of five minutes I was graced with visits from two diametrically opposing creatures. One that spreads life and one that destroys it.

Not sure what I make of that. I wish I didn’t have to kill anything, but sometimes we’re forced to make choices we wish we didn’t have to make. I’ve asked them to leave, but they’ve insisted on remaining and going after our trees. They’re invasive and persistent.

So…it’s from this:

Spotted Lantern Fly Nymphs – Photo: L. Weikel

To this:

The only good kind of Spotted Lantern Fly – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-444)

A Second, Scarier, Quarantine – Day 559

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Storm Clouds, Portal of Blue – Photo: L. Weikel

A Second, Scarier, Quarantine

Only one short year ago, I wrote about the Spotted Lantern Fly (SLF), an invasive species that is decimating forests in Pennsylvania and spreading into other states as well. In that post, I discussed the quarantine our state is under and the efforts being made to eradicate this pest. But what I found most stunning when I re-read that post a few minutes ago was my use of the word quarantine – and the weird reality of this second, scarier, quarantine we find ourselves in.

My discussion of the need for us to work together to keep the SLF from spreading seems almost sweetly naïve. I was entreating us all to work together to kill off a bug with no natural predators in order to protect our forests. And of course, I assumed we would.

Surely we would work together to fight against the spread of a ‘bug’ with no natural predators for the good of us all. Right?

Kick Off Summer Right

I don’t need to tell anyone reading this post that Memorial Day Weekend 2020 is on track to be one of the strangest any of us have experienced in our lifetimes. As a direct result of our behavior, it could very well turn out to be potentially the deadliest of holiday weekends as well.

Only time will tell if that relates to humans as well as Spotted Lantern Flies.

I’d prefer to think this is a worse time for SLFs than my fellow two-leggeds, but it will take a lot of work to make it so. That’s especially true if humans feel the need to be petulant and wilful. Especially if we demand that nothing in our lives change in order to keep each other and ourselves healthy and ‘bug-free.’

Do Our Part

There are two ways we can do our part to make things worse for Spotted Lantern Flies than ourselves and our fellow humans.

The first is to make a point to be vigilant when outside, as surely all of us will be this weekend – and throughout the summer – to be on the lookout for the bug we can see: the Spotted Lantern Fly.

Here is a great article I read today encouraging all of us to take up the cause I advocated last year.  As I said then, and as I reiterate now, it takes all of us working together to beat this scourge.

Of course, the second way we can make sure this summer is worse for the SLF than for us humans is to kill (or at least minimize the spread) of the bug we can’t see. We need to use our heads. Not be dumb. The research is out there; it shows just how virulently the Coronavirus spreads through water droplets and aerosol particles that come out of our mouths and noses through coughing, laughing, talking, and singing.

Wear a mask when out in public. Stay away (by at least six feet) from people generally  – but especially from people who don’t care enough about anyone but themselves to wear a mask.

This isn’t a case of freedom. Or liberty. Requiring people to wear masks when it is scientifically proven that masks can prevent up to 80% of the spread of Covid-19 is a simple matter of public health and welfare. The right to live in safety from the spread of a highly communicable disease (that can be carried by people who have no symptoms and may not even know they have it) ‘trumps’ the so-called ‘infringement’ on the right of anyone to refuse to wear a mask.

The rights are not equal. You do not have the right to kill me. Or my friends. Or my relatives. Or even those I may not like or do not know.

Kill the Bugs – Not Each Other

While I’m not a big fan of killing anything, truth be told, I would much prefer we all focus our attention on kicking the need for quarantines of any kind. Let’s kill those Spotted Lantern Flies. (Here’s another link to good info on this.) Let’s also kill the spread of the Coronavirus. Every time we wear a mask we do our part to starve the beast.

Call me naïve, but I do think we can work together to save us all. I’m not liking this second, scarier, quarantine. But let’s hope I’m not writing about a third quarantine next year at this time.

(T-552)