Backyard
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Culex
“Nymph, in thy (whining) orisons be all my sins remembered.” It was a tough night on the skeeter front. Approximately eight bites amongst the two of us, and so far three mosquitoes, including this early afternoon kill. Hard to tell here, but the eyes have a blue-green iridescence to them. Possibly the southern house mosquito,…
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Aedes albopitcus
Though locked in ceaseless struggle with these dipterous beasts — mid-air slapdown palm smear wins this round, but I couldn’t take pic with my left hand — vectors of dengue fever, dog heartworm, eastern equine encephalitis, West Nile virus, and infuriating itchiness (finger and toe joints the worst!), I can’t help but admire them for…
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Hairy Larva
As much as we love the great outdoors here at Backyard and Beyond, we don’t neglect the mysteries of the interior. Wildness is also here, inside, with us and amongst us.A tiny larval something or other in the bathroom, using the edge of the tiled wall as its path. I could not help but think…
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Thorn Apple
At Tsankawi, our guide pointed out the distant Datura, flowering with large, gaudy, trumpet-shaped flowers. These were the largest blooms for miles around in the arid region. Jimsonweed is another name for it, and we have it here in Brooklyn. Some snuck into the Back 40. This is its ripening seedpod. Beware: the plant is…
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Waiting for me in the warmth of the hallway.I plead self-defense.
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Orbweaver Requiem
I returned to the house Sunday afternoon to find Saturday’s spider on the floor. A single silk line connected my desk chair to the desk. Brooklyn Invertebrate CSI: The rear of the abdomen looks deflated, while the front is grotesquely distended. Parasite? Disease?
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Six ways of looking at a spider
While I was putting together yesterday’s post and eating three different kinds of New York state grapes from the farmer’s market, I noticed something alive in the middle of the air under my desk. It was slowly descending. And then rather more quickly ascending. She tried several times to crawl up onto the top of…
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Inside and Outside
I read somewhere recently that we, all of us, are always within two or three feet of a spider. There are untold billions of them in the world, and some of them do like the comforts of a less an immaculately kept house. This is one of (at least) two species that likes my bathroom.Right…
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Chilling Flashback
The Back 40 im Schnee, January 27, 2011. As it’s forecast to top 100F today — not including the heat index bump of broiling tarmac, radiating concrete, greenhouse glass, and over-stressed generators fighting it all and thus burning even more coal to help heat things up even more — this one’s for you, Midwest/East, and…
Backyard and Beyond 