3351 Mites

Monday, September 5, 2011

"Friendship is being there when someone's feeling low and not being afraid to kick them."
-- Randy K. Milholland --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I had three beautiful huge rose-pink impatiens pots on the porch. They were attacked and devastated by spider mites.

When it came time to put the porch plants in the garage to protect them from Irene, I dumped those pots down the bank in the back, so they wouldn't infect the other plants.

I wondered where they got the mites. Those things are tiny. They don't exactly walk around looking for good plants. Usually they arrive on a new plant, infected in the crowded environment of a nursery and will spread to any plant within a few inches of the infected plant. The impatiens were clean all summer. Where did the sudden infestation of spider mites come from?

I have replaced the impatiens with mums, better for the fall anyway. Today I was sitting on the porch, and saw a bee land on a geranium blossom, and a light bulb went off.

I'll bet the mites hitchhiked in on bees!

-------------------------------

I mowed the lawn today, and when I mowed past the bank, I saw a splash of rose-pink a few feet down the slope.

The impatiens.

They actually look healthier now than they did on the porch.

I wished them happiness.
.

3231 Carpenters

Sunday, April 24, 2011

My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast,
would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.
-- W. Somerset Maugham --

-------------------------------------------------------

When my porch glider was delivered last fall, the woman said to cover it and let it cure over the winter and then finish it this summer. It was built last summer, and should dry for a year before being painted or varnished.

I may have to get on that pretty soon. There was a pair of carpenter bees (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Urban/carpenterbees.htm), a male and a female, out there a few minutes ago, inspecting it carefully. If the bees are interested in it, it's probably pretty well cured, and I'd better get some coating on it before they start drilling a hole. Once they decide the glider is suitable, they'll be very hard to discourage.

They are pleasant bees, actually. Won't hurt people. But their nest tunnels weaken wood.
.