Critters currently destroying my belongings.

Hi, Critter Lovers!

I hope this post finds you all enjoying the first warm breezes of spring!



Unfortunately, with warmer weather comes the renewal of horrifying insects:

This 'pede was above my kitchen sink on Saturday morning. Thankfully it was only 1/4 inch long.

Before we discuss critter destruction, I'd like to show off our "new" couch!


Stella did not mind the old couch, which was perched on duct-taped-together phone books, even if it was getting holey.


The first incidence of critter warfare was a bug attack on two of my houseplants. But was a dual attack; two different plants, two different locations, and two different bugs!

My dear Mama bought me a lovely ivy when she visited in November:


Unfortunately the plant has been fading all winter. I should have taken action sooner, for I noticed tiny spider webs covering the plant.


Upon further research, I've discovered the culprit: Two Spotted Spider mites, or Tetrahychus urticae. These tiny spiders have been sucking the chlorophyll out of the formerly lovely ivy, causing it to wither and drop leaves!

(Actual size, .05 mm)

The female spiders have been laying up to 20 eggs a day underneath the leaves. To remedy the situation, I've sprayed the plant with bug spray, but I think a more effective treatment would be to wash the plant with a special soap. The dry and warm climate of my house contributed to the spiders' success. Maybe I should try misting it, or I could just throw it away, as it could be spreading spider mites to other plants.

The next attacker struck my music studio. I'm so thankful to have windows for the first time, so I went ahead and bought some plants to decorate the space.

(Note the cool fountain made by my Father-in-law and the thrift store painting!)

Why, what are these white fuzzy bugs on my plant?


Could it be...a Mealy Bug? Pseudococcus longispinus is covered with a white, waxy coating that protects it from moisture loss. These guys love hiding in the nooks and crooks of plants, as well as in soil and pot crevices. Using a pointy mouthpart called a stylet, mealy bugs suck the moisture out of plants. Their toxic saliva harms the leaves, causing them to drop. Meanwhile, they excrete a sticky substance called "honeydew" which can encourage mold growth.

In the following photo you can see the mealy bug's long tails.


Apparently the long tailed species gives birth to live young! Even better.

To control this infestation I've been manually removing the fuzzy bugs.

The final destruction of my property is on a much larger scale:


Oh! Perhaps the gnawing sound I heard upstairs was only a squirrel, EATING OUR HOUSE!



Thankfully, R fixed the fascia with some wire mesh and that foam stuff.


The squirrels have further "trimmed" the foam since I took the photograph. I would think the squirrels would be thankful for all of the birdseed I've provided over the harsh, cold winter. Ungrateful bastards!

I'm looking forward to hearing of your Spring critter encounters!

love,
Wendell!

Randy rando

Man, December has been a little slim on the posts. Might be the only slim thing about December, har har har! The semester finished up nicely last Wednesday, and this week and last I've been working a job involving text books, shelves, and my arms. I'll let you put those three together in your mind.

In order to quell my $5 Footlong guilt, tonight I took Stella on her first run with me! We went just over three miles. Currently she is sleeping on the floor next to the computer!


Here's Stella in her winter coat:


We found a cool Martingale collar from Canada:

It's purple with gold filigree, if you can't tell. I figured it would be appropriate for a both a princess-dog and a Viking fan (R).

Sick of cute dogs? Here are some alternatives:

A spider hanging out in our office.

A lasagna lovingly made by R:


R is the lasagna chef in our family, and made two different types last Saturday. The above photo is of the Cook's Illustrated "Lasagna Bolognese", for which he reduced one billion cups of whole milk and white wine into a delicate bechemel, food processed veggies into tiny particles, cooking them together with ground meats; then let the fillings cool, shredded a lot of parmesan and carefully assembled the lasagna.

The other kind of lasagna is R's specialty; purchased sauce, lots of shredded mushrooms, peppers and zucchini, crumbled Italian sausage, garlic and basil-infused ricotta, topped with plenty of mozzarella and some pepperoni.

Um, can you guess which one tasted better?! Yes, it was R's own version. It's always good to try new recipes, methinks. Especially if I just get to try the finished result!

Hopefully I'll post again before Christmas; that is if I survive a "brief" trip to the mall this weekend.

xooxo
Wendell!

Minnesota State Fair/Bratfest/Critters of the Motherland

Happy September!

I hope you all had a spectacular weekend. Shout-outs to everyone who has their first day of school tomorrow, especially PG, who starts her doctorate at the U!

R and I had a marathon of fun adventures, starting with our annual pilgrimage to the MN State Fair on Thursday night.

Every year there is a featured weird food at the State Fair, including such things as Hot-Dish on a Stick, Deep Fried Candy Bars, Pizza on a Stick, etc. This year it was Chocolate Covered Bacon. Heck yes we tried it:

As one could expect with a combination of two perfect foods, Chocolate Covered Bacon was delicious. The salty/chocolaty quality reminded me of dipping a french fry into a chocolate shake, except with a smokiness that was a little weird. These so-called "Pig Lickers" were pretty rich, though.

The animal barns were being cleaned last Thursday, and unfortunately we couldn't see any miniature goats as they were all being replaced. We did attend the "Miracle of Birth" barn, however.


Can you see an umbilical cord hanging down from one of the baby pigs? They were so tiny.

These two larger piglets appear to be snuggling, but in reality they were biting each other.

Lambkins:



The baby calf.

These ducklings had their own swimming pools!


On Friday we traveled to my hometown in Central Wisconsin. As usual we were pampered and fed heartily. R and I spent every evening at my sister L's and her boyfriend CC's rural estate. L and I went on a wildlife search AND ONE OF MY CRITTER GOALS WAS FINALLY REALIZED.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The salamander.


Unlike the tiger salamanders we found in the sandy basement of my aunt's house, this one was all black. Here is a tiger salamander:



Here he is in his hole, under a board leaning up against CC's garage.

How we loved this gentle creature! But, I'm having trouble identifying this salamander. Could it be a blue-spotted salamander, a native of Wisconsin?

I think we would have noticed the spots, even though our salamander was covered with sand.

Or it could have been another WI salamander, the spotted variety.


We also saw one of these guys:

A gray tree frog.

And possibly a frog that is endangered in Wisconsin, a Blanchard's Cricket Frog:

We didn't have our camera last night when I spotted this guy on the outside of the garage window. He was green with distinctive copper eyes and a matching copper stripe along the side of his head. Adorbs!

Arachnids were present as well:
There were tons of daddy long legs everywhere!

I also spotted one of these guys:

Unfortunately she was just zooming through the treetops, not up close!

Close to my hometown is the largest one day festival in Wisconsin, the Harrisville Bratfest!
R had never attended this venerable event, so we hastened there, seeking brats and adventure!


The brat and R's commemorative bottle coozy! Notice as well his new camouflage hat.

L and CC in action!



For some reason I do not recall watching a tractor pull before.

Side Note: The tractor pull track is directly adjacent to the Lion's Club where R and I had our wedding reception!

Trucks pulled too:

The plume of smoke was very dramatic! And carcinogenic!

I highly recommend attending the Bratfest. Although tickets to the tractor pull were $10 (kids get in free) the menu is quite reasonable:


Hope you had a great weekend too!

Lovies,
Wendell!

Critters in your house/Spiders

Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have wonderful plans for the holiday. R and I are having a sleepover at the B homestead tonight! That should be fun, and I'm sure I'll be able to post some adorable photos of our nephew, Baby B! It's great spending time with family, but one of my favorite Thanksgivings was spent with my grad school friends, eating a gourmet spread and hanging out all day.

Currently my entire ass-leg is on fire from the "Straight Up Strength" class I took at the gym yesterday.

It's a big week for Critter News!

Squirrels: The Revolution Begins.

An innocent goat is killed!

Related to today's critter entry; a arachnid larger than a person!

So, what critters are currently in your house? Here's a photo collection from our own apartment building.


Dead millipedes in the front entryway. I think they've been killed by spiders; but what are the millipedes doing inside anyway? I wonder if they eat tiny plant particles indoors or something.


Some Asian beetles, hiding in this paint chip next to the upper landing light fixture. Don't they look cute and cozy?


One of the few remaining box elder bugs in our stairwell. I hope he didn't notice this:


Eeee! The box elder bug graveyard on the carpet of the landing! (Our apartment does not have a caretaker, can you tell? Also, can you guess who is the only person who has been vacuuming the stairwell? Um, not lately.)

On to the Critter Feature: Spiders. Yesterday, there was a lovely spider in the shower with me; I wish I would have taken a picture because today it has disappeared. Like some of my other entries, arachnids are a huge category and I'll just present an overview today. R and I like spiders, and usually allow them to share our apartment; they might get squished if they are crawling across the comforter or something.


This sac spider was my guest in the shower yesterday, I think.

Within the Arachnid Class, spiders are part of the Order Araneae, which include scorpions, mites and ticks. Scientists have placed 40,000 species into 111 families, but think there may be 150,000 more species yet to be identified or discovered!

Spiders are physically different from insects in that they have two segments instead of three. In spiders, the head and thorax are fused together, which results in what is called a cephalothorax. The thin "waist" of most spiders is called a pedicle, and allows it to move freely in all directions. Unlike the faceted compound eyes of insects, spiders have eyes made of a single lens. Most spiders have eight eyes, but some have six, four or two. Depending on the nature of a spider, they will either have very poor or very sharp vision. As you can expect, jumping spiders and net-casting spiders need excellent eyesight to pounce on their prey! Some web-making spiders rely more on the vibration of their web than the visual scanning of potential meals.

Here is a cute jumping spider, common in the Midwest:

I see six eyes, what about you?!

Spiders have varied ways of breathing. Some have what are called book lungs, because of their folded appearance. These folded layers, probably evolved from gills, allow for oxygen absorption. Some have a tracheal system, where openings along the body, called spiracles, allow oxygen (moisture, etc) to enter the arachnid and reach the tissues using tubes called tracheoles. Hemolyph, the blood of arachnids, doesn't carry oxygen, which some scientists think limit the size of the spiders. (Hmmm, check out the news headline above for crazy arachnid size!)

Spider nooky is very interesting! A male spider will build a small platform of web and ejaculate onto it. Then he places special bulbed pedipelps (small legs) into the sperm and sets off to find a female! Again, depending on the eyesight of the species, he might go into a complicated mating ritual (wolf spiders or jumping spiders) to let the female know he is not a candidate for dinner! Some males even offer the females a morsel, like a dead fly for example, to quell her hunger before he approaches! Once the male has safely approached the female, he places his pedipelp inside her epigyne, or female opening. The sperm is then stored until it comes in contact with the eggs. There are many species of spiders that engage in cannibalism after mating, most famously black widow spiders, but sometimes a male black widow will live on the female's net for several days after mating. Scientists think the death of the male after mating is good for the species, as the males don't help raise the babies anyway and at least he can provide a good meal for the pregnant female. After all, she is carrying his DNA.

A giant house spider in the W family ancestral bathroom:


Spiders have three steps in their life cycle; embryo, larval and nympho-imaginal; during the latter the spider enters into sexual maturity.

All spiders are predators and most bite their prey immediately upon contact. The venom either liquifies the interior of the prey or paralyzes it with a neurotoxin. Spiders mostly can eat only in a liquid form, but some spiders with especially strong chelicerae (fangs) will chew edible parts of an insect. Some spiders can spit their venom! There are about 200 species of spiders that can harm humans, but many more that can cause a painful bite.

The main feature of the spiders abdomen are its spinnerets, which spin the silk. Spider webs take on many forms:
* Funnels
* Trapdoors
* Tangled mazes
* Diving bells
* Burrows
* The standard spiral web

Spiders live all over the world, from the Arctic, to my shower, jungles, caves and the highest mountains. The largest species are from the tarantula family, which can grow 3.5 inches long with a legspan of 10 inches; the tiniest species are only 1 millimeter in size.


A close-up of the giant house spider.

Fun fact: Daddy longlegs, or harvestmen, are part of the Opiliones family of arachnids, and contrary to the popular wive's tale, actually don't have venom. They actually chew their food, and are more omnivorous than other spiders. FYI.

Well, have you learned about spiders? I know some of you are scared of them, and I definitely don't want one to bite me, but they are excellent bug killers. I keep them around my crib in the hopes that they will kill one of these:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Pumpkin pie,
Wendell!