Hummingbird vs. Preying Mantis

 

Earlier this summer, I found a little preying mantis in the basement.  I chased him down and took him outside.  A couple of weeks later, I found a preying mantis hanging out by the hummingbird feeders.  I wonder if it was the same one?

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I saw the hummingbirds interacting with him.  I went out and shooed them away from him because I thought they were aggravating him.  The next day, I read my newest “Birds and Blooms” magazine while I was eating lunch, and I was horrified to find that PREYING MANTISES (what’s the plural?) EAT HUMMINGBIRDS!!!

I couldn’t get out the door fast enough!!!  No stinking preying mantis was going to eat MY hummingbirds!

I scooped him up in a plastic McDonald’s cup and marched his little butt to the woods.  Granted, it’s a straight shot back to the feeders, but this lot is 2 acres, and I hoped the distance would confuse him (I guess it did since he hasn’t been back).

Mylo had eaten the rest of my sandwich by the time I got back in.

(YouTube has some awful video of humming birds getting attacked.)

Blogger Tags: humming birds, preying mantis

Bats! I have bats!!!!!

Oh, my goodness!  I’m thrilled!  I have bats!!!!  I don’t think they're living in the bat house (I’ll have to go check today), but they’re in my backyard, and that’s just about as good.

Mosquitos love me.

I hate mosquitos.

Bats eat mosquitos.

Therefore, I love bats.

Also, a million years ago, I got to batsit an injured bat for an hour while his human taught a chemistry lab.  The little guy clung upside down to the inside of the collar on my tee-shirt.  All you could see of him was a funny little lump on my chest with a tiny row of toes clipped to my collar.  I’ve loved bats since then.

Anyway, I called my parents to let them know I had bats flying and diving and twirling and darting all over the back yard.  They didn’t answer the phone.  Turns out they were watching their own bat show in their backyard!  Last night was the first time they’ve spotted bats this year, too.

“My” Hummingbirds

I know I have at least four little hummingbirds that are visiting the feeders on my deck. 

Three males are constantly fighting.  I’ve decided to name two of them “Hurricane” and “Tornado” because they will destroy anything in the violent path of their fighting (if they don’t kill themselves first).

At least one of the others is a female.  And, of course, there could be multiples of any of those three.

But, here’s a bit of a mystery…  according to my many bird books, ruby-throated hummingbirds are the only ones found east of the Mississippi.  The fourth little guy that’s visiting is NOT a ruby-throated.  But he also doesn’t look like any of the hummingbirds in the field guides I have. 

He moves so fast, I haven’t gotten a good look at him, but I think he’s a tad bigger than the others.  He has a dark head, back and wings, but his entire breast is BRIGHT YELLOWISH GREEN.  I can usually hear the birds as they zoom to the feeders.  He’s louder than the other ones, and he seems more curious and braver because he gets closer to me, hovering around my shoulders and the back of my head, and following me around the yard.

Of course, every time I’ve seen him, I’ve been camera-less.  Figures.  I’ll keep trying to capture him.

Here’s one of the males I rescued a couple of weeks ago from certain death in the jaws of a dog.  His fighter buddy companion was able to fly away after hitting the side of the house and bouncing into the yard.  This little guy was a bit too stunned and it took him about 10 minutes to recover.

Mud Daubers

Well…  I feel quite crappy.  I grew up being scared to death of “mud daubers.”  I just found a couple of mud “tubes” on the brick wall of my front porch.  I doused it with half a can of wasp spray and took off running, even though, nothing flew out.

I let it sit for about an hour before using a hoe to scrape it off the wall.

This is what came out:

Huh?  What are these things?  Spiders???? 

So, I came inside to look up what else lives in a mud dauber-type house, and this is what I found on Wikipedia: 

Organ pipe mud daubers are also an exceedingly docile species of wasp, and generally pleasant to have around, as they serve to keep spider populations down. Stings to humans are very rare, bordering on non-existent, although if squeezed, they will sting in self-defense. At first, I thought:  “Great…  now I’ve killed a bunch of harmless baby mud daubers.”  But then I went back to Wikipedia and Google and started clicking through links about mud daubers.

No, these AREN’T mud dauber babies.  The adult female collects a bunch of spiders by stinging and paralyzing them.  She carries them back to the mud tube, stuffs as many spiders as she can into the tube, lays an egg, seals the tube shut and starts on another tube.

So, now I’m like: “Great…  I still killed a bunch of harmless baby mud dauber eggs, AND I’VE GOT FRIGGING UGLY SPIDERS SOMEWHERE AROUND MY HOUSE THAT LOOK LIKE THIS!”

So…  what are these nasty things?  Are they good or bad?

P.S.  The picture really is no good so I went out and scooped up a little baggieful of the nasty things. 

They have a bulbous body with a slightly pointed butt.  They are more smooth than hairy with long, spindly striped legs.  They are a funny grey-ish green color.  Some of them have a little bit of black detail (though one has much stronger black markings than the others).  Their coloring is messed up, though, from being mud dauber paralyzed and then doused with half a can of wasp spray.

After rooting around on Google images for awhile, all I’ve been able to determine is that *I think* it’s a member of the Theridiidae family (?).  Ick.  Spiders give me the eebie jeebies.

Feed me!!! Feed me!!! Feed me!!!

 

Bless their little hearts!  The little guys are so ugly they’re cute!

I think they’re house finches.  I found them as I was cutting back a rouge sapling that was sprouting at the base of the little tree off the deck.  I heard their chirping, but didn’t realize how close I was to them until I saw the mama bird frantically trying to distract me.

It's June... Do these trees look like they've grown together to you???

Seriously...  The landscaper guy told me these little guys would go through a massive growth spurt, and by June, would be completely filled in so I could take down the landscaping fabric I have stapled on the fence.

Yeah right.  I'm NOT paying for these dumb trees.  If he wants them back, he's gonna have to come dig 'em up and fill in the holes.  And furthermore, I'M not going to be the one to initiate the phone call to have this taken care of.  I wrote him a letter and told him I'd wait to see if the trees filled in by June.  Let's just see what kind of customer service the guy has.  Will he step up to the bat and take care of the problem or just pretend he's forgotten about me? (I'm betting on the latter).

And...  the ground finally dried up enough for Brian to dig out the drainage pipes the landscapers damaged when they planted the trees.  They'd knocked the box/diverter thingie off the ends of the pipes so the water was just gushing out at the end of the pipes and not traveling further down the back of the property as it should have been.  I haven't even been able to mow alongside these stupid trees because it was too squishy, and I was afraid I would get the mower stuck in the mud! 

Brian dug out a new 50' trench over the weekend and put in new black pipe to move the water along

The Bat House and the Purple Martin Houses

I got a bat house several weeks ago, and Brian and I got it "planted" a couple of weekends ago. I didn't want to put it in concrete because I'm supposed to move it around until I'm able to attract bats. I have no idea if we put it in a good spot or not???

It survived straight up for about 3 days and then it rained and the ground got so wet, it stood at a diagonal until last weekend.

Don was nice enough to help me dig holes for the bat house and for the two purple martin houses I bought last week. We rooted around in Lowe's until we found chain link fence posts are the perfect size to slip the triangular matin house poles and the round bat house pole into. We (Don) cut the posts to 24" then we (Don) dug holes deeper than that to bury the posts into. Then we (Don) poured dry concrete around that. That way, the posts sit below ground so if I have to move any of the houses, I won't have anything sticking above ground to have to mow around.

The martin houses were easier to put together than the poles! Actually one of the poles was missing the snaps so I had to call the manufacturer to have more sent.

The houses are SOOOOOO stinking cute! I got them at Tractor Supply. Here's Iggy Pop posing with them:

And here's one of them in place:

And here's the bat house.  I SO hope I attract some bats.  I think they're adorable (and they eat lots of bugs).

The Landscaping Saga Continues...

When the landscaper worker dug the holes to plant the trees along the fence, he planted the two trees in the middle a couple of feet away from the fence.  I asked why, and he told me there was some kind of drain pipe in the way.

Well guess what?  He'd planted the trees directly infront of the pipe which turns out to be the runoff for the sump pump and downspouts!  The sump pump filled, but couldn't pump out.

I called and told them to get somebody out here IMMEDIATELY to dig up the trees.  Nobody showed up and nobody showed up and nobody showed up.  I went out and dug up the damn trees myself.  As soon as I started scraping mud out of the way, water just started shooting out!  First I was pissed because I got my new garden shoes MUDDY, but then I hurt my back trying to drag water-laden 6-foot tall trees out of the ground so I was even MORE PISSED.

AND THEN...  When I stomped back inside the Nursery had called to find out if it was a "one-man or two-man job."  I called back and asked them what kind of JOKE that was.  When somebody calls and says "I have water in my basement because the trees you planted have blocked the sump pump run-off drains, you're not supposed to call back an hour later and ask home many people to send out!"  I was assured someone would be coming out immediately to finish digging the trees out and to take them away.

They laid on their sides in the mud for three days until I stopped by the nursery and told the guy to COME GET THE FRIGGING TREES.  My buddy the Landscaper Dude told me he didn't know anything about it.  What an ass.

The Landscaper's Response:

Here are the landscaper's excuses:

1.  I didn't tell him what I wanted.
2.  I'd misunderstood what he told me:  what I wanted wasn't possible unless he planted 20-year-old mature trees.

Excuse #1 pissed me off the most.  HONESTLY???  I asked him if he was SERIOUSLY telling me I gave him permission to plant whatever the hell HE wanted in my yard?

That's when he gave me excuse #2--which indicates he DID understand what I told him wanted.

Next, he told me the trees would grow together and make the solid block I wanted.  He'd calculated a 3-foot planting distance between each tree, but now that the extra trees are added they would grow together much quicker--within the next two months.  He asked if I could wait until the beginning of June.

When I got home, I realized the idiot was lying AGAIN!  My fence is only 68-feet long (which accounts for the nineteen 3.5-foot wide dwarf trees that were supposed to be planted).  Just the EMPTY PLANTING SPACE between 19 trees takes up FIFTY-SEVEN FEET!  That only leaves NINE FEET of space have planted nineteen trees????? 

I got the bill on Thursday.  I'll pay for the front landscaping, but I'm NOT paying for the trees until June--and only then IF they've grown together as he says they're going to.  If they don't, he's gonna be digging them up and hauling them away.

I'm Disappointed with the Landscaping

Hmmm...  I HATE confrontation, but I'm gonna have to tell the landscaper how disappointed I am with the arborvitae that are planted along the fence.

These were (ARE) my requirements:  I need an immediate SOLID screen to block my dogs from seeing and barking at the neighbors. 
We discussed a couple of options.  Burning bushes would have been great except they drop their leaves.  He suggested the arborvitae--it was a short chubby one that would get 5-6' tall and was about 3-1/2' wide.  They were expensive at $100/tree, and he stepped off how many I'd need (19).  More than I wanted to spend, but making sure the neighbors don't hate me is that important to me.

Well...  When the guys spaced out the 19 pyramid arborvitae, they only spanned HALF THE DISTANCE of the fence! So, I called Mr. Landscaper Dude and told him how far the trees went along the fence.  One of the workers stepped out how many more I'd need:  SIXTEEN.  WTF?  Lucky me...  he had that many, and he'd send them right out.

Then I checked the tag out on one of the trees, and it said this particular arborvitae would reach 20-30' tall and 5-8' wide.  That is definitely NOT what he told me.  I was pissed so I asked one of the workers to call him and find out if these were the right trees.  The response:  somebody printed the wrong info on the tag.

At first I thought "well at least I'm getting the right tree."  But...  I can understand over- or underestimating 1 or 2 trees, but NOT 16!

I got online and checked out the description of a pyramidial arborvitvae.  Guess what:  they're supposed to mature to 20-30' and 5-8' wide.  Was the idiot LYING to me or does he really not know about these trees?

So...  to kind of fix the problem, the workers started spacing the trees further apart.  Now I have trees that are spaced very close together to the middle of the fence, and then trees that are spaced wider from the middle to the end.

#1.  if I end up keeping these trees, they're spaced entirely too close to mature at 5-8' wide.
#2.  yet, the trees are spaced too wide apart for me to remove the ugly landscaping fabric we have stapled to the fence as a temporary block
#3.  the trees need full sun, but now they are on the north side of the fence with the sun blocked because of the landscaping fabric
#4.  I still have to keep the ugly landscaping fabric in place SO THERE'S NO FRIGGIN' POINT IN HAVING ANY TREES PLANTED THERE!

Ultimately, I KNOW we were on the same page when he left here becuase there is NO WAY I would have let him leave here with me agreeing to pay almost $2000 for trees that didn't do what I wanted them to do!

I'm gonna go visit the guy this morning.

What is this plant?

This is a little plant that the landscapers dug up yesterday to put in the new plantings.  I hadn't paid any attention to it because I thought it just a dead little stump so I was thrilled to see one full-blown flower, several leaves and a scattering of buds.  I want to replant it.  What is it?



here's what the poor little stump looks like

 


double pink petals, about 2" across

 

Later...  Rhododendron???  Maybe "azuma-kukami"?

But...  to me, it looks way too flat-backed to be a trumpet shape, and there's only a single thingie coming out of the middle (stamen? pistil?).

Guess why this lattice (aka "The Lattice Monster") is on the ground?

Because Annie stuck her head in one of the holes and ripped the damn thing off the deck trying to get loose!

She freaked out.  Her SCREAMS freaked me out.  The other dogs freaked out.  Oh, no...  she didn't just do a little yelp--she was screaming, non-stop at the top of her lungs.  It was not pretty. 

I was mostly worried about her breaking her legs rather than her choking to death because she was getting them tangled in the holes.  It took quite a bit of struggling with her to pull her head loose.  Bless her heart.  Afterwards, she was dripping blood all over the deck, but I couldn't find where the blood was coming from--at least not until I realized it was coming from me!!!  Oh, yeah...  she bit the crap out of me twice.  My thumb is sporting one really good puncture wound at the tip and partially under my nail, a nice little dent in said nail (which her tooth almost went through!) and two smaller little ouches (which are, of course, right in the crease of my knuckle so I get to enjoy the hurt every time I bend my thumb).

Thankfully, she's fine this morning.

Landscaping!!!

Wa-hoo!  The nursery called late yesterday afternoon, and my landscaping will be delivered today!  I only "ordered" it (is that what you do when you buy all new landscaping--order it???) a week and a half ago so I didn't expect to get it this fast!

The blueprint is designed with yellow- and deep purple-colored plants (the red kind of purple--not blue purple).  The landscaper guy was really nice in how he worded his thought process in choosing the colors:  "these colors will stand out against the "muted" colors of your house.  (He's right, but I think pretty much ANY colors would stand out against the "muted" blond brick with putty trim).  The only plants I'm not sure about are these funny little yellow shrubs that look like the McDonald's Fry Guys.

My little weather station says to expect rain in the next 12-24 hours.  I'm gonna ask them to put the 19 arboretum (sp?) along the fence first.  Making sure the nekkid-neighbors don't hate me because the idiot dogs bark like maniacs every time they (the nekkid-neighbors) step outside is more important than making the front of the house look pretty.

I took some before pics yesterday afternoon.  I'll post them along with the afters.

YAY!

The receipts...

I get a giggle now when I'm updating QuickBooks:

• receipts for my purchases have changed dramatically from Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Craft Warehouse to Lowe's, Home Depot, Lumber 84
• my book purchases have shifted from quilting and paper crafts to all kinds of home improvement books (will post reviews of my favorites at some point)
• my expired "PaperCrafts," "Creating Keepsakes," and "American Patchwork & Quilting" magazine subscriptions have been replaced with "Family Handyman" (yes!  I am now officially a Family Handyman!), "Birds & Blooms," "FreshHome" and BHG's "Do It Yourself"

This blog...

I created this blog several days ago, and then ended up spending waaaaaaay too much time trying to find a cute little house to use as a header! I'll work on that later; I'd rather start posting!

I'll be typing about the many projects I've already completed and all the ones I still need to do for my new house and yard--as a way to toot my own horn ("look at what I did!!!"), and perhaps be an inspiration for others. This home improvement business is actually FUN, and it seriously gives me a wonderful sense of satisfaction to realize I am able to do a little of this and that.