Have you ever heard of a Woolly Bear? We found this little guy on our Wandering Jew, munching away. So, we collected him along with some soil, leaves, sticks and some of his treats he was dining on and put them in a jar. He's been fun to watch.

It took a little research to find out what it was. Butterfly caterpillars are fairly easy to identify, but moth caterpillars are not as well-known. This one in particular, we found, is a Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar, nicknamed Woolly Bear for his cute appearance.

Some caterpillars are poisonous, so be careful about picking them up with your fingers. A general rule for caterpillars is to never touch the fuzzy ones. This one is not poisonous, but those are not my fingers either. :-) I borrowed this picture from another site.Do you see the red stripes between segments? That's the clue we needed to identify this critter. He is still a caterpillar now. When he molts, he leaves behind fuzzy black balls. It's cute. We hope to actually see him make it to his moth stage. Isn't this a pretty picture?If you want a little more information on this interesting creature, here's the site I gather my information from: http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek020608.html

We have some neat bird stories to share next.

I love our garden, but so does something else... APHIDS! Wow, those tiny guys are a pain. The picture below is what the back of many of our cantaloupe leaves look like.
We've learned so much about gardening, including the fact that we have much more to learn. Did you know that ants farm these little creeps? Yep. They carry the little bundles of joy around and leave them in a nice location along the veins of the leaves. In return, they excrete a sweet substance that ants love. Next thing you know, your leaves are being sucked dry.

BUT... God did have a plan (surprise, surprise!). Aphids have many predators. One of my favorites is the ladybug.
Here are a few more that I discovered that like to dine on aphids. This is a Green Lacewing. I was thrilled to see some in my garden... along with their eggs!
Here's another... it's a Green Lynx Spider. The only problem is, they like to eat honey bees and other spiders, too. But, I figure they aphids are easier to catch, so they'll get more of those than the pollinators.
This is a predator that I've been wondering about. I just found out that it's a Long-Legged Fly. They're very pretty. Best of all through, they eat small insects! Yay!

Back to the ladybugs... because we all love them. So, how do we attract more ladybugs to our gardens? You can buy and release them in your garden, but how do you know that they won't all go straight over to the Jones' house next door? The answer is... we must create a happy home for them. Not only do they eat aphids, but they require a source of pollen and water. Who'da thought? (I didn't) And for goodness sake, no poison!

The most popular flowers they are attracted to have umbrella shaped flowers such as fennel, dill, cilantro, caraway, angelica, tansy, wild carrot & yarrow. Other plants that also attract ladybugs include cosmos (especially the white ones), coreopsis, and scented geraniums, dandelions.

I spray a little water over the leaved of my plants when I water just to make it plentiful. Next year, I'll plan on planting some of these type of plants around the garden. We only have two resident ladybugs that we're aware of right now. They're both Asian type ladybugs. We haven't seen a native nine-spotted ladybug yet.

There are many different types of ladybugs. All of them are beneficial. There is some concern that our native ladybug is disappearing, though. You can help Cornell University with their Lost Ladybug Project by going here: http://www.lostladybug.org/.

In case you aren't aware, these guys are also ladybugs. They're good... don't freak out! These ladybugs are in their larval stage and will become much more graceful at the end of their cycle.

Have fun with your garden! If you have any bug tips or hints, please share!!!

In the past month, we have found a couple of caterpillars that we decided to investigate. The first one we found was on my tomato plant. Bad bug! Well, he was so cute, we just put him in a butterfly box and fed him tomato leaves. He was a happy camper!



Sadly, I found out a little too late that this guy in particular needed about 2-3" of soil to pupate in. We could tell he was in search of something. He wasn't eating anymore, so we knew it was time for him to pupate. I looked it up and found that they need 1 part dirt, 1 part sand and 2 parts peat moss. Oops... We did our best to fill the bottom in time, but he didn't make it.

Well, this would have been the rest of the story. Tomato hornworms have a voracious appetite for... guess what? Tomato plants. So, it's good to get them out of the garden.

Once they have transformed, they become what many call a Hummingbird Moth because they are huge and fly around like hummingbirds.



Here's a neat site that shows their transformation.
http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/lepidopt/sphingid/ManducaSexta.htm

Stay tuned for the next caterpillar we are studying.

This is a little unusual for my blog. But, I wanted to share a new search engine with you that makes you money. No kidding! I've waited for a few weeks to share this just to make sure it really works. Money Saving Mom gave me the idea.

Here's how it works:
I have a swagbucks link in the sidebar to the left on my blog (or below). Click on that to sign up for swagbucks. Then, start using it to do you searches. I get credit when you sign up through my link and you get credit for searches. You get random bucks usually daily and sometimes more than once a day. AND, I have not gotten one junk mail from signing up. Promise!

When you get 45 swagbucks, you can redeem it for an Amazon gift card or even a Paypal gift card. Try it out! I just applied my first $$$ to an Amazon order I will be placing. Cool!