ESPatch

"Rat-Tailed Toe-Biters"

ESPatch Jan 2, 2009 0 comments

A strange title for an entry?
It only gets worse…much worse.

The first part of this post deals with a couple of creatures so disturbing and hideous they are reserved for nightmares, phobias and really cheap horror movies. These are the creatures with snapping tails, the roach-like and the gilled, think black lagoon, they could already be on your property as I write!
Some of them were in mine.
So be warned, if you are afraid of all things gross and grubby, you may find the next few images slightly troublesome.

I am referring to the abominations that we all immediately want to perform the highland fling on, when and wherever we encounter them…but wait, as it turns out some of these aquatic, squirming chaps are not so bad after all…remember these home coming queens, from my last post?
Well thanks to fellow blogger “metamorphosa” who first identified these aquatic rats for me, I am still squirming, but not nearly quite as much.

As it turns out, this unusual-looking insect larva, is the larva of a rat-tailed maggot, (not the prettiest name, I know)…as if I haven’t had to deal with more than my fair share of “real” rat issues last year. I now apparently have the equatic version of them in my rain water collection tank…well that’s just great!
Actually as it turns out it really is!

This insect larva belongs to a group of flies known as syrphid flies. Syrphids are also known as flower flies or hover flies. They mimic bees or wasps and are very common on flowers and plant foliage. Despite their threatening appearance, all syrphid flies are harmless to people and are actually beneficial because they help pollinate plants. While feeding, the larva raise their long, posterior respiratory tube vertically to the surface in order to breathe (shudders). Often all that can be seen of them is a group of breathing tubes sticking upwards from the mud and rotting leaves at the bottom of stagnant pools. which stands to reason as my water collection tank has a bunch of leaves in the bottom of it.

This tube is normally about 3/4 inches long, but the insect can telescope it out to severaltimes the length of its body (longer shudders, followed by some small involuntary mouth movements).

This one was taken recently on my copper canyon daisey.

It is thought that the mimicry protects hover flies from falling prey to birds and other insectivores which avoid eating true wasps because of their sting. However a flower fly and a wasp can be distinguished by counting the wings. The flies have two wings, and the wasps and bees have four. Hover flies get their name from their characteristic flight pattern of hovering nearly still, then darting a short distance very rapidly only to start hovering again, a pattern not seen in the wasps and bees they mimic.

About 6,000 species in 200 genera have been described.
Syrphidae are common throughout the world and can be found on every continent except Antarctica!

And the Toe-Biters? Do you really want to know? While I was trying to identify the Syrphidae lava wwwrockrose.blogspot.com brought up these rather fine chaps, roaches with swim fins. (Excessive shuddering, followed by slight knee jerking action and exaggerated mouth clacking!)
Toe nippers is what they are, naturally I was obliged to look into these nasty Michael Phelps as well!

Belostomatidae is a family of insects known as giant water bugs or colloquially as “Toe Biters.”
They occur worldwide and are popular food in Thailand…mmm, yes I ‘ll have two please waiter, medium rare!

No, No, No – more! Here is a male toe-biter with eggs on its back (Brrrr) This one stands about 12 inches high. (just kidding)! These are large bugs though.

Toe biters are aquatic bugs found in running water. They can often be found clinging motionless to objects at the bottom of a stream, where they wait for a chance to catch prey. They feed mostly on aquatic insects, tadpoles, and small fish, rather than toes. (Audible sigh) They can fly, but do so mostly at night.

No need for a sci-fi reference for this one!

“And now for something completely different.”

More moss boulders and scaling some more decomposed granite?
This sight means only three things:

1) On hearing the “Custom Stone” truck pull up into my driveway,
my wheelbarrow immediately decides to deflate its one and only tire.

2) I am starting prep-work on my middle bed.

3) Advil will shortly need to be administered.

So I dug this “moonscape” down about a foot and a half, (remember it was full of trash and treasure) then filled it with gravel. It stayed like this for quite some time, while I contemplated what I was going to do with it. I had many ideas from a swath of blue dune grass to lavender to a small swimming pool, ahh perhaps one day.
Anyway for the time being it is going to be a larger version of this bed:

Why? Because this little bed complete with larva rocks, and a multitude
of succulents, stone crop and eccheveria, spread fast, and was
constantly full of suprises!
Anyway back to this new larger bed…

Many, many wheelbarrow loads later, I had a level bed of granite
on top of the pebbles . I then started on some creative “moundage”.
I had the idea of a crescent mound in the foreground that followed the
curve of the boulders, and perhaps an island mound further back.

It is quite hard to see the undulation in these shots, I can’t believe I about to say this but “I needed more sun” for contrast. I top dressed the granite with sharp cactus soil with perlite and organic matter. I mostly avoid “Miracle Grow” products but this one does work extremely well to kick start tiny cactus and succulent plants. I will now let the top dressing slowly permeate the granite until I am ready for planting after the last frost. I found that a 2/3rd granite to 1/3rd cactus mix is in the right ballpark. All I will do to finish this up is to introduce some lava rock boulders and after planting, on with some recycled tumbled glass! I am planning to plant gopher plants all the way around the boulder edge.

Gopher plant Euphorbia biglandulosa. I hope this will offer a spiraling look
all around this border…it is going to take quite a few of them!
Now, where is that Advil.

A few more Winter observations:

Can you believe there are still flies on what is left of my

Japanese Fatsia? Fatsia japonica
Here is a detail of one of it’s leaves.

A combination of variegation. Various ivy’s, variegated ginger and
an Agave “americana” variegata. Great winter foliage color.

Deep in the heart of an ornamental cabbage.

Another purple still in bloom right now comes from Purple Heart Tradescantia pallida also
known as Purple Queen or Wandering Jew.

Ok, one last purple…my now discarded amaranth seed heads.

Exploding cattails are filling the air with their floating seeds,
most likely the best snow I am going to get this year. Once fertilized,
the female flowers transform into the familiar brown “cigars”
also called candlewicks, punks, ducktails, and marsh beetles.

Another chap enjoying the white mold growing on the aphid honey dew on my mex. lime tree. (Thanks again rockrose!)

Moon behind my Post Oak. And no, that wasn’t an invitation.

Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite, especially the nasty toe-biting variety.

Stay Tuned For:
“Taro Roll”

All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

"When the North Wind Doth Blow".

ESPatch Dec 28, 2008 0 comments

My Hoja Santa getting shredded by a fierce North wind, the frost has already nipped the ends of them, giving them a really attractive new look…not. They now resemble flying banshees or soiled handkerchiefs blowing on a washing line.

“Now Dorothy, don’t you fret your pretty face about that Hoja Santa,
It will be back next year”
“I am not fretting, I was just wondering how much of it you ingested before your face turned that color?”

The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow, (not likely in Central Texas)
And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He’ll sit in a barn and keep himself warm
and hide his head under his wing, poor thing.

‘The North Wind doth blow’ is British in its origins and believed to have originated in the 16th century .

Here is a detail of a frost bitten Hoja Santa leaf containing detailed directions to the Aztec gold from the Black Pearl.

” I can’t believe he put the map on a Hoja Santa leaf “.

My containered papyrus grasses have also weathered the North winds of late, their heads are bowing low, their fibers surrendering to the cold and the wind and all of the other onslaughts of crazy temperatures and conditions we have been experiencing in Central Texas as of late. I am still watering all of my container plants as if it were still summer, the drought in Central Texas remains relentless.

I will chop these back to the ground pretty soon. I would highly recommend papyrus as a container plant, I am in zone 8b and this plant has been so reliable over the years. I have it planted in a “Callahans” stock tank with zero drainage…(I did not remove the plug). Give yourself ample room around it though, as it does get rather large. My tank is about 5ft diameter and 3ft deep, I give it a good soaking about once every week to ten days in the Texas summer, think the banks of the Nile where it is native. It does like it’s feet wet, but also handles a drying out period.
Here is a picture of it in it’s full summer glory this year, spreading green firework explosions out about six feet in all directions:

I still hate those home depot bricks though! I am thinking that I will remove them and plant something dark, with a low habit, around the base of the tank for contrast.This area receives mostly full sun with late afternoon shade from the post oak. Any ideas?

My Post Oak has most certainly changed over the last week or two, It has finally dropped all of its leaves conveniently in my pond. Is this year the Chinese year of the leaf? I have been knee deep in them, constantly fishing them out of my pond. A chore incidentally, that I hate.

“Aaa Ha Ha Ha, like ESP even knows what a chore is”!

Laugh all you want Walton’s, I bet you don’t have a 900 gallon fish tank positioned under a towering Post Oak?
….Oh you do?
Damn Walton’s!

Bunched Elodea Crispa ( Also known as Lagarosiphon major ), a must have for keeping pond water clean and well oxygenated.
Elodea may establish itself if just ‘thrown’ into a pond. It is a member of the aquarium-important frog’s-bit family Hydrocharitaceae. My fish hide under this green canopy, when the temperatures dip, I don’t see them for days.

“Stoooooone Croooooop”
(AKA Spruce-leaved stonecrop, Spruce stonecrop)

These little plants growing over some lava rocks above my pond look
like miniature jungle film sets, complete with Tarzan swing vines. I believe
this one is called:

Sedum reflexum!
Sedum reflexum looks like a little Blue Spruce tree. It gives a nice touch of blue/grey to any rock garden or xeriscape bed. This one is adorning it’s reddish tones of winter.

It is amazing how this plant adapts to the harshest of growing conditions, and the smallest amount of soil, water and nutrients to survive.

“Jane, boy, errr cheetah, get hands off Tarzan’s legs, and look at all that
sedum reflexum, makes Tarzan happy”.

Here are some more hanging vines and some spreading out in some rock cavities.

I thought I would give you this palette cleansing image of a dandellion flower before I subject you, and draw your attention to something very, very, disturbing indeed, something you may wish you have never seen, something primordial? Something that could kill you if ingested? The end of days? Ok you tell me just what is this?

There were about 10 of these rather unpleasant fellows squirming and wriggling in my rain water collection tank. I have never seen them before, they were quite large from head to end of tail, about an inch and a bit long. Is this how dragon flies begin before the nymph stage?
Are those tiny gills on the right image? uuurrgghhh!
These were the best photos I could muster, I had to sharpen up these images a lot.

“No Bones, we are dealing with a highly advanced microorganism,
perhaps even intelligent life, we should try to make contact with it, communicate with it,
find out what it wants, what it’s needs are”.

“Damn it Jim, what if it gets into the entire ships water supply, what if people start dying, what then Jim?.”

One more picture of the aliens orbiting a floating pecan nut.

Other Winter Observations:

Antenna lurking behind my still blooming bulbine (try saying that one fast),
mmm what could it be?
… Ahh yes, what else but yet another cucumber beetle.

“Why you little…”

Camo on a donkey ear

Canna lilly, trying (very slowly) to produce one final bloom.

A year-end ladybug devouring some sugary residue or aphid larvae? on my mexican lime tree, I have often wondered what is going on with this white residue. Ants love it, bugs love it, I know it cannot be a good thing. Can anyone enlighten me as to the process going on here. I have a lot of leaves (underside) that has this white fur on them. There is always something going on with citrus trees…that is what makes them an interesting landscape addition.