Sunday, 7 July 2024

Basil and bugs!

 JB continues to improve and took a walk. This is a good thing. Unfortunately, a deerfly nailed him right in the temple. Three times. It dove under his cap. sigh. The anti-itch goop works well.

I had wine bottles to take to the beer store, which recycles them. The thing is, the clerks I meet tend to be abrasive, and tell me reorganize the bottles and group them. With my social anxiety I just walk away. I've often just given them to the person in line in behind me. 

During COVID I'd put them in the recycle box, but the township sent a memo out that residents should stop doing this. I wasn't the only one! Usually, JB does this for me. I've had to step up, put on my big girl pants, and go. This I couldn't do last week. I set them out at the end of the driveway, and they were gone within 24 hours. Problem solved.


My beautiful Basil, out front in the basket, has been attacked. This is an overhead view! The petunias are coming along.


I put some insecticidal soap on it and will hope for the best. 

I had fun trying to get a photo of it. It scootches under the leaf. It is a green colour, but looked beige in the sun on Friday. Saturday was a cloudy day and it photographed better.

I should point the Orchid Spider in the Basil plant's direction! 



The Question Mark butterfly has been laying eggs like mad. They have several Instars, first as an egg, then when they molt (at least 3 times), and grow another size. They get into that 'J' shape after several days. 


I've been watching the Eastern Question Mark butterflies, but they are flighty. I cannot confirm if they are that species or the Eastern Commas. Can you see the difference?


When their wings unfold, they are so brightly coloured, otherwise the underwings look like a dead leaf.
Comma left, Question Mark right↓.


He she is on the Hops Vine laying eggs.


Eastern Comma butterfly from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

8 comments:

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
...the effort with the bottles - I am guessing that is because you get some sort of cash back for depositing them? Here in the UK, for some reason glass is no longer picked up by the recycle trucks, so we have to cart all glass, to the nearest bottle banks; huge bins where there is no avoiding the clatter and crash as one drops them in. For me it is jam jars, but still... no money back and folk drawing all the wrong conclusions! YAM xx

RedPat said...

One of my basil plants has been attacked this year too.

KarenW said...

The chafers have been terrible this year. They attacked my marigolds. My neighbours hydrangea hedge was almost defoliated. The little golden devils seemed to find something that suits them and dig in for the long haul. (They left my hydrangea alone)

DUTA said...

Our store has a bottle machine that gets the bottles and gives back money. If the machine is not functioning, we hand in the bag with bottles to the person in charge and he/she returns the money. Small change , but important.

Divers and Sundry said...

I'm glad he felt like taking a walk.

Sidewalk donations are an actual thing here. I'm glad that worked for you with the bottles. I hope your plant recovers. The daisies are sweet. The only butterfly I'm seeing on our little patio this year is a little white thing. You get a variety!

Red said...

The bugs are really doing a number on your basil.

Patio Postcards said...

Never heard this about wine bottles, I must check our county waste site to confirm we could put wine bottles in the blue bins. Mr Man drinks his wine from a box so, so far we have been ok with the cardboard in the blue bin & the bladder in the garbage.

tz_garden said...

Hopefully the basil recovers. The butterfly is so bold & orange!