darkoshi

My lantana still brings all the butterflies (old video) to the yard.

I didn't see many insects on the flowers earlier in the year and was worried based on what I'd read about the massive decline of insects in the wild.

But maybe it wasn't the right time of year, as now there are many on the blossoms. I still haven't seen many bees though. In the evening closer to dusk, there are more moths. There's a type of dark-colored moth with a big body that seems like it should be too heavy for its wings. I even saw one hummingbird on the flowers two days ago!

Last summer, I took an opportunity to go for a walk at my old work campus.
I took many photos and videos. I texted myself thoughts/notes about the experience of walking there; what makes it so nice compared to other places.

16:59. The sound, the scents, the insects, the breeze, the sun, sweat trickling down my chest, trucks rumbling by with that zoomy sound like the ocean waves rolling in and out
17:00. Birds chirping, ambulance going by on the interstate with siren on, quiet space of wind thru the trees
[ I meant, there's a relative quietness & calmness in the wooded areas (compared to the interstate for sure); a light sound of wind ]
17:02. Different pitches, tones for different trucks and vehicles; rising and falling; cicadas, katydids
17:04. The breeze of walking cooling the moisture on my torso
17:04. The rhythm of my steps
17:04. The unexpected sights
17:05. Decaying tree trunks
17:06. Bright green leaves
17:06. Spiderwebs
17:06. Pine needles
17:07. Mild danger
17:07. Shadows
17:07. Places deeper in the back woods where people could be hiding.
17:08. Security guards that might appear out of nowhere to say you shouldn't be here.
17:15. Away from the highway, airplane motor in the sky; insect (sounds) more distinct
17:15. More peaceful
17:16. Over here I can hear my steps on the ground.

Back in my car at 5:23pm, I took some sound recordings of the insect noises.
I wished I had brought a water bottle with me, as I was thirsty from the walk.

2am in Columbia, SC, and it is 82 degrees with 72% humidity outside ("feels like 88").

But what bugs me when I step outside now is the faint sensation of things touching my skin. Was that a bug? A grass stalk that I don't see when I look down? A flying insect? And the wasp buzzing near the door so that I have to find a good moment to open the door and dash inside without it following me in.

Looking at some weather maps, I see Baltimore has us potentially beat in this time zone, with 85, "feels like 90", albeit only 59% humidity.

Phoenix, AZ, where it is 11:10pm now, is at 100 degrees, "feels like 103" and 28% humidity.

It would be interesting to be able to step from one room to another and another, to compare the difference between those temps & humidity levels.

I had supposed that spiders jump from high places, ejecting a strand of silk behind them as they fall, to move between places quickly, and as an initial part of building their webs.
But I didn't know they can actually fly on the wind using untethered strands of silk:

How Spiders Use Silk to Fly | ScienceTake (video, posted on 2018/06/26)

I've been summoned for jury duty already again, barely a year after the last summons. This time it is for a "magistrate" court. The summons mailing indicated I should fill out and return the form, but didn't include a return envelope like last time. The address is written in very small text, and the form was folded on that line, making it even harder to read. The form also says, in slightly larger text, "PERSONS FAILING TO RETURN THESE FORMS AS REQUESTED MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHARGES OF CONTEMPT OF COURT".
I am curious what their actual return rate of forms is, considering all the above. I wonder if they just forgot to include the return envelope.

.

This evening I kept hearing noises by the doggy door. At first it sounded like something scratching at it, trying to come inside. That raised my hackles, as our doggy was inside laying on her bed. I locked the doggy door and looked outside, but whatever it was seemed to be gone.

Earlier this evening while outside, I had heard what sounded like a pack of coyotes howling. They must be living down in the undergrowth of the mostly dry lakebed. Surely it couldn't have been a coyote at the door? Maybe a cat?

We've had many toads and frogs sneak inside, but they don't make nose.

Later I heard noises again, now more like thumps against the glass window. I finally discovered a cicada by the bottom edge of the door flap. I moved it away. Later I discovered two cicadas on the nearby screen of the kitchen window, apparently attracted to the kitchen light. I considered leaving the kitchen light on all night. Better to have them at the window than down by the doggy door where they might get inside.

The next time I checked, the two cicadas were still on the window screen, but there was a green katydid down by the bottom of the doggy door flap!

Now I've chased off the katydid at least.

Oh sh*t. Another thump and scratching (that must be their legs or wings skittering on the glass) at the doggy door window even though I closed the blinds and dimmed the lights. What is it tonight?

Today I used a brush on an extensible handle to clean away cobwebs and dirt from Qiao's porch ceiling, in preparation for putting up Halloween lights.

There are two mud dauber wasp nests by the edges of the porch ceiling. I wondered if the wasps had already left the nest, so that I could knock down the mud clumps before putting up the lights. I wouldn't want to knock down the nests if there were still wasps inside.

So I looked up whether mud daubers leave the nests before winter or not. The top results are usually from insect control companies advising you how to get rid of insects, not how to avoid harming them. But I finally found the info I was looking for. Reading about insects is almost always horrifying in some ways, but also fascinating if one can remain detached about it.

Per what I read (links below), mud daubers lay eggs in the nest. They catch spiders, paralyze them, and put them in the nest for the baby wasps to eat when they emerge from the eggs. The adult wasp seals off the entrances to the nest with more mud. After eating the spiders, the baby wasps pupate and remain in the nest overwinter. In the spring or summer they chew holes out of the nest and leave it.

So the nests on the porch probably are not empty. One of them has a visible hole so I'm not sure about it. I know it's not still from last year, as it wasn't there last October (per photographic evidence). I'll leave both nests up til next summer I guess. Per my notes, I last knocked down mud dauber nests from the porch in Feb 2020... at the time I thought they were empty.

Why mud daubers are on spider patrol

Life Cycle of Mud Daubers

Mud Daubers | Three genera: Sceliphron, Trypoxylon, and Chalybion
I don't understand this part: All Missouri mud daubers pass the winter as immature individuals in the nests. The black and yellow mud dauber has two generations each summer.

How can you have 2 generations in a summer, if the immature ones always overwinter in the nests? Is it only the 2nd generation that stays in the nest over the winter?

Mud Dauber Guide

Common name: black and yellow mud dauber | Scientific name: Sceliphron caementarium (Drury, 1773) (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)

Diversity in the Nesting Behavior of Mud-Daubers (Trypoxylon politum Say; Sphecidae)

Potter and Mason Wasps (similar but different from mud daubers)

Video title: Insect Flight | Capturing Takeoff & Flying at 3,200 FPS
Posted by: Ant Lab
Date posted: Aug 20, 2020

For a while we were having fireworks and lightning AND fireflies aka lightning bugs at the same time.
I told Qiao if we get lucky, we'll get an earthquake too.

Now it is pouring down rain and someone has still been managing to set off a few fireworks (the noise at least).

Errant thought from a while back:

"I remember when mice used to have balls."

.

I'd been trying to remember this word: Boggart, which I once learned from a Susan Cooper book, as I could imagine a boggart being behind the weird bug-related mystery I've been trying to solve.

After a while, the supernatural explanations seemed as likely as any others I came up with.
"These bugs must have the power of invisibility!"
"Maybe they aren't invisible bugs; maybe they are ghosts."
I remembered a mischievous supernatural creature that was a boggart, but it took me a while to remember the word.

Fittingly, it turns out that boggart and bug even share the same etymology!

I've got the damnedest, most ridiculous mystery going on at my house. It's been going on for months already. I've been reluctant to post about it so far as it involves bugs. But when I told my mom about it today, she thought it was funny. So maybe I will write about it sometime.

Metal tongs are also good for cleaning out gutters!

(They allowed me to finish the task even after being horrified to find tons of ants running around in the gutters after I'd pulled out a few handfuls of leaves. They must have built a nest within the decaying leaves and gunk in there. But the tongs would work well on ant-free gutters too. )

The tongs are narrow enough to easily pull crud out of the gutters with them, and they avoid me getting my hands/gloves dirty while doing it.

Texas Wine Grape Growers Sue Bayer-Monsanto Over Dicamba Drift Damage / Some growers report losses of up to 95 percent (June 2021)
"The volatile nature of the pesticide dicamba has meant that it can wind up miles away from where it was sprayed...."

A New Approach to Protecting Bees From Toxic Pesticides (June 2021)
"Researchers at Cornell University have discovered a way to help bees safely digest what’s been killing them
...
Once ingested, the enzymes pass through to the bee’s midgut, where the microparticle’s casing sequesters the organophosphate pesticides, breaking them down and detoxifying them before they can be absorbed and harm the bee."

But are organophosphates a big danger to bees? Based on some of the below articles, it was neonicotinoids that were thought to be a culprit of bee population decline, along with many other factors.

That article however makes me think about how currently companies like Monsanto sell farmers pesticide along with patented seeds for crops that are resistant to the pesticide, and make money from both. Now there may be one company selling pesticide and patented seeds, and another company selling special patented food to feed your pollinator bees to make them resistant to the pesticides. Money, money, money. Maybe they'll also start selling genetically modified patented bees which are pesticide resistant.

From doing a search on that, more interesting articles:

Scientists to Breed Genetically Modified Bees: Here's Why (Nov 2015)
"Canadian scientists are set to breed honeybees to make them resistant to disease and harsh winter conditions..."

Engineered bacteria protect honey bee health (Feb 2020)
"Bacteria naturally found in honey bees were engineered to help bees fight infections that that have been destroying colonies."
Mites on bees; those poor bees.

Are GMOs and pesticides threatening bees? (no date listed)
Long article; I didn't read it all. But the tone of this article and website makes me wonder if it is funded by companies like Monsanto. Yet the website claims not to be.

Invasion of the ‘frankenbees’: the danger of building a better bee (Oct 2018)
(long article; I didn't read it all)

The wasp nest which I posted about before was in the other corner of the porch.

( Cut for insect unpleasantness )

The Wikipedia Grasshopper page has a photo of one nearly identical to mine.

things to do:
submit my taxes online (I've already done the numbers, just need to submit them)
order some things
other stuff on my to-do list maybe
catch up on TV recordings

not going to do, even though I could spend my whole life at it and never finish:
work in the yard again

what I've done:
online reading, all starting with a Nextdoor.com post.

"ball caps" - is another term for baseball caps which I've never heard before, but dates back at least to the 1940s.

honeydew - is not just a melon. It's sweet liquid in leaves, and also the excretions of insects who feed on the leaves.

Kubla Khan - His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Habesha peoples - the video on this Wikipedia page of traditional Habesha dance and music is from 1987* and over an hour long, and I wish I could find a better quality version of it. The dance is wonderful and not quite like anything I've seen before... From what I found, it is called Eskista, characterized by rapid shoulder movements. I've found videos with other examples of it on YouTube, but none that I enjoy as much (or as impressive!) as the one on the Wikipedia page. The outfits of the women dancers look similar to me as some Native American outfits, which confused me at first.

*That Wikipedia file says 1965 but must be wrong. The TV logo shown, ETV, may be for the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, which didn't start broadcasting in color until at least 1979.

I found this copy of the same performance on YouTube, in poorer quality but with the name of the performance: People to People Tour part 1 of 9; it also says "1987/1988. National Theater Troupe of Ethiopia." The title is "ህዝበ ለህዝበ" (Hizb le hizb) in Amharic, so searching on that gives more results.

This page has more info:
1987 Hizb le Hizb

And this Facebook page says even more:

Hizb le Hizb (People to People) – a 54-person collaboration of Ethiopian musicians and performers. The cultural exhibition kicked off in March of 1987 on a whirlwind tour of 60 cities around the world in 118 days. The purpose behind the creation of a ensemble to basically give a tour de force of Ethiopian music and culture throughout the world and a way to thank nations for the assistance they had provided to Ethiopia during the ‘Great’ Famine only a couple of years earlier.

Tilahun Gessese. Mahamoud Ahmoud. Bizunesh Bekele. Neway Debebe. Tsehaye Yohannes, Mulatu Astatkie. Iniye Takele. Asnaketch Worku and Maritu Legesse are among the list of topflight entertainers that the show laid claim to be the very eminence of star power on the Ethiopian music scene at the time. Never before or since has such a collection of talent been melded together to deliver what would be historical performances under the guide of Mulatu Astatke’s composition and Tadese Worku’s choreography. The ensemble itself was referred to as the Adey Abeba Traditional Music Group. From Kibur Zebegna to Police and any orchestra that could claim the best talent in the country were called up to fill its ranks.

The storyline of the exhibition is the journey of a young girl traveling through the country and being introduced to the different peoples and their culture. There is an older woman accompanying her (who may symbolize Ethiopia). The vocal delivery of the songs by this extraordinary group of musicians was simply part of the story. The standout dance and theatrical performances that accompanied them were a similarly impressive feat for the breadth and depth of cultural spread they provided. Who could forget the baby faced Iniye Takele who would – it seemed like – pretty much begin talking to herself when she really went into an iskista groove and Kuribachew Woldemariam whose transcendent beauty seemed only to shine brighter at the height of her performances.

[I have this urge now to find every online thing that mentions this concert tour from 1987/1988, like it's a scavenger hunt to see how much info I can dig up.]

Concert poster of the tour from Berlin, East Germany

THE SHIFTING STATUS OF THE GONDAR AZMARI IN REVOLUTIONARY ETHIOPIA:FROM OUTCASTS TO POPULAR STARS (PDF)

Several of the members of Fasiledes kinet actively participated in the Hizib lehizib (‘people to people’) campaign, a programme that brought together the people, cultures and traditions of Ethiopia. Thus, from May 15 to 28, 1987 the Fasiledes performed in Debre Markos, Gojjam.
... The campaign also included an international tour across fifty-two countries that spanned for four months. The tour made the artists of Fasiledes kinet known to the Ethiopian diaspora public. Some of the key performers during this tour were Eneye Takele, Abebe Belew, Yirga Dubale, Tamagn Beyene, Wasie Kassa, Abdela Hussien, and Kenubish Abebe.

Ethiopian Dance Troupe Fails to Appear (LA Times article, 1987/05/17)

A comment on this page by "Adamu LA" indicates that the HIZB LE HIZB group did not visit the U.S.A because of "ideological difference between eastern and western block". That makes me wonder if that is why the troupe did not show up in L.A. as mentioned by the above article. But the below article said that they performed in Washington DC, so I'm not sure Adamu's comment here is correct.

Ethiopian Dancers To Perform (PDF) - 1987/03/30 - Article from The Clark College (Atlanta) Panther. Has a lot of details. Mentions "They have already performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C."

..

I don't know much about Ethiopia, other than famine, wars, and food. There is much history that I know very little of. I didn't even know that most of the country is mountainous and based on the photos looks gorgeous.

3 paper wasps have started building a nest on my porch ceiling again today. They are definitely all working on the same nest; it's still only the single tiny stem part of a nest right right now. One wasp works on the stem while the other 2 stand (guard?) close nearby, or only one stays guard while another has flown away.

The porch light is pitifully dim in the daytime, and doesn't shine any direct light towards the ceiling. I tried pointing some bright LED flashlights at the wasps, but they were still rather dim, and the batteries would eventually die. Then I got a hand mirror and situated it on the floor, on a blanket for support, so that it would reflect sunlight up at that spot of the ceiling. That is much brighter.

The sunlight doesn't seem to be affecting the one working on the stem, but the other two seem to dislike it, maybe because they are looking down towards the light while the other one is looking up at the stem.

If they would all fly away at once, I'd sponge away the stem again. But now that they seem to have guards at all times, I'm afraid of getting stung if I try more overt attacks.

The house door opens to the right, and this time the nest is to the left of the door. Before it was in the same direction as the door when opened. As it is now, the nest would still be within 5 to 6 feet of my head as I walk up and open the door. But maybe I should count my blessings, and leave it alone. Otherwise the wasps may just start building it in a less favorable spot of the porch again. The angle of the sun is changing, and I won't be able to reflect sunlight up into the corner for much longer. Gahhhhhh

Last year, with the nest in the doghouse, the nest was within 3 feet of my hips as I opened the door. Over the winter, I finally moved the doghouse into the garage to avoid the wasps from building a nest in it again.

.

I took another look out the door, and all 3 wasps were gone. Had a sudden hope that I'd discouraged them. Went out and knocked the stem flat with my broom. Went back inside to get a wet sponge to wipe it away. By the time I got back to the door one wasp was back, crawling around the flattened stem.

I've found 2 other wasps inside the house between last night and now. One year I had many getting into the house; they seemed to be getting in through the stove hood. Last night I covered the hood's screw holes with magnets. I don't know where the 2nd wasp could have come from.

.

I took another look out the door. 2 wasps are back, and they seem to have been able to pull the stem straight again! I'm going to have to give up. I have other stuff I want to do on this Saturday!

.

And then there are also these other SCARY sounding wasps, the ones that are more yellow than black, buzzing around the front door at times. Yes, I'll just count my blessings for now.

That commercial clip must have been done by putting a camera on the middle of a jump rope and spinning it around the actor while they jumped rope. Nifty idea.

.

Standing by an open window as a car happened to drive past, I heard someone inside it exclaim, "Hoo hoo hoo! This is so cool!"

.

Paper wasps were trying to build a nest under my front porch overhang today. I shooed them away with a broom and sponged away the tiny beginnings of nest they'd made, but I'm not sure how long I can stay vigilant. I read now that they don't like light, so I'll keep the porch light turned on bright during the day to see if that keeps them away.

There were at least 3 different wasps that came and loitered in the same area, a couple at the same time, which confused me as I thought each nest was built by one queen. According to The Wasp Life Cycle, "it is possible for several Queens who survived the winter – normally all from the same previous nest – to start construction of their new nests in close proximity to each other", so that may explain it.

Gulf Fritillary

Long Tailed Skippers

Video title: Butterflies on Lantana
Posted by: Darkoshi
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hqJqCYPzcg
Date posted: Nov 25, 2020

The mailbox had many items in it today, surprising me. I didn't check the Informed Delivery page first. One item that was supposed to arrive Monday is still missing; it was again nothing important, a charity appeal. I wonder where these missing items end up. In someone else's mailbox?

.

The big lantana bush is so pretty, full of orange, red, and in-between colored flowers. It's as tall as I am. To think that it started out from a few small plantings. There was a monarch butterfly flitting between flowers. A smaller orange butterfly, not a monarch, chased it away... and was still chasing it when they'd flown beyond the fence.

.

My mom made an audio cassette recording of her, my sister and nephew when he was one year old in 1993. I recorded it to the computer into an MP3 file. It's cute listening to them from so long ago; I plan to give them a copy. There is absolutely no noise in the recording, no tape hiss or static or anything, and I didn't even have to do a noise reduction on it which is amazing compared to all the other cassettes I've transferred to MP3s.

But after that one, the tape player started making a loud rattling noise when pressing Play, even without a cassette in it. The rattling noise comes through on the recordings too. So I need to open up the player to see if it is something I can fix or not.

There was a snake on the doggy door latch. A very small snake, but still. Between the window in back and the window in front that slides down to close off the opening. Then the snake disappeared to I-don't-know-where. I looked outside, I looked inside, I slowly slid the window up. No snake.

Oh well.

That was a few hours ago. Haven't seen it since.

..

Oh good lord. Now I just saw something move out of the corner of my eye, looked over, and it was a giant ant. Very near to me on the sofa. I hurried away to fetch a bug catcher, but when I got back, it was gone.

Profile

Darkoshi

Darkoshi's Enchantment

December 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

1: scent memory, Halloween
2: testing DW image problem
3: over the air TV: ATSC 3.0 aka NextGen TV
4: teeth and bones; gauntness
5: pan-frying dumplings
6: Colorful sponges that scrub
7: potato chips and spices

Style Credit

Base style: Abstractia by chiming
Theme: Violet Night by nornoriel

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 09:35 am

Entries tagged with insects

Lantana flowers

a summer walk

Whew, it is warm out there

flying spiders

summoned to the court, summoned to the light

mud daubers

insect flight is fascinating

skyfire

of bugs and balls

at wit's end

Tongs for Gutters

interesting articles about pesticides

wasps gone but

grasshopper on my window

so far today .. Ethiopian dance

persistent wasps

whoo hoo cool

butterflies

flower chase rattle

snake on doggy door