Green Hour #9 One Small Square
Our challenge today was to mark off one small (12″) square and really study the life that went on in that tiny, little square.
These bluish, whitish flowers are called bluets or quaker ladies. I like the name quaker ladies, because I think it’s cute.
We saw this fern-like plant, but haven’t identified it yet.
Our notebook kept having little visitors. I’m not sure what this tiny guy was. He was actually moving pretty fast. I’d say he was about a 1/3 of an inch long. And he sort of had a centipede-like look to his body. But it was hard to tell in the 10-15 seconds that he spent on the page.
I couldn’t tell if this was a spider or an ant. So I blew the pic up a bit.
And I still can’t tell. It looks like a spider to me. But GB and I have checked Google, and Google images and can’t seem to find one that looks quite like it. Poor GB, I’m not a good bug researcher.
I DO know what this sucker is. And he, along with 11 of his little friends prompted a tiny argument between GB and I. This is the second time in less than a week that GB and I have had altercations with ticks. I took 12 off of GB yesterday, thankfully none had penetrated the skin. But the one that I took off earlier in the week was in a very delicate place. No need to elaborate. So I was annoyed by the little varmints. And I may have made a not-so-nice comment directed at God, that went kind of like this:
Me ~ “I don’t see any dadgum reason why God would have created these foul little critters!”
GB ~ “Are you saying that God made a mistake? Because I don’t think He would like that. I’m sure there must be a reason for ticks to live. Like, maybe they are food for some other animal.”
So, I was properly chastised. We came inside, looked ticks up on the internet, and found out that there are three basic groupings of ticks.
The American Dog tick 
The Deer tick 
And the Lone Star tick (we see plenty of these) 
We also found out that ticks are arachnids, cousins of spiders.
AND we found out that some birds, including robins (that’s poetry, I tell you!), eat ticks. And fire ants eat ticks too. In fact, in some locations fire ants have decimated the tick population. Hmmmm…….. which would I rather have? I’ve never actually had an interaction with a fire ant, so I guess I can’t say.
The circle of life here on this God-given planet never ceases to amaze me. I don’t like ticks either…we have deer ticks here and you must check yourself after being out in the brush. The cats were regularly coming home with ticks until I found a tick med that worked. They just are horrible creatures, even if they are food for someone else.
We had a nest of blue jay babies and during the course of a day, someone came, destroyed the nest, and carried off the babies. We have no idea who but we suspect another bird. Sad, sad circle of life.
Anyway, thanks for the entry and the link,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Comment by Barb-Harmony Art Mom — May 6, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
Well, it is definitely a spider. My best guess, judging by the size, shape, etc would be something in the family Linyphiidae, perhaps something like Florinda coccinea. But there are literally thousands of species of linyphiids, so it could be something else entirely.
Comment by
lapazfarm — May 6, 2008 @ 10:56 pm
So maybe the fact that we live right in the middle of fire ant territory explains that facts that I haven’t seen a tick in the 11 years we’ve lived here?
I think I actually prefer the ants… at least you can learn how to avoid them. Well, usually…
I enjoyed your discoveries. We’re trying to get to challenge #10, too.
Comment by Dana — May 7, 2008 @ 9:42 pm
It’s hard to choose between fire ants and ticks. On the one hand, ticks carry disease. On the other hand, fire ants HURT. And you can be allergic to fire ants. But, ticks are so darned SNEAKY. I guess they both have their place, and it’s just NOT ON ME.
Comment by
learningumbrella — May 8, 2008 @ 1:42 pm