IN MY BACKYARD

It seems that every time you get out in the yard for a BBQ, every fly in the county knows your doing it. Next thing you know those pesty things are everywhere. If you grab a fly swatter they tend to leave you alone. Before we grill we spray the whole area with a bug killer and hope for the best. The housefly is found in nearly every part of the world. The entire life cycle of the fly in between 7-25 days which means there are many generations produced in one summer. A fly generally lays about 500 eggs, one at a time. When the eggs hatch the larvae are a whitish, legless cylindrical shape. These are maggots and they go through 3 instars or stages. When they are grown they crawl to a cool dry area and transform into the pupal stage. The pupal case is formed from the larval skin and varies is color from yellow to brown. The fly emerges from the case by a shrinking and swelling sac in its head. It is used as a tool to help break out of the case. The adult female is larger than the ma...

The Horsefly is one of the largest flies and is considered to be a pest because of its bite. Its usual food is nectar and plants but the females will drink blood. There are approximately 3,000 species of horseflies worldwide and some 350 are in North America. The female horsefly lays eggs, usually near water or soft moist earth. The larvae spends its youth eating small invertebrates or worms. The horsefly is hairy and has large compound eyes. It uses its vision to detect to movement of its prey. It is not usually dangerous to humans but can inflict a painful bite, using its long sharp mouth parts in a stabbing motion tearing the skin. The Catalpa ( catawpa ) Worm is native to the eastern United States and can be found in the Catalpa Tree. It takes about 4 weeks for the Catalpa to mature. The eggs are laid by adults in large numbers on the underside of Catalpa leaves and branches. In 5-7 days they hatch. The larval stage is the worm, a caterpillar. They are usually yellow with a b...

In the following days I made a few treks into the unseen world in my backyard. I walked slowly around, camera in hand, checking trees and bushes . I checked flowers and flower pots, lifted rocks and kept my eyes open for anything that moved. Things that I generally walked past, never seeing, came into view. There is beauty and violence out there. Every living creature is constantly looking for a meal and each creature is a meal to another. Spiders are the most obvious. There are more than 30,000 species of spiders. They are arthropods (arachnid family), invertebrates . Contrary to popular belief, spiders are not insects. Insects have 6 legs and 3 body part, spiders have 8 legs and 2 body parts: abdomen and thorax. Spiders have either 6 or 8 eyes, fangs and venom but not all spiders are dangerous to humans. Their babies come from eggs. All spiders do not spin webs. Some live in the ground and trap their prey, some spiders chase their prey down. If you would like to read more great Spi...

When I first moved into our house in Southern Mississippi the most prominent thing was the large yard....all that grass to keep mowed. I never considered what lived there beside our family. It wasn't until many years later, after I had become more involved in photography that I would discover a whole new world. a world unseen. The macro lens awakened me. Early last summer I was sitting on the deck when I realized there was a large bug on one of the plants. It was a stunning green color and had the largest eyes, and was about 2 inches long with large folded wings. I grabbed the camera a got a few shots. The results were OK but not terrific and it wasn't really all that interesting. The macro was in the camera bag so I went in and got it, attached it to the camera and, to my surprise, the bug was still there. I eased the lens closer and closer until I had my subject in the frame. I spent most of an hour taking photos of that single bug and she was very cooperative. Never did she ...