Slugs Need Love, Too

This grossed me out. I hate slugs - but I guess it's as the title suggests:



The act of slug love requires the two to swing suspended on some kind of filament - you see a glimpse of it at the top of the photo.

Then that blue stuff is secreted...and then sucked back in.

Like I said...kinda gross.

Every Bug Has Its Day

We didn't have fireworks on the Fourth of July - we had fireflies.




It's been a good year for lightning bugs. For some reason - the wet weather perhaps? - there were a lot of them. I say 'were,' because the bloom is over. Just a few stragglers blinking in the night.


Fireflies aren't flies - they're actually a type of beetle. Kansas is the western edge of their habitat. They're an eastern bug - lightning bugs are a rarity on the west coast.


Their glow comes from a chemical reaction in light-producing organs in the firefly's abdomen. They're quite efficient at producing light: nearly 100 percent of their light is given off as light. An electric light bulb, by contrast, gives off 10 percent light while the other 90 percent is heat.


Each species of firefly has a specific flash pattern. Males use it to catch the fancy of females in the area and a quick flash communication between the two ensues as they prepare to get it on. The bioluminescence is also thought to be a warning to other predators: "don't eat me, I taste really bad."

Their life span is about two months. Which made me wonder: if, as Einstein said, time is relative, does time slow down for a firefly? Do they cram a lot of living in that short period? There was certainly a lot of sex happening out in the woods on the Fourth of July.....


Nature's light show.

Moon Suit

As the photo below indicates, the bugs are out in full force now. I hold my walking stick in front of me as I hike the trails; if I don't, I get a faceful of spiderweb.

The chiggers and ticks, however, are the worst.

Funny how one's idealized image of something often bumps up against cold, hard reality. When my husband and I first puchased the acreage for our house, I loved the idea of living in the middle of a forest.

On the morning of our wedding anniversary, a month or so after we'd bought the land, we decided to take some lawn chairs, croissants, and the makings for mimosas and watch the sun come up. We spent the morning in a little clearing and it was lovely - even though neither of us had realized it's a little hard to see the sunrise when you're surrounded by trees.



I started to itch a little later in the day. Upon investigation, I discovered I had approximately 250 chigger bites; Mr. D had 3. We counted.

I spent the next two weeks trying everything: bleach baths, nail polish, calomine lotion, anything that promised relief from the itching. Nothing helped, until a pharmacist recommended Benadryl (duh!) and the topical application of Absorbine Jr. Muscle Liniment in the roll-on bottle. Had to be the roll-on, she said, though it wasn't indicated on the label as an itch reliever. (It is now.)

That was the first breakthrough. The second is what Mr. D calls my 'moon suit": pants, socks, shirt, bandanna, and hat - all treated with some anti-bug chemical that lasts through 25 washings. And it works. I no longer have to spray myself with Deep Woods Off (the best, but made me want to shower as soon as I could.) The moon suit hangs on a peg by the back door, ready for me whenever I feel the urge.

It's hot, though that's a small price to pay to be chigger- and tick-free.