Beneficial Bugs

Spiders can be some of the best natural predators to have around...provided you know where they are and steer clear of their webs. This garden spider is using a patch of monkey grass to spin its home in a nice out of the way place low to the ground.

The zig zag pattern in the middle alerts us that this is an Argiope spider, not a European garden spider.  Similarly, Argiope spiders are usually strikingly yellow and black whereas the the Europeans are gray and tan. Don't worry, there won't be a test over any material covered here.

I was shocked when I did my morning plant inspection and noticed this:

My dragon's blood sedum was covered in bugs! Yikes! I hurriedly snapped some photos for identification and went inside to research.  My anxiety lessened as I quickly learned this probably wasn't a bad thing, and in fact, could be a good thing.  These strange guys are assassin bugs, and I have actually blogged about their kind before here and here! I learn something new all the time. Anyway, assassin bugs are good in the sense that they eat/kill/assassinate pests from plants, and since my succulents seem a little susceptible to caterpillars lately, I am leaving nature as is. I am sure it will all balance out.  Gotta love good ol' Mother Nature.

NOTE:

The lovely Priscilla from Blossom Hideaway informed me that my comment section was not accepting comments. I reverted back to a simple boring template for now just to appease the comment Gods and plan to have a permanent solution sometime in August when I get back from vacation. Or maybe September.