Mealtime

While we're busy defending our vegetable crops from the predations of subscribers to the Insect Informer, there are plenty of other bugs finding sustenance in the flower gardens.  

The good news is that most of the insects that visit our flowers are harmless, and some are actually helpful, spreading pollen and generally holding up their end of that birds and bees business.  Armed with the zoom lens on my new camera, I was able to play bug paparazzi and catch a few of them in moments of unguarded gluttony.

A moth dines on Monarda

The bees love Echinacea to the point where some collect so much, 
they literally fall off in a drunken stupor and lay on the ground until 
they recover enough strength to wobble back to the hive

Here's a honeybee on a Stoke's Aster

Some flowers serve as camouflage for spiders who seem to be cleverly selective in their choice of the brightest, most intensely colored petals to set their traps.  We have a stand of blinding yellow daylilies in the front yard, where I found this guy spinning his web and waiting for room service.

This is NOT Charlotte's Web

Unfortunately, not all florally attracted bugs are benign.  This year's heat has brought with it a record crop of Japanese beetles.  They are offensive in multiple ways.  They're insatiable and eat both the petals and leaves of a broad range of flowers and herbs (they do great damage to my sage in particular).  They're also wanton, and are generally found in pairs, fornicating with abandon even as they devour the very plant that serves as their boudoir.  They're also remarkably hard to kill.  There are special Japanese bug traps that use a scent to lure the not-very-smart insects down into a small trash bag from which there's no escape.  But you need dozens of them to be effective, given the size of this year's population, and we never remember to empty the bag and refresh the lure.  So we resign ourselves to suffering a certain amount of damage and control them to the extent we can by ensuring they've had their last meal whenever we find them. 

Japanese Beetle enjoying his final repast

Watching and recording all this dining activity made me hungry.  And I was more than a little bit envious of the "presentation" to which these insects were treated.  Imagine having your table set with stunning floral arrangements at each and every meal.  Suitably inspired, I went inside to prepare the tuna and white bean salad I had planned for dinner that night.  Let it not be said that bugs eat better -- or prettier -- than my family!

Tuna, White Bean, and Sage Salad, with basil, cucumber and olive garnish.
All veggies and herbs straight from the garden

Granted, it may not have been as colorful a setting as the bugs' backdrop, but what it lacked in hue was made up for with tastiness -- there were no leftovers!