Sunday, August 17, 2008, 21:28
A Feisty Spider
One day last week, I was sitting on Charlie's rock in the morning with a cup of coffee. That part of the yard is shady until early afternoon, and it is close to the morning glories and one of my rugosa rose bushes.
I have had an opportunity to watch the honey bees visiting the morning glories and rugosa roses this summer since they are so close to the rock.
But one morning, one of the honey bees had a visitor. There was a small, pale-colored spider on the rugosa rose. As I watched, the spider turned around toward the honey bee, who was happily rolling around in the pollen, buzzing to his heart's content. I took a closer look, and saw that the spider was pale yellow with pink streaks along the side and pink dots on the back.
It looked to me that the small spider, who was about one-third the size of the honey bee, was sizing up the honey bee. When the honey bee would move, the spider would turn in that direction too.
But surely, I thought to myself, such a small spider is not going to attack something so much bigger than itself. Is it?
As I watched, sure enough, the spider lunged at the honey bee and grabbed hold of it.
Fortunately, the honey bee was so much larger that it was able to get away. The spider tumbled to some leaves below but quickly made its way back to the rose.
I could not help wondering what kind of spider that was. So I went to Google and started searching. It didn't take me long to discover that it was a Goldenrod Crab spider (Misumena vatia).
I should have taken a picture of it, but fortunately, I found one on Wikipedia.
The Goldenrod Crab is called "goldenrod" because you can most often find them on goldenrod flowers in the fall. They like goldenrod because the bright flowers attract insects. But they also hang out on other flowers. And they have the ability to change color so they match the flowers.
That's why the one on the rugosa rose was pale yellow -- because some of the leaves are turning yellow due to the hot, dry weather -- and why it had pink streaks along the side and pink dots on the back -- because the rugosa roses are pink.
And while it was interesting to watch the spider, I'm just glad the honeybee got away. We need all of the honey bees we can get. We don't have nearly as many honey bees this summer as we have had in other years. A few people have told me they haven't seen any honey bees at all.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, August 15, 2008, 07:27
Gopher Catcher
Anyone who lives in this neck of the woods knows that pocket gophers can be a real problem. They leave mounds of dirt on top of the soil that can be harmful to tractors and other farm equipment. They also eat alfalfa roots (and carrots in your garden if they get a chance). The first year we lived here, Randy trapped 50 of them out of our five-acre field in one month's time.
I also discovered this spring that pocket gophers can be nasty little buggers when they are above ground. One day I was walking around the oats field after it had just sprouted, and I came across a pocket gopher. The little darling hissed and snarled and growled and lunged and leaped at me. Charlie was still alive then, and I was glad he was on the other side of the field so I didn't have to try to rescue him from the gopher if the thing sank its long front teeth into him.
So, knowing all of that about gophers, I have been surprised that our barn kitty, Little Sister, has been catching gophers for her babies. So far this year, she has caught four that I know of. Pocket gophers are impossible to trap during the summer. And yet Little Sister has been finding them and catching them.
The other day I was down in the barn feeding Kajun and putting fly spray on him. The kittens were on the kitty food shelf, munching away. All of a sudden, I heard Little Sister calling from the other side of the barn wall.
The kittens heard it, too. They immediately jumped off the kitty food shelf and scrambled under the barn wall as quickly as they could to see what she had caught for them. I suspect that it may have been another gopher.
As for the kittens, they are finished with their second round of Amoxicillan now. So far, they seem to be eating all right. I am keeping a close eye on them, though. I want to be sure they are healthy before I try to find homes for them. Gabriel seems much better after being on the Amoxicillan for a week. He has another week to go. Juliette did not respond to the Amoxicillan, so I had to switch her to Clindamyacin. She is slowly improving.
The ragweed pollen around here is bad. I have had sick, dull, thudding headaches for the past few days. And my stomach has been pretty much constantly upset. And it all wears me right out. It's from the ragweed pollen. I will be glad when it gets to the point where it is not pollinating quite so much. We still have not had any rain to amount to anything to wash it out of the air. Only a few sprinkles on a couple of occasions.
LeAnn R. Ralph
