Herbs in the Garden

Archive for the ‘Pests’ Category

OK, no herbs or gardening stuff for you today, because everything in the herb garden is still frozen, and I haven’t gotten into the greenhouse yet. Sheer laziness on my part…

So- instead I have a video for you!

As I was driving my Herb-Child # 4 into town yesterday, we spotted a pair of Bald Eagles. This may come as no surprise to many of you that live in Bald Eagle country, but it really floored us!

Now, normally we see scads of Red Tail Hawks, Kestrels, Owls, and other birds, but these two were simply phenomenal!

We’ve seen Eagles once or twice fishing at the lake about 7 miles from here, but these two were just hanging out in the cornfields, and lounging in the wind breaks.

Sorry the quality is poor-

I caught them with my little Flip camera and was driving the backroads simultaneously. I know, don’t say it.  It was worth driving into a ditch or bean field in order to get this film!

I don’t know if it’s any better in fullscreen-but you can try and see if there is any improvement.

Wow!

Yep, the poor nectarine tree makes it’s yearly sacrifice to the hordes of Japanese Beetles.

The !#&$%! beetles get to it every year. I have read that besides roses, the fruits of peaches, nectarines and such are among the favorite foods for the hideous beasts. The good news is they are so busy destroying the nectarines that they generally spare the apple trees right next to it. They also have yet to discover the Apricot tree about 50 yards away (crossing fingers behind her back.)

They eat the fruit right down to the pits,or stones. See how this fruit is absolutely covered in the darn things?

There is not a nectarine left on the tree after the invasion. The birds won’t eat them and they seem to have no natural enemies…the wretched creatures.