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A Nighttime Visitor
I had a bit of a surprise the other night. I let Buddy out to go bathroom before bedtime and he started wuffling at something in the backyard. By wuffling I mean he’s doing kind a breathy quiet bark that he does when he’s warning me about something but isn’t defensive yet. I looked out and saw a grayish something about the size of a cat on the grass under the avocado tree that hangs over our neighbors fence. At first I thought it was a cat, but typically cats take off as soon as Buddy starts making noise or when I step outside. This one is stayed absolutely still with it’s face turned our way watching us. It had an air of “You don’t see me, I’m not here” about it.
Glowing Eyes in the Backyard
I took a step closer and called Buddy to bring him back to me as he was inching closer to whatever it was. The last thing I wanted was an emergency vet trip because he tangled with one of the wild critters around here. Thankfully he listened and moved back to my feet and continued to wuffle. I called inside for Handsome to come look and we stood there for a bit to trying and figure out what it was. It definitely wasn’t a raccoon as it didn’t have the dark mask, but a silvery white heartlike face like a Persian cat. I suddenly realized it didn’t have the flat muzzle of a cat but a long narrow tipped muzzle and then it slowly shifted and I saw a long rat like tail. We have an opossum visitor!
Opossum Visitor Turns to Go
I shooed Buddy back inside and grabbed a camera and managed to get a few good pictures. I think the flash bugged it or it realized I wasn’t going to attack. It slowly turned and moved to the wall, scampered along it, up the stairs to the garden, climbed up between two of our compost bins to the fence and ran along the back wall. The next morning I saw a half eaten avocado on the lawn. In fact my mom pointed out that if you look close you can see it in the picture above. That would explain what’s been taking them up onto the fence or wall to chow down on them LOL. I keep finding pits and half eaten remains out there ; )
Opossum Climbing the Bins
Fig Beetle
My poor garden is looking over run with weeds, ripe berries, and dead flowers so I figured it was time to get out there and get some work done. I hadn’t figured on encountering some new wildlife. The first one was under a strawberry leaf that turned over as I was picking one of the strawberries, it was an inch long iridescent green beetle. Startled I jumped backwards and had to stand there for a bit before I stopped freaking out.
Two fig beetles that startled me in my garden.
Finally I decided to go in and grab a container to put it in. No way was I going to leave it there to frighten me again. Besides I’d never seen anything like it before. I wasn’t even sure if it was native. As I came back out there was another one sitting on top of one of my strawberry plants, and I could swear it was watching me! I scooped them both up in my container and put the lid on figuring I’d take the time to figure out what they were latter.
I’d just gotten over the shock and was picking my blackberries when one suddenly skitters across my hand eliciting a high pitched shriek from me and another jump backwards. It hit the ground, upside down scrabling it’s legs in the air. As I’m watched it and tried to calm down it righted itself and flew off over our two story house. Needles to say I spent the rest of my time carefully checking around leaves before reaching my hand in ; D
Normally I don’t have a problem with any bug except spiders, but the combination of the size and the color just made it look so out of this world. I’m just glad it wasn’t any larger. I took them over to show them to my parents who suggested looking them up online. In the back of my mind I was wondering if it was a non-native species as we had the local naturalists put some sort of trap in one of our trees for beetles not that long ago. I’d wondered if maybe it was something they were looking for.
It turns out that they are native to the area, although they weren’t always. They’re called Fig Beetles, sometimes Green Fruit Beetles (Cotinas Mutabilis (some places Texana)), and are mistaken for Japanese Beetles which are apparently more destructive but look different. People also put them in the category of June Beetles as that’s the time they tend to appear. They are apparently common in Mexico and have migrated north over the years. Apparently they love ripe or overripe fruit and will scrape off the outside to eat the inside. Their larva/grubs grow in compost, manure, or heavy leaf litter.
All of this probably explains why some of my berries have holes in them, either that or it’s the birds or squirrels which also appear to like my garden. There are probably more growing in my compost piles too * sighs * Well at least some of the sites were helpful in advice for getting rid of them. Frequently turning your compost piles to expose the grubs to birds and other predators and Flood irrigation as they don’t do well in saturated soil. Here are the sites that I found the best info at.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r261300511.html
http://www.farmerfred.com/greenbeetles.htm
KIDS N KITCHENS 