Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
A young Coopers Hawk swooped across the yard, landed on a branch, and proceeded to dismantle something yummy, scattering little bits on the driveway below. One piece fluttered down like a feather, but, after the hawk flew off, we found this:
Praying Mantis – wing
It wasn’t a feather, it was an entire wing!
A few feet away, we found another:
Praying Mantis – wing parts
Not that there was any doubt, but these parts clinched the identification:
Praying Mantis – foreleg and wing parts
Some days earlier, we admired eight Praying Mantises on the decorative grasses and bushes out front. Perhaps it was this one:
Praying Mantis – brown wing covers – in grass
Or this one, a few feet away:
Praying Mantis – brown wing covers – on bush
We don’t know what, if any, the difference between brown and green wing covers might indicate. Age? Gender? Attitude? Skill level?
A recent Amazon purchase of three 3 lb bags of walnuts from a known-good seller arrived with many damaged nuts:
Damaged walnuts – detail
The damage matches what I read about Walnut Husk Fly infestations: shriveled kernels and terrible taste.
In round numbers, I found 8 oz of damaged nuts in each 3 lb bag, enough to ruin the entire batch. The seller immediately refunded the purchase price for all three bags, so there’s that.
It’s definitely not one of the counterfeit products plaguing Amazon, but I wonder why that lot didn’t fail incoming inspection.
I’m loathe to buy more walnuts for a while, though.
Memo to Self: Always inspect incoming purchases, even from reputable sellers!
The Butterfly Bush in front of the house attracts all kinds of insects, including Monarch Butterflies (shown here on the Goldenrod planted in the garden):
Monarch on Goldenrod – left
This year, the bush also attracted a Praying Mantis:
Their offspring began emerging in early July, with our first picture on 3 July. I’ll leave the image file dates in place so you can reach your own conclusions:
IMG_20190703_184657 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – right
We think a titmouse (a known predator) pecked some holes, including the upper hole on the middle tube, as they seemed to expose solid (and presumably inedible) chitin from the outside:
IMG_20190703_184647 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – left
More holes appeared in a few days:
IMG_20190709_172632 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – right
The irregular spacing along each tube suggests they don’t emerge in the reverse order of installation:
IMG_20190709_172623 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – left
Three days later:
IMG_20190712_181634 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – right
IMG_20190712_181625 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – left
Two weeks after the first holes appeared:
IMG_20190717_172908 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – right
IMG_20190717_172922 – Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Nest – left
No more holes have appeared since then, so it seems one young wasp emerges every few days.
This nest produced about a dozen wasps, with perhaps as many launch failures. We’ll (try to) remove it and examine the contents in a few months.
We expect they’ll start building nests all over the house in another month …
Update: Fortunately for us, no nests appeared before the first freeze, so the wasps are holed up elsewhere for the winter.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 