Goin' Buggy in Texas

A few of the insects found around the farm. There are a lot of them too, just ask CJ who got bit or stung by almost all of them! Most of the bites were from mosquitos, with a couple of fire ants joining in too, but I didn't bother taking pictures of those pests. I did want to share some of the more interesting ones with you though.


This Katydid did bite CJ, but it surprised him more than hurt him. So I tortured it by making it pose for me.
It must be thinking "Hmm, If I pose just right, she will let me go."


This colorful caterpillar was not very nice. It was on a flower pot and CJ just brushed against it, getting a huge, painful welt on his leg. A little bit of Benedryl and some ice did the trick though, and the welt went away quickly. Grammy made sure the little bugger didn't have to opportunity to do that again.

Now this is a nice bug! Grammy has quite a green thumb, and has planted a butterfly garden. I'll show you some of her flowers later. This butterfly prefered the tree though. It could hide much better on brown bark than on orange flowers!

This is really just a skin of a bug. The 17-year Cicada crawls out of the ground, finds a suitable place to grab on, and sheds its skin. We didn't pay enough attention to them to catch one emerging.

But, I was able to find this on YouTube for you. It also has the Cicada song, which really is LOUD.

When Katie was a year old we went to visit in the summer, and she would not go outside because of all the noise. Now it's just the sound of a Texas summer and she doesn't have any problems with it anymore.