John- I suspect not- think this is all just the result of a fairly active ecosystem in one of my compost bins. Can't remember if I posted this shot before- but just to close the loop a moth fly on the back of a large slug
Great shots. After hearing that the second moth was on a large slug, my youngest was concerned about the potential of wiping slug slime off of your lens when you are that close
MichAg92 wrote:
Great shots. After hearing that the second moth was on a large slug, my youngest was concerned about the potential of wiping slug slime off of your lens when you are that close
- lots of water
Thanks Amy for the comments and chuckle
You can tell your son that as I have a healthy aversion to slugs I made sure neither the lens or my hand was touching it . That was a particularly evil looking large yellow coloured slug.
Tom Hicks wrote:
I have to agree Brian you do have a wonderful zoo. I can't wait for spring < I'm looking forward to seeing pics of the flea circus you have.
Thanks Tom
Having been shooting in my garden now for nearly 3 years I'm getting a fairly good idea of what's about when and where throughout the year. Just wish a robber fly would visit - never seen one - might even have to venture out for one those!
Brian V.
Good shots Brian, I still haven't managed to get one of these ....yet! Not using pesticides really does make a difference to the ecosystem that builds up in a garden, after a couple of years everything is in balance and there is just no need for them.
Adrian Jones wrote:
Good shots Brian, I still haven't managed to get one of these ....yet! Not using pesticides really does make a difference to the ecosystem that builds up in a garden, after a couple of years everything is in balance and there is just no need for them.
Adrian
Thanks Adrian.
Yes you are right about the pestacides - There's only three things in the garden now that cause me problems
1. Slugs and snails (I don't like using pellets because of the effect on hedgehogs and thrushes) - I actually admit to manually killing these if they get too many (late night sorties with torch and sharp flower scissors)
2. Scale insects on bay and acer trees. Don't seem to have any satisfactory parasites for these yet - just rub them off with a tissue.
3. Aphid outbreaks on my bonsai acers - I just blast these off with a fine spray. It's odd because aphids on other plants seem to get dealt with by all the other predators or parasitoids.
Everything else seems to look after itself and you can get fascinating macros of some of the bug interactions.
