Trouble ahead: Lubbers

Taking the dogs for a walk to the nearby pocket park, I noticed this horrible sight: hundreds and hundreds of lubber nymphs. I've never seen them clustered in such large numbers before, so I guess for those of us in Florida, we're in for another bad year.

Now is the time to check your garden for the nymphs because they tend to cluster together and are susceptible to Sevin or other insecticides. As they get bigger, they disperse and are immune to everything but being squashed.

Eastern lubber grasshopper

Adult Eastern Lubbers

In South Florida, you can find these critters all year round, with a peak in early summer. In most of its range (the rest of the Southeastern US) they are seasonal.

I was surprised to learn that despite their size (3" or 8 cm -ish), lubbers (Romalea microptera) cause less damage to crops and plants than smaller grasshoppers. In the home landscape, they're particularly fond of plants in the Amaryllidaceae family. I've seen them decimate crinum lilies used in public parks, for instance, as the smaller photo illustrates.

Lubber damage on a crinum lily

The best way to deal with them is to look for the young black-with-yellow nymphs, which like to cluster together, and dispose of them, because once they're large adults, they are much harder to find and kill, by then being resistant to most backyard insecticides.

If you need more info, check out the University of Florida's Featured Creature page.

Mystery solved! Plant ID revealed

It's Vicia acutifolia, a native vetch. I learned this from Suzanne Koptur, a biology professor at Florida International University. According to Dr. Koptur, it can be found in "many Florida counties."

The vetch continues to grow but it's being attacked by blackflies, which I'll need to deal with. It's got lots of tiny pods (click on the photo), so I'm sure it will seed itself again.

If anyone wants seeds, let me know.

A plant commits suicide

This has nothing to do with the freeze...

Some time ago, one of my variegated crinum lilies stopped producing chlorophyll, resulting in all-white leaves. They got a viral infection, and the plant died.

Before it changed, it had produced several pups that I planted around the garden. The first two photos are of one of those mature pups. The third is of a healthy plant.

It must be some genetic trait, but it won't be passed on since I don't plan to take any more pups.

What a shame, though. It was so beautiful before it went downhill, a bit like a consumptive Victorian heroine!

It's raining .... iguanas??

The AP has a story about the cold in the South, ending with a couple of paragraphs about iguanas, stupefied by the cold, falling out of trees. It happens most years in these parts. It's one of those things that goes with cold weather and always makes us laugh. (Well, they don't belong here, after all.)

A couple of years ago, one of The Herald's photographers had been dispatched to take pix and he came back with a bright green one, about 14" long, in his pocket. It was just beginning to revive in the warm newsroom.

I forgot to check the neighborhood this morning for any on the ground, but in the meantime, here's a picture of the monster that lives on the other side of the canal where he suns himself at the top of a tree and wards off all rivals.

Snail sex

Just came across this wild sex scene as I took food out to the cat. The motion lights came on and caught them in the act. (I'm assuming this is how snails have sex, but maybe they were just having a nice chat.) I suppose this means baby snails and all that entails ...

Bromeliads and mosquitoes

If you have bromeliads, you have mosquitoes breeding in the cups. Unless, of course, you manage them well. I'm using mosquito bits containing modified Bt, available online, to kill the larvae.

I asked Adrian Hunsberger, the horticulturalist/entomologist with Dade's extension service, whether it only need be applied to the central cup, but she said bits should go in each cup and reapplied if it rains.

According to Mosquitoes.org, the larvae live in water for seven to 14 days, depending on the temperature, so I reckon that applying the bits need only be done once a week.

Despite that, I have a major skeeter problem, and I suspect that they are coming from the neighbors. I've called 311 to request spraying, but so far, I've not noticed any less. I should buy shares in Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of Off.