Random Photos.

Probably the oposite in weather profiles hot and steamy here in SE QLD produces some cool bromiliade flowers View attachment 24582
Not quite fully blooming I think them purple bits have gotta open yetView attachment 24583
This is under my mandarine tree I never give these any love lol
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Oh no that looks like it's fully blooming

About to absolutely cop it here it's gone dark all of a sudden View attachment 24585
Interesting. The ones that I have in my yard do not like sun. They do well when is a little cooler.
 
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Assassin bug
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Found two of these awesome little Gardner's friends whilst surveying the plants this morning and thought I'd snap a pic or two for this thread.

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This one above was in my sweet potato patch I saw it here the other day maybe they are territorial little dudes.

They are a predatory insect who prey on other insects in the garden they stalk them then impale them with that large proboscis there pictured and suck them dry!:p

They'll give you a good sting too if you confront them.

Anyhow I love seeing these guys in my garden shows I've got a good ballance going too and that my pest control can still be targeted on the house and not effect the eco system I'm the garden:)
 

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Integrated pest management is part of the gardening course that my wife is currently taken through Oregon State University Extension. We will be trying to practice that strategy in our own garden. Take care of the bugs that help you.
Amen brother!

Actually this is part of our Commercial pest certificate in Australia IPM (Integrated Pest Management).

Some pesties forget that part and go all guns a blazing with a kill everything approach.

Well I "try" to take the approach of applying chemicals in the right areas approach taking my own home as a guinea pig approach.

So I apply pesticides internally and externally but as for the garden areas I let Nature take its course.
So the assassin bug - the lady Beatles they are proof to me that I've not taken things too far.

I always say to my customers "you gotta draw the line somewhere and I draw that line at my front door"

If they cross that threshold into my place well their gunna die:p

Even then my wife likes to take pictures of huntsmen and such inside the house and send them to me just to rub it in:D!

For instance
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I applied IPM and me and the Daughter did the paper and bucket removal techniques then me Being the big killer pestie I went and grabbed tome tweezers and carefully removed all the fluff that had built up in the poor huntsmans legs while it had been in my house.

Not kidding it musta been under my bed because the poor thing could hardly move from all the crap it had caught in its legs
 
Those huntsmen grow bigger in your part of the world. When we were still in SoCal, one day at work I took apart a sliding screen door, and out of the frame crawled a big huntsmen. It found new shelter under the screen table that I was working on. I let it be, since it wasn’t doing me any harm. I snapped some photos, but can’t find them.
 
Amen brother!

Actually this is part of our Commercial pest certificate in Australia IPM (Integrated Pest Management).

Some pesties forget that part and go all guns a blazing with a kill everything approach.

Well I "try" to take the approach of applying chemicals in the right areas approach taking my own home as a guinea pig approach.

So I apply pesticides internally and externally but as for the garden areas I let Nature take its course.
So the assassin bug - the lady Beatles they are proof to me that I've not taken things too far.

I always say to my customers "you gotta draw the line somewhere and I draw that line at my front door"

If they cross that threshold into my place well their gunna die:p

Even then my wife likes to take pictures of huntsmen and such inside the house and send them to me just to rub it in:D!

For instance View attachment 24641
I applied IPM and me and the Daughter did the paper and bucket removal techniques then me Being the big killer pestie I went and grabbed tome tweezers and carefully removed all the fluff that had built up in the poor huntsmans legs while it had been in my house.

Not kidding it musta been under my bed because the poor thing could hardly move from all the crap it had caught in its legs
Looks like he (she?) is wearing boots there Ben.

I'm not truly afraid of spiders - I'm considerably larger than they are - but definitely not a fan. I have plenty of them (not huntsmen, something else, kinda like a daddy long legs) in the cellar, I generally leave them be. I figure whatever they are eating is something I dislike more. Our pest control guy agreed, they are mostly harmless, like the house centipedes.

A neighbor showed me a photo if a black widow living on his trash pail. No, that one I'd take a flamethrower to, but only because they won't let me have nuclear weapons any more. :rolleyes:
 
OMG Ben, that's beautiful! Such a cool bird, was he just eyeing your lunch like a seagull, or is he tame?
Na just eyeing my Lunch.
This is a tourist spot so he/she has become unafraid of humans and sees us as a cheap feed.
The magpie is a bloody smart bird and they've got a beautiful song one of the most complex in the world.

But they can get aggressive around nesting season and will swoop anyone within cooee of their territory :D.
 

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