Wednesday Walk - Infestation

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Here is a late #wednesdaywalk by tattoodjay@tattoodjay A few bad storms caused blackouts and I wasn't able to post.
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My first sighting on a walk with my daughter was a huge Tiger Swallow Tail. It lost its tails either to birds or to the rip roaring storms around here from El Nino.

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Now for the infestation. These guys somehow ended up on a sign post vs the milkweed plants. I suspect tornado winds/rains might have been why they moved up here.

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Of course I had to disrupt their coagulation by putting my hand under then then tapping on the sign post. They all landed in my hand and I shook them off into the milkweed plants where they belong.

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These are harmless milkweed bugs at various instar stages. Some are beginning to have wings to fly around.

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My daughter had a blast catching the smaller ones without wings.

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These guys are fearless as they eat poisonous milkweeds so birds and other predators don't mess with them.

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I've noticed lots of ants moving to new colonies because of the rains. They get flooded out in one area and have to take their whole colony to another area.

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I went to a playground with my daughter and had to leave as it had bald faced hornets on the swingset. They are somewhat calm compared to yellowjackets but if their nest is nearby they can get aggressive and are large and have terrible stings.

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Thus we had to book it out of there and we found one of many gnome/mushroom setups in someone's yard. This one kind of got dismantled by the storm so my daughter wanted to fix it up a bit.

That's all for now, I'm hoping the thunderstorms let up and we have a nice fall season this year.