Warning: bug pics (so if you’re squeamish, don’t look)
I saw this little guy munching on another insect. Had the hardest time finding what kind of bug it was. Finally, I saw a similar one in Google images, leading to a Reddit post where someone was asking the same question: what the hell is that? A robber fly. 😍 Such a cool guest in my garden, getting rid of some pest. This is a welcome change to the usual and creepy boxelder bugs I see every day. (Which I’ve stopped killing since google reassured me that they aren’t destroying my garden.) But I saw them eating a dead bee the other day, and had to research a little. Because if they were killing bees, they couldn’t be boxelders… nope. They weren’t killing them. They just sometimes snack on ones that are already dead. 🤨😮💨 Look at that. Ugh… 😭 I just don’t like them.
Here’s the biggest jumping spider I’ve seen before, hanging out under my swamp cooler.
There it is running away because it doesn’t like that I’ve noticed it.
And I don’t know what made this hole, but I suspect a wasp, and I’m sealing it up.
Even though some of these worry me or gross me out, this all makes me so happy.
Update: It was a mining bee hole. 😬 That explains why so many kept ending up in my swamp cooler, and why boxelder bugs are snacking on them. I sealed it up. I know insects think they found prime real estate next to a great water source, but I’m discouraging any of them that I find. That’s why I escorted that queen ant to the park; I don’t want them making colonies where I’m going to be hanging out all the time. Then they’d be trying to discourage me from being in my own yard. 😅
@Longpatrol It’s way too big to be. It’s almost as wide as a quarter. Our biggest ants out here are harvester ants. Their anthills are way smaller than this.
