Great

I used to be fearful of wasps but with knowledge comes less fear.  Now I know that these giant Golden Digger Wasps are pretty harmless.  The males (like all male bees and wasps) cannot sting and the females will only sting if you were to step on one or grab her with bare hands.  They dig burrows in the ground where the female provisions her larva with katydids and grasshoppers, sealing the tunnel up and letting the young feed and molt until they come out of the ground next summer.  They like to burrow in sandy soil so we often have diggers nests in our patio.  This was one of several in the milkweed patch today.  Although this is a big wasp I think it still qualifies for TinyTuesday (with thanks to JDO for hosting).

I also took my first ever photo of a tick today, although it was an accident as I was focused on getting a shot of a Common Eastern Firefly who was sharing a leaf with the tick.  I will put that in Extra.  We seem to have a lot of fireflies this summer and it is quite magical in the evening to look outside and see little flashes of lights everywhere - like littler fairy lights.

I have also officially opened the monarch nursery with three very tiny, just "hatched" little caterpillars.  I wasn't going to start this until next month, but when I found the tiny caterpillars and spotted an assassin bug nearby, well... I decided to intervene.  I'm sure there are many more little cats out there, but these three have been saved and are now living in a nice mesh container with plenty of fresh milkweed.  

Hubs is back to work today, managing with some intermittent flashes and the irritating floater.  We are told that the brain will eventually learn to ignore both, but right now he's finding it pretty annoying.  But so much better than what we had feared!

Super hot today and no clouds so I'm limiting time outside for Jax and I both.  We have a couple more days of high temps before it cools off a bit this weekend.  

xoxo
Debbi