Bug Attack

If you've inadvertantly taken a peak outside your carefully reinforced bubble lately, you may have noticed some disturbingly worrying things going on. Some of those distant countries that you've vaguely heard about have started lobbing explosive things at each other. Our own governments (over here in civilised-land) appear to be in meltdown, caring more for their own pockets than those poor bastards that they are meant to serve. Their only successes seem to be to reduce the tax burden on those much put-upon rich people.

And then there's the climate. 

Oh yeah. That.

Fear not! Get back inside your bubble, where all appears safe and secure.

But....

Maybe not.

Whilst our governments go through the throws of diverting public opinion from the important things in life like, erm, living, to, erm, repelling small boats, the real invaders are creeping almost unnoticed through the gaps in our fortress walls. I don't mean those horrible dangerous foreigners intent on doing the jobs that none of us civilised types would ever think of touching. No. I'm referring to those much smaller alien invaders.

Bugs.

For several years now I have battled against the asian Box moth that is insistent on eating my once proud Box hedge. Every year I have to spray my beloved hedge with disgustingly toxic chemicals in an attempt to keep the bloody thing alive. Although the hedge survives, many innocent insect lives are lost. This year, I tried hard to reduce the warfare to a minimum, in a vain attempt at saving that collateral damage, but to no avail. The increased length of our summer heat has provoked them into a frenzy of hedge trimming. I had hoped our local bird life would come to the rescue. Despite the positive fact that we now have many more birds in our garden, none of them give a shit about those pesky little box moths. They're just too small. not worth the bother.

Unfortunately the bug invasion hasn't stopped there. Our veranda, covered with composite decking, has also been attacked. Not by moths this time, but by those voracious little bastards: termites. 

Much of the supporting structure has already been munched by these greedy little buggers. The remaining struts have simply turned into a fungal fest. Even one of our much prized aged vines has succumbed to the little blighters.

Having ripped up the decking and burnt all the infected wood along with the vine (and many tears), it was finally time to relax before preparing for our three week sojourn in the Troll.

But...

A third wave of bug attack was well underway. 

And this one was even more serious. Even more tear-jerkingly wretched.

Living in sunny climes (and getting worryingly more sunny) we have planted many palm trees. Many of them have grown at a truly impressive rate, dwarfing our expectations. However, in amongst all this glory is a devastating, slow and insidiously fatal disease.

 

Leaves have started to brown and die, leaving just a stump.

And inside this seemingly dead stump, life is teaming. It's life Jim, but not as we know it.

Like something from a low budget Dr Who series, giant bugs thrive, writhe and scare little children.

These horrors are the larvae of the beautiful Palm moth. 

They live for up to two years inside the trunk of the palm happily gorging themselves leaving an empty husk. Here's one trying to eat my finger.

They then metamorphose into that large, beautiful, slightly scary moth, flying like crazed kamikaze pilots around your head in late spring. Like the very best kamikaze pilots they don't eat, they just screw around, intently working on producing the next generation of horrors.

To buck this trend, the most weird looking bugs...

...can be totally harmless. Unless you happen to be another bug. In fact, the whole garden is full of bugs, as noted in a blog from earlier this year here.

I sometimes wonder about this so-called 'joy of gardening'...

I think it's time we left on our next adventure.