Seasonally appropriate aphids

Here is a scary picture for Halloween...

This is a milkweed plant I went past on my ride home... what with the orange aphids, the black mold growing on the aphid poop and the overall grossness, I figured it would make a good shot for today.

More caterpillars eaten alive

I love wasps. I love them even more when they are killing caterpillars. Which was why I was excited to see this:

It is a tomato horn worm -- bane of the tomato growers existence -- covered with the pupal of a tiny little parasitoid wasp. A momma wasp finds a tomato horn worm, and cheerfully lays some eggs inside it. The little baby wasp larva hatch and happily munch on the innards of the caterpillar. Like all good parasitoids, they are careful to save the vital organs for last so the caterpillar doesn't die. Finally, they wriggle their way out of the body of the horn worm, build a little pupa (the white things in the picture) and transform themselves into lovely little adult wasps.
So so cool... Parasitoid wasps are the best. There are tons of different kinds -- some of which are so tiny they actually lay their eggs and grow up inside aphids!

Variegated weeds

Virtually all variegated plants on the market are found as chance mutations in a garden or nursery -- so I always keep my eye out for leaves that look different on the off chance that I'll find something exciting.

This past weekend I found not one but TWO variegated plants in my yard. Both weeds, sadly, but still, cool all the same.

This variegated queen anne's lace (Daucus carota) shown here against its plain green neighbors, is actually quite pretty, I think. Sadly, it is a biennial, so the only way to propagate it would be by seed, and this type of variegation is virtually certain not to come true from seed.

This narrow leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata) has variegation that looks unstable -- half the leaves are variegated, half aren't, but I'm hopeful it will stabilize with white leaf margins. Plantain is a perennial, so propagation would be no problem, and really, it looks more like a rare and expensive hosta than a weed! Of course, it will still seed around like a weed, and have plain, green children... but still. Pretty cool. Now if only the non-weed residents of my yard would follow their example and throw variegated sports as well I would be REALLY excited.

Orange slime balls

The other day I noticed this strange orange slimey blobs on a juniper:

Kinda gross, but kinda cool at the same time.

Turns out it is Cedar Apple Rust -- a fungal disease that can grow on apples, hawthorns, and junipers. On the apples and hawthorns, it can cause serious damage, but doesn't do much more than look funky on junipers. More info here from Kansas state university.