For someone who loves to garden, I have zero tolerance for bugs, grubs and the like. If I touch one accidentally I go into shudder mode, and I have been know to rip off my clothes if I think there's one on me. Worm farms give me nightmares, and slugs make me scream like a girl, but surprisingly spiders don't bother me at all, even though half of them here would send you to hospital given the chance.
As I was photographing this fat little grub with my face next to his, all I could think of was if he moves, I may never venture out of the house again. Such is my dedication, because as much as this grubby little fellow turns my stomach, I am really interested to know what he is. I remember digging them up as a child and almost keeling over at the sight of them, so the fact that I can take a picture of one now, close up, just goes to show what extraordinarily high levels of maturity I have attained.
On another note, this weekend in the garden so far I been confronted with five rats, yes, five - I know exactly how many because I let out a little scream as each individual enormous rat popped up out of its disturbed nest, several of those huge fat worms that are as thick as a man's thumb, cockroaches (what are they doing in the garden!?), and, wait for it, a snake.
A snake.
Actually the rats were way worse.
If I were the fainting type, I'd still be lying in a heap in my new potato bed.
26 comments:
We have had 22 snakes here this year..I come from NZ where we don't have snakes so to have 22 in one season is SHOCKING!!!
I didn't see a single snake this season and I live in snake city! None of your namby pampy Queensland pythons either...real, dealdly ones. That grub is the lava of a beetle. They feed on the roots of your plants. Cockchafer (now the name alone should make you squeal) beetle larvae can ruin a good lawn. :=)
Ali, those ugly little grubs are Christmas beetle Larvae, you know the pretty ones and the annoying browns ones that swarm the deck on a hot summers night in December...I used to think they were witchity grubs when I was little and I remember my brother telling me I could eat them, No I don't think I did!! They are quite harmless. If you can't handle them toss them into the chooks...Do you have chooks? If you do, then that is why the rats are there, and then the snakes are there because the rats are there...Scary...Got to keep your wits about you in the Garden! Hope tomorrow brings a better day for you...
Hmm this snake was about as namby pamby as you get too - teeny tiny and very thin. I, however, have actually seen a snake this season, which is more than I can say for some people of other parts of the country.
Joyfulhomemaker, I'd be leaving the country on the first plane back... no snakes? Does that mean more rats?? It's the rats that get to me, I hate rats... hate them. If you are all very good, one day I will tell you my rat story. I really hate rats.
GJ, I had no idea... really, it never occurred to me that they were beetles... I feel a whole lot better about them now, I like beetles. I do have chickens... and rats... but not really many snakes, and this one was teeny tiny. Rats bother me a lot, I really really don't like them.
That looks horrible. Your photo's are very good. thanks for popping by my blog, now I'm off to read yours.
So let me get this right - you don't like rats?
I must admit I'm very jumpy at unexpected wildlife in the garden. In the summer I'll rustle the rake about in the undergrowth when I'm weeding in case there's a frog about to leap out.
Meanqueen I thought your blog was both helpful and hilarious, you seem have quite a fabulous outlook on life...
LBM, really. Really really... and yes, it's the unexpected that gets you, when something I'm not ready for appears, my goodness I just get a bit wobbly all over. I should take up hydroponics.
oooh oohh I know - it looks a little like a lawn grub.
Maybe you should get a dirty big snake and that would take care of the rats...hmmm and maybe the chickens I dont suppose you can find a snake that only eats rats?
Rats...ugghhhhh, we have them here until they find those nice blue wax blocks that I leave them in the shed.....and funnily enough, I dont see them anymore....
we don't get rats but last year we had a major mice plague,they are suggesting that it might be even worse this year..last year I could 18 in my bed in one night..snakes are majorly creepy but we only really get brown snakes here(which are deadly) but the are also scared of us(althou I think I am way more scared of them)they scurry away when they feel you coming
I hate rats too. We had some living down the back but disappeared after eating the lovely green pellets we dropped down the hole for them.
We've got the beetle larvae as well and they have absolutely destroyed our lawn. Magpies like them. No snakes tho - touch wood.
Aww look at his squooshy abdomen and hairy little legs... how could you not like bugs! To be fair I kept a safe distance from all insects until I had to collect them for a uni project, forced exposure therapy worked for me. Keeping rats as pets never got me over my aversion to feral rats though, I would be barricading myself inside if I found that many in my yard! :(
Hi Ali, I used to be like that, something shifted and now I am fascinated and even love insects and spiders. Except blue ants and wasps, both of which have stung me and it hurt. Snakes and rats though - NIMBY thank you. cheers, catmint
We call those grubs Chafer Grubs. They are particularly associated with grassland. Some years ago, when I removed the alleged "lawn" which is now my veg plot, I found lots of them, but now I seldom see any.
I would be pretty scared by the snake - I hate them - but I could probaly tolerate the rats. As you well know, I'm fine with worms! How are you with Foxes, because round here they think they own the place.
I'd probably be fine with a fox until it ate my chickens and then my vegetables. I've never seen one here where I live, that may be because so many people have dogs, but I have seen them squished on the road in the countryside. In the valley way up the road from where I live I heard that they are baiting dingoes at the moment, apparently one killed someone's cow the other day.
I looked up the bug under the name Cockchafer as Hazel suggested (how could I not with a name like that), and it seems to be my bug. SO chafer bug for short hey.
Catmint it took me a while to work out the NIMBY, unfortunately I think there are plenty of rats there who are possibly working their way up to my badly sealed house...
Kat, I can't believe you kept/keep rats... even the domestic ones make my skin crawl! And it's his fat little smooshy stomach that makes my stomach turn, gross little bug.
Judith I read about the bugs eating the lawn and plant roots, I don't know what they were doing in my empty garden bed though. I might have to dig through it again and throw them all to the chickens??
Jacqui I'd love a big carpet snake to gobble them all up, but it probably wouldn't stop there, would it. I can just imagine going outside one day to find it latched to one of the children's feet. Where is Mrs Goggins in all the drama is what I'd like to know.
Joyfulhomemaker a mouse plague does not sound good at all, and neither do brown snakes... did you poison the mice??
Suzanne I am calling the rat man to come out asap, a few years ago he put down bait stations for us that took care of the problem until now. I detest and loathe and just hate rats.
Too funny! I go hunting these grubs on purpose! My chooks think they are like lollies and make all sorts of pleasure noises.
Eeeeew yuck. I hate creepy crawlies. I'd freak out if I saw a rat. Luckily I haven't yet - only mice in the compost. Spiders make me cry.
yug! I didn't know what it was but it sure is ugly. I'm with you on the bug front - I pretty much live in the garden and still scream all girly if I touch a worm - and when emptying the compost - if there's a load of them I have been known to retch!! Poor hubby has to deal with it all!
I once found half a petrified mouse half way up the door frame in our spare room - no idea how long it had been there and how the cat managed to splat it that high - but ew!
Ali! You are brave to get there with the grub friendly though it appears it can still evoke the ewwwwww squirmy feeling! I'm with Laura, I retch too :) Rats UGH you poor thing :( Glad I haven't seen one yet...
Ooo Tanya you are a champion; I dug up a few today (with a shovel, I didn't get that excited) and gave them to the chickens - what fun that was. They really are like chicken lollies, and what a great use for them.
Veggie I don't mind spiders because they aren't out to get you, or the things that you eat... rats are. I hate rats.
Laura if our cat ever does anything like that she is out the door, gone, goodbye. Oh gross. I'm so glad that you are also a bit of a garden wimp, it's nice to have company!
And Mrs Bok, I hope you never have to see one... rats are awful, yuck, gross, not lovely, I could go on but you'll all stop reading pretty soon :)
Ok last year we had 10 scorpions in the house to many to count outside. Lots of Centipedes they are not funny when they drop on your head then you shake your head and it falls into your nightie. We have large black snakes and if you see them there also rats around and also a few poisonous snakes but not like you have in Australia. But the things I really don’t like are cockroaches Yuk
Well Ali, hope you have recovered enough to venture back into the garden. I discovered some of those grubs yesterday in some compost. The chooks then discovered them too. I guess the rats/bugs/snakes/etc. are all part of the micronism? that makes your garden such a fruitful place.
Rats I can live without though. Does the city council still have the rat dogs that you can get out to your house to exterminate rats? True story because years ago I had them to a rental house. They (fox terriers) couldn't work properly because I had a dog and the scent confused them. If you don't have a dog it would work. Worth contacting the council anyway. A good non-chemical solution.
They prefer to eat composting material, you should find lots in the compost heap when you turn it over - take it as a compliment that your gardens are healthy :)
David & I now go through the compost with disposable gloves and pick them out for the chooks.. but my chooks are a bit dumb and sometimes don't even eat them!
Oh Donna, I didn't know that, what a great sign! I have been feeding them to the chickens, who are just loving it, who would have though that grub hunting could be so much fun
Wendy I did find out about the dogs, and it is the most fabulous idea, but when we checked it out they had stopped doing it in Brisbane. I think they still do it on the Gold Coast now, who knows why though. I do have a dog though, obviously not a very useful dog, luckily we love him a lot!
Cathy; are the scorpions dangerous?
Our chooks go beserk over those grubs too. Another source of protein. :D)
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