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The Format - "Interventions and Lullabyes" (2003- Elektra Records)...good, all-American pop-rock My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work
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Thursday, Jul. 01, 2004 - 5:21 p.m. No, I am not talking about teenagers in general. I�m referring to Japanese beetles. They are back early this summer, and have been doing their destructive lifestyle for about 2 weeks now. I have killed so many of these voracious plant eaters with Sevin dust (no, not the hard rock band- the pesticide) that they are starting to stack up on the ground below the plants they favor. My rhubarb at work has a fistful of dead beetles in the cup area at the base of each leaf on the largest stalk. Much worse this year than in the past, which is what our county ag advisor warned us this spring. Considering the fact that these things weren�t even in the Mohall area as recently as the year 2000, the damage they are now causing is really amazing. The title of today�s entry can be completed this way: having a large number of them crawling around under my t-shirt is even worse. How did that happen, you might be wondering? Simple. I was mowing the back 10 acres of the storage this afternoon, taking a mental break from the past two weeks of crazy year-end spending. I was on the John Deere 935 riding mower, enjoying this peaceful activity. Around the east border of this land as what once was a hedgerow of large pine trees. Several have died through the years, and have been replaced by whatever weed tree decides to grow in its place (soft maples, mulberry, and birch make up the majority of these trees). I am not sure which tree these pests find delicious, but whichever one it was must have been covered with the beasties. As I was trimming close to these trees, the roll bar on the back of my mower must have smacked a low-hanging branch containing a small towns worth of them. I was wearing a very loose t-shirt that has a stretched out collar. Some of the bugs landed in my hair, some flew away only after bumping into my face and body. And about 15 of them fell into the backside of my shirt. It takes these slow moving creatures a second or two to react to any outside stimuli, so that gave me enough time to shut the blades off and turn the mower off. Still, having 15 bugs churning their scratchy little legs on the bare skin of my back wasn�t an experience I would recommend to anyone. I stood up and pulled my t-shirt off, releasing the beetles to eat and have sex another day. Or maybe not: Before I left work tonight, I did a little harvesting in my garden. I picked 18 summer squash of different sizes and varieties (put most of them on the signin table, where they quickly disappeared), three small rock-hard heads of cabbage (Joe D. Mechanic wanted one for his family, and I think I may be making slaw for a picnic on Saturday), along with some romaine lettuce that had started to bolt to seed (it should still be tasty, though) and a few decent side sprouts of broccoli for my dad and step mom. The last thing I did before I left? Added another layer of Sevin dust to my apple trees (under heavy attack this week), and to anything in the garden beds that attracts the dreaded beetles. I�ll need a shovel to remove all of their dead exoskeletons next Tuesday�.
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