One man's trash is anotehr man's treasure. Liquidambar styraciflua is a fast-growing, native tree that needs little to no care or pruning. It is a source of wildlife/songbird food, and remediation of pesticides and other pollutants, especially when planted in wetlands. It is a great screen. From the Pennsylvania Pride website: "Cars will come to a screeching halt when they drive by your house to watch the gorgeous fall display of this handsome native tree. Uniquely rounded seedpods dance among the distinctive, star-shaped leaves that sport a dazzling array of yellows, oranges, reds and purples each autumn. Its corky, gray bark adds unique winter interest to your landscape." I have many very large sweetgums and love them. I have too many saplings, and I can tell you that even cutting a sapling down at ground level and coating with conc roundup will not kill it. Does your sweetgum screen between your houses? I have a neighbor who used a bush-hog to cut down all the "trash" saplings between our yards, including on my property, thinking that I would be pleased. I fail to understand even now, 4 years later, how he could have thought I would prefer a full view into his family room over my previous view of sapling dogwood, redbud, mapleleaf viburnum, oak, and sweetgum. After he bush-hogged it, the sunlight on soil sprouted poison ivy and wild grape. It has taken many hours of hard work by hand for 4 years to restore the strip of understory trees between our homes. Many people see harming a tree no differnt than harming a neighbor's pet. Negotiate and compromise is my advice.

Thank you Remy! That is exactly what it is without a doubt. I could not find anything like it and appreciate the help. I looked up porcelain berry vine and mine has more pink in the leaves and I had no berries, but it seems they don't all berry. The berries are pretty but apparently make the plant invasive via birds, so I'd rather not have them. The thing is amazingly lush and vigorous. It's become a household joke, The Evil Vine. We keep our Great Dane away from it in case The Vine is hungry. It's an interesting plant even if it is flashy, I'm glad I have info on how to take care of it now - in a big pot.

We LOVE our rats! We have two and they're just part of the family. :) They snuggle, play, come when called, are potty-trained and even love our dogs. Rats are very clean and don't like it when their cage is dirty. We have what we call a rat-mansion in our DD's room. It's a VERY big cage so that they can roam around it and play chase with each other. They're hilarious- honestly, they have their own sense of humor and love to make you laugh. If you ever have a chance to observe them, you'd be surprised at how smart they are. Rats get a bad rap simply because the FLEAS they carried were what spread the European Bubonic Plague. Blessings! Haley

It's not a close enough image for ID purposes but my first instinct was that it's a very young cockroach nymph.