herb_mania Thank you. Gotta give my little camera the credit, though. I just put it in the close-up mode, moved in close and tried to get Mr. DLL in the center, and snapped. Those legs are awfully long, aren't they? And I also discovered that there are TWO insects given the name, Daddy Long Legs. When people popularly differentiate them, one is called the Daddy Long Legs Sspider, and the other one called the Harvestman. This picture is listed as a , but it has a relatively long jointed body. This one is called a Harvestman, and doesn't have a segmented body but is roly-poly. It looks more like that's the one I photographed on my zucchini. They both have long delicate-looking legs. so that must be the reason they carry the same name.

OMG! In my beds these guys are definitely destructive! I noticed them moving in last year and this year they are literally piled up on top of one another! However, I don't think this species cares to much for grasshopper eggs! I noticed them pretty late last year in the season where they were sitting on the Calendula flowers, but didn't see any damage. This year (especially in the last month)I really started to see all of the damage. They are eating all of the flowers and many of which haven't even had the chance to fully open. At first they were only after the Calendula...hundreds of flowers in all stages with as many as 4 beetles per flower. Not one flower without a minimum 1 beetle! Now it's any flower that is orange, yellow, red-orange or a combination of all ....Black-eyed Susan, Marigold, Blanket Flower, Tithonia, Coreopsis, Sunflower, etc!!! I'll be lucky to harvest seeds from any of these this year. How in the world do I get control back here?! I have A LOT of area to cover :O HELP please! Thanks, Vera PS...even the Praying Mantid's (and there are many) can't keep up! PSS Here is a link to google images of these beetles..... Here is a link that might be useful: Black Blister Beetle (google images)

Eeeewww, Gillian......I looked at the website you mentioned. I sure wish they didn't show such swarms of them ! I searched the pictures for my caterpillar, and didn't find it yet. I took a better look at the darn thing, cut the stem of the lily ( one I don't like anyway) and double bagged it and threw it in the garbage. I don't think I have the stomach to look again on that website or any others for a while. I guess I can do without knowing what it was. Thank goodness cashews are high in calories and not something a person really "needs" to eat to survive, as I doubt I'll be eating any of them anytime soon now, LOL! My stomach hurts. My "ick factor" tolerance is pretty low. Konrad - If you do a thread on caterpillars, please put a subject matter warning in your first post =:) I don't think I'll appreciate your pictures of them like I do all your other pictures =:)

Deb, if your hibiscus is dropping buds, your problem is probably gall midge. A small fly the lays eggs in the bud, which turns yellow and falls to the ground the egg now a larve goes into the soil and comes out again as a fly. You need to use Bayer systemic on your hibiscus to get rid of the eggs. I have also hand picked the yellow buds and disposed of them, but it hardly helps. Do a search on gall midge to get more info. :o)