First of all, I want to thank Daisy for helping me with my new look on my blog. She has done a great job and I really appreciate the time she spent. She is a super lady and a great blog friend.

These are large leaf feeding caterpillars with numerous spines over the body. Those spines are vicious! If you happen to brush up against them or step on one, you usually have a serious reaction to the poison those spines inject into you. My poor dogs cry with their little paws when they step on them in the yard. It is very painful to be stung by one of the creatures.......And what are their purpose? Who knows? But what they turn into is almost as terrifying to me....it is a huge moth and here is it's picture.
They just give me the heeby-geebies when I see them. They are supposed to be a silk moth. Does that mean they make silk? I thought worms did that. Hmmmmm........thinking.....

Anyway, these caterpillars that sting the crap out of you, come twice a year. Once in the spring and again in the fall. They tend to be in the oak trees in clusters. The sometimes fall out of the trees and land on you, or brush you as they fall, and of course, you get stung. I think it is totally unintentional on their part, but damn, it hurts. Tom and I go around our trees and knock them down and kill as many of them as we can. I just heard the other day that Dawn dishwashing liquid and water mixed together will kill them if you can reach them to spray them.

The other critter we have a lot of trouble with is what we call the love bug. We call them that, because they swarm twice a year while mating and are attached to each other as in this picture making 'love'. There are so many of them, that they end up covering the front end of your vehicle and windshield. Apparently, they are very acidic because if the dead ones are left on your car too long, they will actually eat the paint off. And they turn to sometime similar to concrete....you can't get them off your car without a LOT of work. Birds don't eat them, nothing eats them. They are just too bitter. I haven't tried them or anything, I just figured that is why nothing will use them for nourishment. They are just a pain in the butt.

They don't hurt you or bite you or anything like that, but they coat everything. And they have a special like for white things...White cars, white houses, white shirts, white cups. Anything white attracts them. When you drive down the roads, it sounds like rain hitting the windshield and pretty soon you can't see out the window to drive.

Well, I am ready for tomorrow afternoon to get here, because then that will mean I don't have to work for 3 days. Yahooooo. And as of tomorrow, I only have 3 months and 29 days left before I retire.....Yahooooo again!