I made the most difficult decision ever yesterday. It was the aphids or my orchids. I had lost several plants (rare ones) to aphids because I believed in biological & not chemical control in my container garden. Despite creating a conducive environment to attract aphid-eaters, the ladybird, the kind of visitors I got was alarming. From rhinoceros beetles to bees, moths to preying mantis, katydids to A JUNGLE GECKO, some worms (yeeee…!), spiders (at least 5 kinds) & stinky bugs, I failed to get rid of the blooming aphids!!! And I’m not going to lose hundreds of dollars of orchid to aphids again!!! So I sprayed pesticide & that was the end of them all. Just like that. And to think that I had hesitated for months to do this. What an end to these destroyers.
Well, my orchids are faring well while all my other plants are growing outward instead of upwards to get the light. Some of them have rooted themselves all over the wall & pillar that I can’t rotate the pot to give them even distribution of sunlight. I have a hoya that is about to attach itself to my aircon compressor & I would have to find it a climbing fence soon.
Let me make out to you why I love them & yet accord a lot of respect(a nicer word to describe fear…) when they get too near….
They are so unusual. No two are the same. Just when you think you’ve seen one, you haven’t seen anything yet.
There is no denying that this bug is the most unusual & the most beautiful specie I’ve ever seen. It’s got a shield almost like a space shuttle & the golden shimmering colours on the carapace are out of this world!!! What were You thinking of when You created this, God? It’s so cute! And You sent it to my windscreen!!!!
Not all are cute. Some are hairy & please don’t say it’s ’cause I have lack of hair. Look at the size of this bug on my arm!
And a close-up after I transferred it onto the chair’s railing….
Ok, some bite & sting but those I’ve strained myself to take are not so bad. Like this rhino visitor…
Knowing that I would have prevented a whole lot of other insects & critters from coming by the smell of the pesticide, I just had to do it. I no longer have a dog that catches grasshoppers/locusts nor skinks that lives to devour some of the the pests & the occassional owl that hunted rats in my previous garden….. 🙁
Perhaps, the mantis on my orchid would be the last visitor for a long, long time….. please forgive me, Lord.
