What's Eating You?

Or more to the point- what’s eating ME? I am itching as I write this, and after some research, I not only know who the perpetrator is, but it’s entire life cycle. So, of course, I am going to share it with you. Anyone who has lived in the South or West, or probably even the Midwest, will start to itch along with me as soon as they hear the answer. Chiggers (Trombicula alfreddugesi)- those omnipresent, microscopic, aren’t-felt-until-three-hours- later, flesh eating, members of the mite family.

Not a Cape Cod issue, for they aren’t fond of winters, but welcome to Texas, they LOVE it here. And by letting my grass and wildflowers grow I set up a pretty perfect habitat for them. How kind of me. At first, I thought these random red welts were from spider bites. We are all quick to blame spiders, aren’t we? Yet, I don’t know too many microscopic spiders so, how I thought they might have snuck up and bit me, is a bit of a mystery. Actually, a chigger is a mite, which puts it into the same family as spiders, so I was close.

Of course, everyone and his mother here knows about chiggers, but it is interesting how many false facts are involved. No, they do not burrow under your skin, nor do they drink your blood, and really, painting the bite with nail polish isn’t a medically sanctioned cure. What they DO do is pretty fascinating. Ready to hear more than you ever wanted to about chiggers?

They actually only feed on living things when they are in their larval state, and this, just one little, three-day meal is all they ask. Then they will be on their way becoming nymphs and adults who are happy to eat plants and other insects. Really, just one meal, not a lot to ask, is it? And that one meal is obtained by looking for a tender little spot in say, a pore or a hair follicle where they can inject you with saliva that dissolves your skin cells. See, they aren’t eating blood; they are sucking up your dissolved skin tissue. Think of yourself as their favorite Slurpee.

Your skin, however, is pretty put out by the effrontery of this and quickly hardens the cells around the bite. That is what makes the welt you see, your own body did that. “Thank you very much” thinks the chigger, for now, it can sit there alternately injecting its enzyme and slurping up your cells through this straw your body so helpfully provided. After about three days it is sated and drops off going on its way. You however, continue to itch for up to 10 days because of those hardened cells your body made and until they dissolve and get reabsorbed into your skin you will know they are there. Especially at 2 am.

So what is an outdoor-lover like myself to do? We did cut more of the grass back trying to limit their habitat, but many wildflowers are still blooming, so the edge along the path is still left high for their sake. God bless Google for it gave me a whole retinue of things to try as a preventative. Such a retinue that it becomes another major reason my time is so limited.

Each time I come in from gardening, which I now do in long pants, work boots with socks pulled up a la, Cape Cod tick prevention style, I first use a towel to briskly wipe down arms and legs. Did I mention they are 1/150th of an inch wide? One would think a towel could brush them off. Then I remove all of those clothes and wipe down arms and legs with a cotton ball with alcohol on it. Then, if time permits, shower, change into all new clothes and go about the day. And although I have faithfully done this each day, each night I have discovered new bites. Not legions of bites as I see in the rather disgusting medical pictures, which by the way, I am having the good taste not to include here. Mine don’t coat my body, but do make a nice dot-to-dot pattern.

Here is something else I love, one article said the tricky part is they could get on you and zip all over the place reaching your head in a mere 15 minutes for, and I love this “they have long legs”. Now I am trying to picture how anything 1/150th of an inch could have LONG legs. But they are right for they do seem to get around- I have bites everywhere. They seem to especially favor those hard to get to areas where the “sun don’t shine” and no one should itch in public.

So, I guess I exalted too quickly on the lack of ticks. And retroactively, I can see that picking off a mere thirty ticks a day from my dog wasn’t quite as time consuming as my new regime. Ah well, there really is no paradise this side of the real paradise so I shouldn’t be surprised and really, just like my first scorpion bite, it is all sort of fascinating in a “your not in Kansas anymore” way. OK chigger lecture over, back to your previously scheduled life.

"Back to the Days of Christopher Robin"

You probably have to be a card-carrying member of AARP to have that phrase set off a song in your head. Loggins and Messina wasn’t it? A number one hit a long time ago, and lately the chorus plays happily in my head each morning as I think about ALL there is to do in the yard. For you “Under 50” folks I will include the lyrics but you should Google it so the catchy tune can be embedded in your waking mind also.

“So, help me if you can I’ve got to get back to the House at Pooh Corner by one
You’d be surprised there’s so much to be done
Count all the bees in the hive; chase all the clouds from the sky
Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh”

You see, in all my previous homes, and thanks to the Army there have been about 14 of them, I generally had variations on a theme of a normal, suburban-sized yard. The geographical location was always changing, taking us from soil in VA that was mostly clay and seeds needed to join Gold’s gym in order to have the “oomph” to push up through it, to New Mexico, where a neighbor did his gardening with a flame thrower (the all-lava, rock yard) and the Cape where sand and salt and so much shade defined what would and would not grow. But who could have foreseen that this move to Texas with its limestone and caliche soil would result in the biggest and best yard I have ever had! All thanks, as I have pointed out before, to the hard work of the previous owner who obviously loved to spend all her time and money outside-a kindred spirit.

But the trick is, a yard like this does take time, which I happily give, but because I also leapt into many a volunteer position to help me feel at home here, I am finding “writing time” is what is missing. But there is SO much to write about! So many things change each day. For the past month we have been inundated with Red Admiral butterflies, but now, as quickly as they came, they seem to have, practically overnight, disappeared. For in the insect world, a month is often all you get as an adult. Come out of that pupa, find a mate, enjoy life, and then fade away. At least that is the Red Admiral’s life span. Hopefully another generation has been laid on the nettles and by June they should be dining at the feeder again.

Ah, the feeder, you see that is why “there is so much to be done”. It’s not enough just to try to weed, mulch, plant and water the many flowerbeds and vegetable garden, but there are so many critters to be fed. Always, my Italian heritage raises its “mangia, mangia” (eat, eat) head. On the Cape, I was a slave to not only, birds in the form of sunflower feeders, thistle feeder, hummingbird feeders, suet feeders etc but also to the chipmunks and squirrels who would practically come bang on the windows if they found the larder bare.

Here in TX, I have all of the above, but have switched out chipmunk food ( a moment of silence here, I still grieve their loss) for butterfly food, and lizard treats and cleaning up after the raccoons. By the way, no sooner had I written the words, “let the raccoons have the spoils each day” of the butterfly fruit remains, then they managed to climb up the tree the feeder hung in and broke both the branch and the feeder and, on the way down, took out a window box. Cleaning that entire mess added to the “Christopher Robin” chores yesterday.

Plus, each day I must “walk the land”. The very first month I arrived I started volunteering at the library and found a book written in the 40’s by a Texas naturalist. In it, he said it was imperative to “walk the land” for a good year before you decided to buy. Feel it under your shoes, know it inside and out. Well, I think I had “walked the land” a total of 30 minutes before I put in my vote that we should buy it, so I am making up for lost time now, “walking the land” not once, but at least 3x daily. It’s amazing how many new things pop up; a new flower, a new emerging fruit on a tree and, amazing how many things threaten to expire daily if I don’t water them. There is a chore I didn’t have on the Cape, at least not daily- watering. I miss God doing my watering for me in the form of rain. The previous owner had an elaborate hose-timer system going, and now, we have bought the needed manifolds that make one hose four and the timers to go with them, but assembling it all will take my engineer husband and he has less free time than I do, so this could take awhile. Meanwhile, its “bring the water Gunga Din” and so, more time slips through my fingers.

But I am NOT complaining, although it may sound that way. Picture me doing all of the above with that lovely song playing in my head and a smile on my face. Oops, but now, not only must I feed everything, but I am “ON” to help at an all-day, Earth Day event at the school on post at Ft Sam. Combining my, “so much to be done” C Robin character, with my constant imitation of the White rabbit from Alice in wonderland, I must run. Hope you have a day that calls upon you to “count all the bees in the hive, chase all the clouds from the sky”. It may all take time, but it is so therapeutic.

Life in Abundance

One of my favorite Bible verses, a "God's Greatest Hits" sort of verse, has always been John 10:10, "I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full". Some versions I have read said that "you will have life in abundance". I love that and presently I am living that. Life in abundance like I never imagined. I owe some serious "mea culpa's" to Texas, at least to the Hill Country part of Texas, in Spring. When I first arrived in January, it was all "beige on beige" but as the rain came, thank you God, and spring progressed, it was no longer "beige on beige" but blue, scarlet, yellow, orange, magenta, pink etc on green. Gorgeous. Abundant flowers, abundant color.


And with the arrival of so many flowers came an abundance of Lepidoptera. Butterflies are everywhere! Actually,even when it was "B on B" in January and I was walking around in my DOA (Depressed on Arrival) state, I was amazed to see a good number of Sulphurs
flitting over the bare winter landscape. For that matter, they helped to lift my spirits in those first weeks; butterflies in January, unheard of in my latitude.

Then in March, Red Admirals arrived and their numbers keep increasing. I have said it before, but that is the fascinating thing about your first year in any new area. You just aren't sure what to expect when, and what is normal. Are there always hundreds of Red Admirals filling the bushes and trees in March and April? You would think some major fleet landed somewhere. They are striking butterflies with those bold stripes of orange, and they cover a blooming acacia tree in my front yard so thoroughly, a quick glance would make you think THEY were the flowers.

The previous owner had left a ceramic butterfly feeder and, what entertainment this is! I have found a great use for my overripe bananas. When I first put them out, they were covered with an insect called a Coreid bug.
Not only did did this bug arrive to dine, but they seemed to always find it the most romantic spot of all. Avert your eyes children. Mystery was solved when I read that they lay their eggs in fruit. Well that was a a relief, for at first, I thought they were assassin bugs lying in wait for the butterflies. Well their honeymoon time is over and now, on any given day I have about 30 Red Admirals, and as of April, many Question Mark butterflies, jockeying for position on the rotting pears, pineapples, bananas,or whatever fruit I have going bad in the fridge.

Raccoons have recently discovered that they can shimmy up the tree to clean out whatever the butterflies failed to eat and all in all this is working well. I thought about bringing the fruit in at night, but the other thing that arrived in abundance is fruit flies, so to bring them in would be to daily stage one of those science fair projects of raising fruit flies. I think not. Better to just let the raccoons have the spoils.

Of course, you can't have an abundance of butterflies without an equal or greater abundance of caterpillars which, some day, I might not be quite as delighted about. They are climbing up the walls, falling in my hair, eating up my marigolds, dining on the Virginia Creeper, crawling on the deck and of course, dropping their fras (poop) everywhere. But thanks to the abundance of leaves, I don't feel threatened yet, and there are so many fascinating kinds, kinds I had only read about, that I am enthralled. I have the Swallowtail caterpillar with the big fake eyes on it's backside, also the kind that mimics bird poop
so that it will look less appetizing, the kind that hold themselves rigid as a stick and some large, white, fuzzy ones that look related to Pekingese! Some visiting children got very exercised about them calling them Asps and acting like one touch would kill me. Probably with such long hairs they would be irritating. But consider this all joy! I love it.

I could go on and on. Walking sticks hang in each corner of the porch, daddy long legs hold major conventions under the blanket that still covers the well, scorpions sleep under rocks, snakes are beginning to show themselves and so far they come in peace. Lizards scooting across the deck are trying to fill the void of my much missed chipmunks and birds are nesting everywhere. Abundance, Abundance, Abundance! The only think I don't have in abundance is time so I had better stop. Backed up blogs have been clogging my brain but there just has been no time to write them. One down, several to go. Life is full of new discoveries to share here, so stay tuned, many more need to go from mind to paper whenever I can find the time. But right now I have insects to feed.