Texas Bug Hunt

Last night my girls and I went on a little bug hunt around our house and garden.  The weather was a wonderful 75 degrees and there was not even a small breeze.  We didn't keep (or touch) most of the bugs, but we did capture them with our camera!

My girl got this picture of a passing butterfly.  It was a friendly bug and didn't even fly off when we approached.

I see many varieties of ladybugs here.  This one has darker wings and she is more prone to biting.  Yes- my girls get bit by the ladybugs and it hurts!  The more orange the wings, the less likely they will bite.  Really Texas- why??? Biting ladybugs!!

We all love Rollie Pollies!  We found these as we turned over bricks in the garden.

Black Widows are plentiful around here.  I HATE them.  Mostly because I'm worried my children will accidently scoop one up and get bit.  These pests invade my garden and although I know they are doing a wonderful job on the bad bug population- their venom just makes me less appreciative.  

Not all of our widows have perfect hour glasses on them.  In fact some have just red, orange or yellow dots on their perfectly black bodies.  Still deadly though.

Centipede!  We knew we would find one of these guys if we just kept flipping over bricks- and we did.  We were careful not to touch it.  They have a nasty sting.

The bees are out and busy.  We get a lot of Africanized bees here.  I can't tell the difference between them and the regular honey bees.  They stil make honey but they are way more difficult to handle.  

Of course we can't go on a bug hunt without including ants.  These guys are the famous Texas Fire Ants.  An invasive species and they have a bad bite and sting!  We cannot stand these little guys.  Mean Mean Mean.

I told my girls we should take this fellow fishing.  They said no.  They have big hearts.  We let him stay in our garden to do his job.

This cricket moved so fast that I was lucky to even get this fuzzy shot.