fun with invertebrates

Okay, stage two of Operation C. Montrouzieri is under way. After there being several days where we saw few if any of our little friends, we are now seeing adults more frequently, and larvae. The larvae are awesome - and very hungry. Watching them chow down on mealy bugs is an inspiring sight. (Hopefully as the population levels shift they'll take on aphids as well, as K's pepper tree is having issues.) Now I'm hoping to get a stable colony going... which might be a little involved. (If the population does go up, though, I'll probably be looking to offload them on interested locals.)

Yesterday I was watching one, who had discovered a nice patch of mealy bugs to feast on, munch away, and I wondered if they were brighter than slugs. For comparison, yesterday I was trying to get a slug to eat. It smelled the seaweed, got all excited, and then starting swallowing gravel. The more I thought about it, the more likely the "smarter than slugs" hypothesis seemed. (Other recent amusements have involved watching slugs lay lots of eggs (in masses that look like greenish or orangish ramen noodles) and then eat them, because hey, eggs, seaweed, what's the difference?

Oh, and we've found three cockroaches this week. Which means that even if they are coming in from another apartment, it's far too likely they're getting a local foothold. So we get to work out what methods of roach control are both effective and appropriately environmentally conscious.

(no subject)

I've been thinking a little about how I use my LJ. (I'm mostly using it less, recently.) And it occurred to me that maybe people have opinions on how I ought to use it. So, thoughts?

I've been thinking of doing less narrative stuff. I've considered posting short (and probably unpolished) poems - kind of more of an emphasis of expressing an instant rather than interpretation. But I'm not sure...

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