grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Ladybug Swarm!

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Sunday afternoon a whole swarm of ladybugs came to call. It was the coolest thing and apparently not an uncommon phenomenon for a warm fall day. But I’d never seen anything like it. According to the Farmers’ Almanac, knower of all nature, garden, and moon trivia, a ladybug swarm is not a predictor of oncoming crazy winter weather or good luck (boo), but merely beetles looking for a warm place to hibernate. Apparently they chose us.

They crawled all over our front porch, up the side of the house toward the attic opening in the eaves.

ladybugs everywhere!

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Armadillo in my Garden!

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Amadillo in the garden!

Each morning, I had to replant a few pansies here and there. At first, I blamed the squirrels, but as the problem grew worse, I began to suspect a different critter. Sunday morning I awoke to a freshly tilled flower bed and a tunnel under my porch. There’s an armadillo in my garden(!), and the nasty thing dug up most every flower. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see all the plants tossed around and NOT in the ground. So stinkin’ rude this digging, rooting, garden-wrecking creature.

I know he’s gotta eat, and his food of choice is grubs. So apparently I have grubs. Or maybe I only have one grub and he’s bound and determined to find it. Or maybe he’s digging to China where there’s a sale on grubs?

Only one way to take care of a problem like this.

Nip it.
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