We can have all the healthy and beautiful plants and flowers in our garden but our garden will never be complete without our garden guests and pests. I think they come as a package because naturally all gardens attract these guests and pests.
I have taken photos of my garden guests and pests. Today, I will share some of the photos with you. I will start with my garden guests.
Saw this honey bee enjoying my Japanese rose.
A dainty yellow butterfly/moth fluttering around my Water Jasmine plant, moving from flower to flower. I don't know how to differentiate between a moth and a butterfly.
This one looks like an abstract art piece. I think this looks more like a moth.
Another pretty one settling on my blue plumbago plant.
This one likes to pose - it changed position for me.
This cute, delicate one in white with fine green lines on my blue plumbago plant.
A brown one clinging onto my miniature hibiscus flower.
A bigger one, darker brown and spotted with purple and white.
Posing for my camera.
This is one of the few bird species that frequent my garden but I do not know the name. This is the best photo I can get and so far the only photo that is presentable. The birds are so alert and the slightest movement will put them to flight!
Looks like a big housefly, not exactly the same as the common housefly.
A glowing green fly.
A lady bird on my bird's eye chili plant.
A small glossy black beetle?
One morning after a rainy night, saw these delicate white parasol mushrooms sprouting out from my garden soil.
Can anyone tell me what this is? A worm/caterpillar with a black cap.
Another unknown insect on the mulberry leaf.
Below are the unwelcome guests or pests that I do not want to be in my garden because they do a lot of damage to my plants.
Baby garden snail that can eat up my baby plants especially chili plants overnight.
And this green glutton fella can totally batok or bald my plants.
This nasty hairy thing can cause terrible discomfort, redness, swelling, itch and even pain once it touches our skin.
This tiny black insect can cause harm too. Once I was cutting off some old hyacinth twine and 2 insects fell on my neck. They left behind 2 red spots, very painful, burning sensation and later turned to 2 dark burnt scars on the skin which took quite a while to heal.
Initially I left this alone. I didn't know it can multiply so fast! Later, I found these all over my garden, especially in the soil of my potted plants! Now I am thinking of ways how to get rid of them. They ea and destroy the young roots of my plants.
Once it is touched, it curls up like this - I have seen the big black sized ones in Fraser's Hill which were more than 6 inches long! Scary!
Is this a locust or grasshopper? Saw this on my blue plumbago, sometimes on my orange bauhinia plant. It is not easily frightened away. It is about 3 to 3.5 inches long. I used water to shoo it away but it came back again.
Spotted another one again, or could it be the same one that I saw earlier.
Oh no! One morning when I was watering my plants I saw these tiny grasshoppers on my plant and fence. This is only part of it.
And also on my kaffir lime plant (limau purut). Fortunately they haven't started their work of destruction yet (chewing and balding my plants). The first thing I did was to turn on the tap and hosed them away. Later I saw a few still sticking around and I hosed them again and after that they didn't come back again.
"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten
- the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm
- my great army that I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
(Joel 2:25-26, New International Version-NIV)
