Well that explains a lot. :D
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This is 6 days after forced flowering. Female first pic, male second. Males have balls.
Well that's exactly why I predicted it seemed like a male.
Quote:
Pre-flowers begin to develop four weeks into growth, but they may take a little longer depending on how quickly the sprouting phase occurs. By the sixth week, you should be able to find the pre-flowers and confidently determine the sex of your plant.
Common butterfly lizard (Leiolepis belliana) Thai: แย้ใต้
I guess that explains many of the holes around my garden.
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^ Pretty lizards... we don't get them although there are plenty of unexplained holes in the garden.
Yesterday I had a blitz on the weaver ant nests in the mango trees. We have whole parts of the garden that are no-go areas due to the ground crawling with big red weaver ants that jump on your feet, climb up your legs and start biting.
I spent most of the day drenched in sweat in 38 degree heat, up a ladder trying to cut out the nests... all the while getting bitten mercilessly by these little b@stards. The wife wanted to keep the nests to harvest the eggs... but bollocks to that.
Just when I thought life couldn't get any worse I was also attacked and stung by a couple of wasps.
This used to be in my garden...
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?...1&d=1620956121
We have a lot of holes, I posted that one pic weeks ago, still this is the first lizard I have seen and they are active in the daytime, so probably you have them. They are reportedly common, as the name suggests.
I don't like those ants. I came back from a morning walk and got a nip opening the front gate. Then I saw they were all over it. The gate is stainless steel, FFS, what do ants want with it? The Chaindrite was deployed, no more ants.
Then 5 minutes later I touched a fallen stick in the garden and got bitten on the fingers by two of those tiny, venomous ants. I react badly to those, it felt like my hand was on fire and I know that the itching will last for days. Probably need antihistamine to sleep tonight.
Also, you might recall a couple of weeks back I got stung in an unprovoked attack by a wasp very similar to yours. That still itches from time to time and I have an area of skin about the size of an old half crown that still looks like an old bruise. Thoroughly unpleasant. I hope your stings are less persistent.
Every 2 to 3 months I have these caterpillar's show up and assault my hedges. I can see their crap on the walkway so I know they are having a feast. They can easily destroy an entire hedge in a few weeks as they are voracious eaters and quite big 3 to 4" long. I destroyed 21 of them today and fed them to the birds with the help of my Dog Judy who can sniff them out. They have perfect camouflage for their environment
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2021/05/360.jpg
I do know that they turn into very big beautiful moths like this
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Late today my Puppy Annie was going crazy chasing a huge flying bug. She finally grounded it. Still do not know what it is but it is quite large from what appears to be the bee family.
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On its back
Upright
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It finally flew off. You could hear it 20ft away.
^ 20 ft away... what, you mean about 6 metres?
Don't tell me... it was about the size of a farthing?
^^ Late, as in evening? It could be the nocturnal carpenter bee Xylocopa tranquebarica
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Bees of Thailand - THAILAND NATURE PROJECT
They are quite loud when flying around...
Some more weeds. The first is now a tree. The builders were supposed to cut it out when building the wall, instead they used it as a shade tree and 'forgot' about cutting it. It seems popular with bees and butterflies.
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Some kind of yellow flowered weed. Not spectacular in any way:
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Then a tiny red flower on a plant with interesting leaves. The gf knows no name for this or the others. It might have some purpose, a house some distance away has half a dozen growing, his are about 2 metres high. (That's a bit over 6 feet, Mendip.)
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Then a truly bland little flowering shrub. I include it because while the flower might not be exciting to me it fascinates a good many bees, beetles and unusual flies.
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Then a wild Passionfruit flower. It is quite common in the hedgerows at this time of year. It makes a small orange fruit, about the size of a fat, round grape. I don't know if they are edible, the animals seem to take them away quickly enough.
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And finally, this one is not a weed, I include it mainly for Mendip's gardener. I know nothing about orchids, so I bought a few to see what would happen. I have had this one a while. The picture shows that with some water and very little attention they can bloom again. They aren't all destined to become birds' nests.
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^ Show off!
That's the great thing about orchids, not only are they beautiful, you don't have to water them much and they last forever. I have a few in my room just because I love them.
The wild passionfruit flower is beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen one like this before in Thailand or anywhere else.
Great thread, Love the caterpillar and the moth, JPR2. I was just teaching children about the lifecycle of the butterfly. :)
From the garden yesterday.
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^^Ahh, lucky them then.
^Those look so good, Norton. Is this just from one tree? Lucky you! Nothing like fresh mango in Thailand.
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I have a garden, but it is indoor. I also have a herb garden outside. I have a pic of indoors, but i'll grab one of outside later.
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My huge aloe vera plant.
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Well this fella crawled across my foot while i was cooking dinner this evening. Moved too fast to get a clear photo, sorry. Inside a closed separate kitchen downstairs, I left the door open for him.Attachment 69196
^ he would have been in a cooking pot before you could say 'som tam' if my missus had spotted him.
How are your wasp stings? The one I got on my arm from a similar animal weeks ago is still itching. With that in mind, when I found a second nest I zapped it immediately. My usual policy outside the house is live and let live but I'm not willingly hosting insects that cause this kind of problem.