Thread: What's in your garden?

Originally Posted by Looper

Giant yellow flowers this year after green last year

Do the flowers have any scent?

This is some kind of Carpenter bee. There are a few around, they like to drill nests into the old bamboo poles that I have strung up to support orchid pots. Apparently they have one of the largest eggs in the insect kingdom although I haven't opened a bamboo pole to look. There are hundreds of different types of Carpenter bee and I have no idea exactly which one this is. Fortunately they aren't at all aggressive. Big as they are they aren't without predators and the Green bee-eaters come to the garden to look for them.

The bees seem to like yellow flowers in the garden and at the moment that means 'thong urai'. They are big bees with short proboscides, (or proboscises if you prefer) so they have trouble getting at the nectar of these trumpet-like flowers. Sometimes they can get in and when they do they are helping pollinate the plant. However, this bee is sitting on top of the flower and poking its proboscis through the petals without doing anything to pollinate. This is 'nectar robbing'.

With all the rain keeping my pomelo tree nicely saturated it has indeed produced some flowers.

Well out of reach over the wall into the neighbours garden.

Bastard.

Just spotted some flowers on my side, ya beauty.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

Can anyone identify this critter crawling up my wall with his wee house of leaves?

Maybe the caterpillar of a Bagworm moth. Troy would be more likely to know for sure.

There used to be a very useful website 404 - Page Not Found which has recently dropped off the Internet, which is a shame.

Yeah I think you've got a good spy there, cheers.

Originally Posted by Shutree

Maybe the caterpillar of a Bagworm moth. Troy would be more likely to know for sure.

There used to be a very useful website 404 - Page Not Found which has recently dropped off the Internet, which is a shame.

THAILAND NATURE PROJECT - Thailand Nature Project

Originally Posted by HuangLao

THAILAND NATURE PROJECT - Thailand Nature Project

Thanks Jeff. I guess they forgot to renew their domain name registration or something. They had a bit of stuff, like the insects, that was not easily found elsewhere.

I read that laser beams can scare pigeons and I have a laser unit that if you turn it up to a maximum beam strength level you can see it in daylight.

As the unit has mirrors inside if you turn it 90 degrees it turns from a dot pointer to a long horizontal line.

Well early today I tested it and I scared around 20 pigeons from underneath the roof overhang immediately and I have not seen one since.

Maybe I have something special that really works without hurting the bird or the environment.

Lets hope it doesn't scare passing planes

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

I read that laser beams can scare pigeons and I have a laser unit that if you turn it up to a maximum beam strength level you can see it in daylight.

Our town market - set up in a hangar-style building - has a green laser setup to keep pigeons out of the rafters.

When I first saw it I thought they were just going for a 70s disco effect.

I tried with a single-beam green laser pointer at pigeons on the neighbour's house wire, but didn't continue as they just moved onto our roof. That was a fail.



Like this:

Bird lasers and strobe lights
Bird-X-Peller
Visual bird deterrents for inside and outside use
Bird Laser with solar power
Strobe light and laser bird repellers chase away pest birds from indoor areas with constantly changing light patterns. An extremely intense light or laser is very intimidating to many birds causing them to leave the area. Flashing stroboscopic lights and bird lasers are frequently used as bird deterrents inside building structures such as warehouses, hangars, sheds and others.

^ A single point laser doesn't work well but I found if I made the beam horizontal, by turning the device 90 degrees, the resulting beam across the surface of a wall is about 5 metres wide and the flying rats scattered.

And yes, green beams are far better.

Just get a 22

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Just get a 22

Yep. I love my GAMO .22 cal pellet gun. I have zero pigeons at my place. Why, I keep pressure on them and they will not even circle or land and when a silly one tests me, Its done and in the garbage. Just dropped a white one yesterday. Thought it could sneak a sip of water from a lotus pot. Sat about 10 seconds too long.

I see them all up under the rafters of our neighbors houses and shit all down the wall. Must smell wonderful on a hot day with a window open. Disgusting animals.

Originally Posted by Stumpy

Yep.

our neighbors shit all down the wall must smell wonderful on a hot day with a window open. Disgusting animals.

Surely your neighbours are not that bad.

Originally Posted by ootai

Surely your neighbours are not that bad.

Surely they are. We have a neighbor in front who not only lets pigeons roost and shit all over their walls and grounds but they let their dogs shit all over the place and seldom every clean it up. Sad really as they have 2 large golden retrievers that I think have never had a bath. They appear chained up all the time as well. They have 2 other mutt type dogs that are just as mangy and malnutritioned.

Just as an FYI ootai. In our mooban there is a mix of newer homes and many old ( 65 to 80 year) old Teak homes. The Pigeons LOVE the old teak home because of the open under eave places to nest and when they nest, they shit and the owners do not seem to care.

Well the laser exercise seemed to work as there are no pigeons in the spot they normally stay during the night. I recently took 2 nests out and one had eggs.

So yes, a laser beam works to move the flying rats on to other locations.

Originally Posted by Shutree

Do the flowers have any scent?

They do have a quite a pungent flowery aroma. They are quite dramatic and look like triffids. Don't turn your back on them.

For the first time ever I have found one of the fabled seeds while munching one of the Monstera fruits. Quite big. About 14mm long

Bagged it up in wet tissue in a ziploc a week ago

You can hold the bag up to the light each day to see if it has germinated without unfolding the wet tissue and then open it when you seem some action

After a week I have got a budding sprout

Popped it root down and ankle deep in well watered potting compost

It's a good year for tomatoes. Those are American tomatoes grown in Ubonratchathani.

^ Well done they look a lot like heirloom's.

Thank you AO. They are from seeds I brought from US, maybe 6 years ago. I just keep using seeds from the previous year. They take a bit of a wierd shape but taste delicious.

^ I gave up trying to grow Western tomatoes because every single time they got hit by some kind of disease, blight or something.

I bet they taste delicious.

Originally Posted by tunk

It's a good year for tomatoes. Those are American tomatoes grown in Ubonratchathani.

Those look great.

Welcome back, I haven't seen you here since you kayaked olff into the floods. How did those dogs get on?

Toms look great Tunk, not been on your travels down south have you?