Thread: What's in your garden?

Originally Posted by Shutree

This little chap, about 2cm, appeared on a clothes hangar on the drying rack outside, that is about 1.8m off the ground. I guess some kind of tree frog?


Attachment 99867

It's similar to the one we have Shutree.

I think this is the lava tree frog.

Armstrong, that looks great, just remember bees like making nests there, which could be a good thing or bad thing depending on your bee allergy.

This time of year the sound of cicadas late afternoon is deafening, but I love it.

I've noticed the occasional pupa case around the garden but once you become aware of them you start to see them everywhere. The pupae burrow out of the soil during the night and climb trees so that the adults can break out and emerge from the cases. Our wah tree seems to be their favourite... or is that just because the soil around the wah tree is more suitable for the cicada larvae and pupae?



I haven't mentioned this to the wife or else she'd be out at night with a torch to collect a midnight snack. Fried cicada pupae are a delicacy around here.





And here's an adult. If a male, he will add to the chorus tonight.

Red Dwarf Honey bees have been making some honey for us ...





Almost arms reach from the kitchen patio.

Originally Posted by Mendip

I've noticed the occasional pupa case around the garden

I found one yesterday morning. Just the one. Quite a sinister looking thing.

Thanks for the pics Mendy and Troy. I never knew what made that noise! ta

^^^ They are beautiful. Great photo, Troy.

Originally Posted by Mendip

This time of year the sound of cicadas late afternoon is deafening, but I love it.

Me too Mendy. They used to populate our Lumyai trees, now they are allover. The buzz at night its very peaceful in an odd way. It's interesting in that it seems birds are up all night calling. Then toss in a few Tokay and it's busy at night. The other evening I walked to the shop about 11pm and outside was very noisy with nature.

We have been waiting a long time for rain. It has been hot as a very hot thing for the last couple of weeks. Then, last night, out of nowhere, a summer storm hit. The gf suggested I have a shower in case the power went out. I said yes, then before I did the power went out and stayed out until about 0430. No water, no aircon, no sleep, howling wind and horizontal rain. The puppies have never seen rain, they were quite distressed by the thunder and lightning. How can they sleep all day then cry all night? The garden was a bit of a nightmare this morning. A tall tree had snapped and that brought down a smaller tree.



The driving rain was exactly side on to the house and delaminated some of the carport roof insulation.

All the fallen dead wood is possibly one reason this scorpion was disturbed. According to the gf, it is venomous and very painful. I haven't seen this one before.

^^ Shutree, we've had a downpour out of the blue tonight... but sadly it started while I was on the school run which was prolonged by 45 minutes due to flooding in town.

It's over now with just light drizzle remaining, so a good sleep tonight hopefully. The pool and pond are full as are all the water butts.

The garden is looking nice with all the dust washed off the plant's leaves and the walls are clean of Yogi and Tommy's territorial markings.

Several pigeon nests have been washed out of the guttering and Maya has enjoyed walking around and eating the broken eggs on the ground, disgusting dog that she is.

One of these a week would be good.

And I've been told that those small. brown scorpions are nasty. We've had a few but thankfully I've never been stung.

Originally Posted by Mendip

And I've been told that those small. brown scorpions are nasty. We've had a few but thankfully I've never been stung.

We have had small brown scorpions before, nasty if they sting. This one looks different from those. I don't have a book on scorpions.

Originally Posted by Mendip

The garden is looking nice

On the plus side, the rain refreshed a few plants. There are broken branches all over the place, it will all look a lot better once I clear those away. The top half of the tall tree that snapped maybe 8 metres up is stuck high up amongst other trees. I'll invite one of the neighbours to take the wood away and see if he is prepared to climb up there.

Sunbird nest.

Originally Posted by Troy

Red Dwarf Honey bees have been making some honey for us ...

Love the first bee picture
National Geographic quality.

^^^ I have a couple of purple sunbird nests in the garden too. Set up my camera gear to take photos but the birds weren't happy. Male kept hovering outside each kitchen window and female perched in tree behind, waiting for me to leave. I duly left and they went about their business again.

I might set up the big lens further away but that means sat in the hot sun waiting. Too hot and too many things to do before return. Better luck next year.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Love the first bee picture
National Geographic quality.

Not sure about that, but flattery will get you everywhere, here's a later photo, that I was also pleased with.

Originally Posted by Troy

Not sure about that, but flattery will get you everywhere, here's a later photo, that I was also pleased with.

No, really nice picture, and very interesting.
Being a city boy I had never seen anything like it. And now in Thailand I had not have the opportunity yet.

Today the wife went into a big mango tree we have in the property and got an ant nest. The ants were not very happy !!
I went to help her and they were attacking me like crazy. So that was a new experience.
The neighbors came over, and they loved it!! You would think it was the greatest delicacy in the world.
I draw the line at eating ant grubs , But it was fun, and a new experience.
I bet the honey from your bees will be delicious, but I would love to be there when you try to harvest it. If the ants were not happy about their nest, I can only imagine how the bees would be.
Post a video , we all need a good laugh

^ My wife makes some kind of steamed egg dish full of these ants eggs, well, when she's not watching the tv that is.

I tried it once...


After the torrential rain two nights ago we had a big fly hatch last night.



The geckos and toads were happy about it.



I had a look around the wah tree that has so many cicada pupa cases attached, and discovered loads of holes in the ground presumably where the pupae tunnelled out of the earth. I've never noticed these before but once you do, you see them all over the place.

Not in our garden yet; last week on a trail walk met a man collecting seeds from akeake Dodonaea viscosa trees, he was sending them to Italy - see linked article below of a Thai grower also sending to Italy.

I fly back from NZ tomorrow and am bringing seeds from akeake once a decent size in pots I'll see how they do in the area behind the house towards the pond, that land which is currently scorched earth wasteland since my clearing efforts, just a few banana and papaya trees.

I'd have preferred these purple variety but could only locate the green ones at short notice.


When I checked if they grew in Thailand I found this article - though the Chanthaburi climate is different, see how they go, maybe better suited to the Sa Kaeo property.
Kiwi makes ake ake herbal tea grown from Thailand leaves

Originally Posted by Mendip

My wife makes some kind of steamed egg dish full of these ants eggs

I have seen that, never tried it. I have had a dish of Mekong river fish with ant eggs which was pretty good. I was just thinking of this the other day, I have a weekend in Nakhon Phanom coming up and I plan to look for that fish dish again. There is also an Isan dish with chicken and ant eggs, I haven't tried that one.
The neighbour is often wandering about the place, her garden and others', carrying an impossibly long bamboo pole with a rice sack tied to one end, searching for ant nests. I have never asked her what she does with them, I don't want to find myself receiving a plate of 'food'.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

I went to help her and they were attacking me like crazy.

Some things are best left to the locals.

Originally Posted by Troy

I have a couple of purple sunbird nests in the garden too. Set up my camera gear to take photos but the birds weren't happy.

Same here (except for the camera gear ), the parents stay far off if I am near the nest.

^^^^ I saw something today that really made me think.

To follow on from what I've been going on about above... this year seems to be an exceptional one for cicadas... every tree has the empty pupa cases attached and there's these little (maybe 8mm diameter) holes ll over the place where the pupae have tunnelled out of the ground.

Today I saw this... now, I laid these paving blocks around ten years ago... I mean, how long can the pupae survive in the soil before emerging to hatch? And what made these decide to hatch this year?

It makes you wonder how many of the poor things get trapped beneath concrete.

Today I saw this... now, I laid these paving blocks around ten years ago... I mean, how long can the pupae survive in the soil before emerging to hatch? And what made these decide to hatch this year?

Most species live underground for up to 5 years but apparently there is a species in USA that lives underground for 17 years, then they all emerge to mate.