>>> i'm envious! Lightning bugs are among the few insects that I *like* and they made summer evenings back East magical.
I had never thought about how widespread lightning bugs are since I've always had them in the summers. I agree, they are special. We've never been "indiscriminate bug squishers" here. I don't exactly "like" most bugs, but most don't really bother me either - unless they are in the house, and are known to spread diseases like disgusting flies and roaches. Cary and I found a nest of the tiniest spiders I'd ever seen before a couple of weekends ago - they were on a web in the flower bed in front of the barn. If I hadn't sat down beside them (in a chair, not on a tuffet), I would have never seen them. They were adorable, not as big as a pinhead, and there must have been a couple of hundred of them. I ignore wasps in the barn, and we were proud of the beautiful hornet's nest that popped up between the house and barn a few years ago. I love the frogs that came to our goldfish pond - but unfortunately, they wiped out my dragonflies, which I also like a lot. We're the kind of people who search out crickets who sneak in the house, and put them outside. Ok, maybe I'm thinking of Charlotte and Jiminy, but most spiders - outside, anyway - and all crickets seem friendly and harmless to me. With the exception of inside spiders, and black widows and brown recluses ANYWHERE. Fire ants aren't too cool either. My cousin is a gourmet cook and an avid vegetable gardener. She pointed out something last fall that I hadn't noticed - that ladybugs (the real ones, not the lookalike Asian beetles) had all but disappeared from our area since the fire ants moved in, maybe 10 years ago. Same with honeybees. They finally had a professional fire ant treatment for their property (it adjoins ours on a corner) and now they have honeybees and ladybugs again. It's amazing what our smallest neighbors can tell us about our environment - it's one big eco-system. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.6.6/794 - Release Date: 5/8/2007 2:23 PM "The greatest enemy of the truth very often is not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer [] The video every Icelandic Horse owner should have: http://IceHorses.net/video.html [] Lee Ziegler http://leeziegler.com [] Liz Graves http://lizgraves.com [] Lee's Book Easy Gaited Horses http://tinyurl.com/7vyjo [] IceHorses Map http://www.frappr.com/IceHorses [] IceHorses ToolBar http://iceryder.ourtoolbar.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
