Sunday, August 28, 2011

Pest Control, All You Can Eat Buffet

A Few Days Ago, Looking Out The Window:

"Oh look, that tufted titmouse just grabbed a caterpillar off the porch railing," I told The Finman.  "They've been falling out of the oak tree.  Oooh gross, look at that, caterpillar insides are gooey."

"There are caterpillars in the tree?" Finman asked.  "I didn't know there were caterpillars in the tree."


"That's because I didn't tell you there were caterpillars in the tree."  (The Finman likes to kill things.) 


"Now, we don't have to do anything and the birds have dinner.  See how nice and circular that is.  We don't need to do any killing at all."

(Poor Finman, he really does like to kill insect-ish things.)

5 comments:

  1. Poor Finman, but at least the bird will be full and you will have fun watching them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When it comes to crawly things I'm conflicted. I want 'em dead, but I'm just lazy enough to let another critter higher up the food chain handle it for me. I guess that would make me an EXECUTIVE pest control manager. ;)

    S

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wish some bird would come into my yard to eat the slugs!

    -becomingkate

    ReplyDelete
  4. We have had those caterpillers in our oak tree before. The first couple of years they stripped the tree bare and I couldn't find what was doing it. The third year I found the caterpillers before they were widely scattered in the tree and hand killed most of them. Then we didn't have any for a couple of years. This year we have them again but they have mostly been too hign in the tree for me to reach. They haven't seemed to be doing as much damage as before. We do have more birds this year and I have been wondering if perhaps the birds were eating them. There are caterpillers that birds will not eat. Mom

    ReplyDelete
  5. To clarify: Fin does not, necessarily, "like" to kill insect things. He does, however, prefer azalea bushes with flowers and leaves on them, and is accordingly willing to take steps necessary to even up the odds in that particular battle of nature.

    ReplyDelete

Please play nicely.