MoodyTunes

Long-time readers know that at one point in my existence I was quite the gardener, raising bumper crops of zucchini and tomatoes, etc., until one day I realized that plants need water and care. I have two areas of my “yard” (a loosely constructed assortment of weeds, shrubs, failed vegetable experiments, and rocks) that give me a feeling resembling pride: my gardenias, which are monstrous, and my oleanders, which are becoming monstrous.

Sure, both of these plants do very well without human intervention. I like to think I’ve done the absolute best job possible ignoring them. Without my concerted lack of care I’m sure they wouldn’t have achieved such considerable stature.

A random note about me and oleanders: I’ve liked them ever since we moved here, but I could never remember the proper name. My brain, trying to come up with a word to describe the plants, always chose “Jumanji.” So in my house they’re called Jumanji plants. I’ll let you decide how many times I was dropped on my head as a baby.

Considering all of this — my attachment to the plants, my years of determined apathy — imagine my surprise this morning when I looked out at the oleanders and saw a band of caterpillars chowing down on leaves. They’ve nibbled off the top third of the largest oleander and have spread to the other three. Here are the culprits:

What are these foul demon spawn? Well, oleander caterpillars (syntomeida epilais), of course. According to that page we have achieved or possibly moved beyond the “gregarious feeding” stage.

I’ll probably end up plucking these fellows off the plants and moving them somewhere else, like my neighbor’s shrubs, but what took the discovery to an entirely different level of cool was finding this guy hanging out a few leaves away from a cluster of caterpillars:

I can’t tell you the exact name. We’ll call him Wally the Wasp. Turns out that parasitic wasps are one of a few predators that like to eat oleander caterpillars. It’s the circle of life! The caterpillars are turning my oleanders into butterflies, and the wasps are feeding on the oleanders. I’m glad we tend to leave all of these bugs alone…if we didn’t, if we killed all the wasps and hornets, maybe we would have been eaten by caterpillars by now.

Yesterday I posted a link about the cosmos, and today we have a microcosm. Cool stuff, no? Do you ever feel like some days you’re just a little bit closer (although still a million miles away) to figuring something out? I felt that way for about three seconds today. All I can say without getting too prescriptive is this: take some time to watch what’s going on around you. Even you city dwellers — there have to be some rich folks preying upon the poor or something. It’s all connected.