25-VI-2019 or The Spotted Menace!
by Aaron Shurtleff on June 25, 2019

...

Ok, you got me.

Lately, my life has been pretty busy, and I'll tell you all why. Spotted lanternfly! (Don't wait for a link. You know I can't do it right, and that was when it was fresh in my mind and not years ago and far away! Google!) I don't want to get boring and buggy up in the hizzy (as the kids no longer say, if they ever really did), but it's a fairly recent introduction from Asia (probably China...it's always China) that was first found in Pennsylvania in 2014. It's been spreading out from there, but it just hit Maryland recently. Well, technically, we had a tiny population last winter, but we were hoping it we could deal with it. We missed a couple... The eggs are laid (lain? layed? pooped out!) and covered with a protective coating that makes it look like a smudge of dirt, so it's easy to miss them.

Whatever. The TL;DR version of the story is that they are nasty and gross, and they are a major pest of many different crops, but particularly grapes and tree fruits and hops. So, if you like beer or wine, you should be very unhappy!! Grr!

But, that's my life right now. That and try to keep my employees focused on work and not PLAYING AROUND ON THE INTERWEBZ!!!

Oh, man, I haven't done one of these in so long, I forget what goes into them. Do I do songs of the day/week/moment? I think so...

SoNg Of ThE dAy Let's say it's "Bad guy" by Billie Eilish, whose name I didn't know how to pronounce until my employees corrected me. It's a bit weird, but...it's pretty catchy. Trigger warning: Nosebleeds! And not the holy-geez-look-at-that-buxom-girl anime style nosebleeds!

Anywho, back to work! I got a few things to finish up before my big meeting tomorrow afternoon, and I got a sexual harassment training in the morning. No, not to train me how to sexually harass, ya nutjobs!

Be good. Be kind. Be kinda good.

Two Replies to 25-VI-2019 or The Spotted Menace!

Scott Hardie | June 26, 2019
The spotted lanternfly is not boring. I don't know anything else about that subject or anybody else who knows about that. I always want to know more about weird stuff I've never heard of, especially if it's in my own national backyard. :-)

I looked it up. I have no doubt that it's an invasive species and a pest, but I could imagine it being considered pretty, like a monarch butterfly, when it's at its most colorful.

Aaron Shurtleff | June 26, 2019
It is a quite handsome little insect, and we do have people telling us all the time how pretty it is. But, it doesn't matter how pretty it is if it starts eating everything in sight and getting out of hand!

Honeydew!

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