Chopsticks of Doom

Two and a half years ago, when we moved from our apartment to the house we are in now, Dustin bought me a young Japanese maple tree. We planted it in front of our house and I have been a bit doting and over protective ever since.

Our brave/crazy friend Danielle who biked home with our maple as well as two other
bushes in her bike baskets.

In the late spring and early summer of this year, I noticed a dozen or so small, green limpet like things munching away on my maple leaves.  I pulled them off and disposed of them before they could do much damage. I didn't find them on any other plants in my garden though. 

About a week and a half ago, since the weather has cooled down a bit, I noticed they were back on my maple and this time I didn't really bother about pulling them off right away. Partially it was laziness and partially it was not really caring if the leaves get chewed up a bit since the tree will be shedding its leaves soon anyway. During that time they grew much larger and more caterpillar like. 

I finally decided to do something about them when Dustin brushed past the tree and instantly had a bad skin reaction. He said it was an itchy, painful burning sensation like fiberglass rubbed into your skin. The spot where he had touched the caterpillar stayed red and puffy for a few hours. 

The tree was pretty infested with these wee beasties and quite a few were at Rosie's hight, so I decided they needed to go. 

They always hang out on the underside of the leaves. Unfortunately for them, their
neon green colour doesn't blend in too well and they are easy to spot.

When William got home from kindergarten today, we decided to tag team this problem. I wielded the chopsticks of doom while William put them down for a dirt nap.

Always happy to oblige

In the wake of their destruction

Before you think I am a completely cruel and heartless killer, I did do a little research on this species before I obliterated them from my garden. The species is Parasa lepida, or the Nettle Caterpillar, and they are a nuisance invasive species in Japan. I may have felt a small twinge of guilt wiping out a native species, but the ecologist in me feels absolutely no remorse about assisting in removing a poisonous, exotic pest.

I am curious if they will show up again next spring but if they do, William and I will be ready for them!

The Insect Isle

Japan loves bugs, or at least the little boys do, which is great since I find them fascinating and encourage the kids to investigate nearly every insect they come across. There is a whole culture and industry built around finding, collecting, and observing insects. It is made easy when nearly every home store has an entire aisle devoted to insect collecting. Even the 100 yen store has a dazzling array of nets, tanks, substrates, and food jellies. 

You can even pick yourself up some adult rhinoceros beetles if you don't want to go out and collect your own.

And here is where I'm going to go on a bit of a rant: I believe that the fear and disgust of insects and arachnids is a completely learned behaviour that children, especially girls, have forced upon them. I'm sure a sort of wariness is an innate human response, but for most children that are really afraid of insects you don't have to look very much farther than their parents to see where they picked up that attitude. Planting and nurturing extreme phobias and irrational hatred in your children seems pretty cruel to me. We are grossly outnumbered by bugs on this planet so we might as well try to embrace it and reduce the unnecessary stress their lives. 

A face only a mother could love

I want my children to grow up with a relentless curiosity, love, and respect for the natural world instead of becoming adults who turn into a panicky mess at the sight of a spider or cockroach. I make a point to show them photos of insects they shouldn't try to pick up, like mukade and suzumebachi, but always explain that insects don't hurt us because they are cruel or vicious, but because they are protecting themselves or that it is part of their life cycle. I don't always love it when William shoves a handful of rhinoceros beetle grubs 1 cm from my eyes but I push down my initial revulsion and try to view them through the eyes of a child. Cute little bug babies and a tangible way to discover all the other creatures with which we share this planet.

Maybe you agree with me or don't at all and need more convincing, but either way I encourage you to read one of my favourite books, My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell. There is also a  fantastic movie adaptation that came out in 2005. But don't take my word for it...

Small Visitors

In addition to the funamushi William found this weekend, we have come across a few other creatures in the past month. Two of them I never, ever hope to have a run in with again.

In the beginning of May we spent a few days camping on Sensuijima, an island just off the coast of Fukuyama. During the day, we noticed a couple of tanuki hanging around the outdoor eating area begging for food. They looked incredibly diseased, scabby, and were even missing their tails. They were awake during the day, which is strange for tanuki, abnormally comfortable around humans, and seemed to be in pain. I thought it was incredibly cruel that the restaurant owners had not decided to take responsibility for these creatures and put them out of their misery.

As soon as night fell though, a whole army of healthy, bushy tailed tanuki emerged from the forest. Every where you shone your flashlight was a little raccoon dog that would stand stunned for a moment before scampering off into the trees.

About two weeks ago, I was sitting in the dark feeding the baby at about 4am. Suddenly I felt something crawl onto my back from the couch and inside my shirt. I was really groggy and so the first thought through my head was, "yuck! a cockroach just crawled into my shirt". Our house is pretty old, with lots of cracks and holes to the outside, so it wasn't too far fetched to think that a cockroach could find its way inside the house and down my shirt. I proceeded to smack at the "cockroach" as it tried to make its way from my back to my sleeve. At the time, crushing it against my shoulder under my shirt to kill it seemed like a good idea until my skin started burning. I quickly stripped off my shirt and flung it on the floor. The last thing I wanted to do at that moment was go through my shirt and search for whatever bug just bit me, so I went to bed and had a fitful sleep until the sun came up. By that time, my stomach felt kind of queasy and my arm and back felt very sensitive and painful.

Just in case you were wondering, this is what nightmares
are made of.

I searched through my shirt and didn't find the bug (it must have run back and hid in whatever hole it came from) but I found a number of curved orangey red legs that could only have come from a mukade, or giant centipede. These insects are huge, fast, and relatively poisonous. For an adult it is not such a big deal to be bitten, but the toxin can be pretty dangerous for young children. I am so happy that it was me and not Rosie or the boys that came across the centipede!

This is what my arm looked like a few hours later.
The actual bite is on the bottom near my armpit and all
 the little red dots are where its legs scratched me.

The bite itself didn't look too terrible, just red dots and scratches from where its legs scrabbled against my skin. It didn't actually hurt too badly when it bit me; kind of like a cinder landing on your skin for a few seconds. The real pain started about half an hour later radiating out from the bite down my back and arm. I was actually surprised at how little and innocuous the bite looked considering how much my muscles and joints ached. The aching feeling in my back and arm lasted about a day or two and I felt a bit dizzy and queasy for about 10 hours or so. Really, the worst part of it all was how itchy and puffy my skin became. Even the spots where its legs touched me got red and itchy and it took all I had not to touch for about two weeks until the swelling went down.

We also had our first encounter with a suzumebachi, or asian giant hornet. It came buzzing into the yard and died a few minutes later when Dustin smacked it with a broom. Like the giant centipedes, these are far larger than any hornet has a right to be and can be pretty dangerous if you are stung multiple times or if they sting a child. Once again, I counted my blessings that none of the children were around.

This is definitely not the one that flew into our garden. I wouldn't have been crazy enough
to let it walk around on my palm.

Just in case you think our house attracts only the worst sorts, we do have this lovely fellow who pops his head out from time to time. There are actually a lot of skinks that come and go in our garden, but this individual is easier to spot with his slightly shortened tail. He lives a large lavender bush at the front of the house and comes out to drink water droplets from the leaves and keep an eye on me whenever I am watering. Not all of our creature visits are bad!

Bentenjima Hanabi

This weekend, Dustin and Theo biked the Shimanami Kaido. This was the first time that Theo has been on this cycling route and the fifth or sixth time for Dustin. I will try to convince Dustin to write a post about their adventures in the next week. The two younger kids and I decided to stay home, firstly because I was working in the morning and early afternoon, and secondly because that evening was the annual Bentenjima fireworks festival. Our friends, the Oshimas, watched Rosie and William while I was at work and as soon as I returned home, I threw on some yukata and headed out the door.

The fireworks are held each year in Tomonoura and as always, it was incredibly lively and crowded. William was exited enough to add a new word to his repertoire: hanabi, or fireworks. We arrived early enough to get a parking spot, wander around the street stalls, and find a good spot to view the fireworks.

William demanded a photo in front of this firetruck 

Overpriced, unhealthy, but oh, so delicious!

This was my first time to see a chocolate and sprinkle covered banana stand

I thought these Anpanman candy covered apples were great. The lady in the background was busy
making a Hello Kitty candy apple. 

Happy as Larry he was

and totally oblivious to the samurai father and son sneaking up on him

There are a lot of different stalls that allow children to "fish" for toys. At this stall, you pay to get one metal hook attached to a short piece of twisted tissue paper. The object is to hook as many of these balloons without getting the piece of paper wet and losing your hook. Once the paper breaks, you must stop fishing, but until then you can keep whatever you hook. William got one balloon before he got impatient and ripped his hook off the paper for no reason. Maybe he is a bit too young for this game? 

A similar game involves a little plastic hoop with rice paper stretched in between and a collecting bowl. You then try and scoop as many balls, toys, or whatever out of the water and into your bowl before your paper net breaks. There is an art to it: you need to work fast because the paper breaks down quickly once it is wet, but you can't get too greedy and scoop too much. Whatever you collect in your bowl before your net breaks you can keep. 

This stand lets you scoop up goldfish with a paper net which I think is pretty sad.

I thought this mom and her tiny little girl in yukata were so incredibly cute.

William, Rosie, and me

All thoughts of fireworks were temporarily forgotten when William found a new little friend on the sidewalk. It was a funamushi, or sea slater, which was very friendly and docile. It is an oniscid isopod, very closely related to pill bugs, which are actually crustaceans and not insects like most people think. One of William's favourite pastimes is playing with pill bugs in our yard so it was not at all surprising that he found the sea slater so appealing. He discovered the "fun" in "funamushi" by letting it scamper all over his hands and arms, carrying it around, and creeping out anyone who came close enough to see.

I think someone drew on its back because they don't naturally have white markings

Rosie occupied herself by picking up rocks and trying to eat them, one of her all time favourite hobbies.

 And puttering around the street stalls taking in all the new sights.

This was her first real fireworks show and I was curious to see how she would react to all the noise and lights. Thankfully, she shrieked in joy and clapped her hands as each firework boomed in the sky. The boys were always pretty mellow about fireworks when they were babies, so her overboard enthusiasm surprised me.

Looks like we'll have to go to more fireworks shows this summer! 

Living and Growing

After our hot and unusually long summer, the weather has suddenly turned cooler. On my daily walks around the neighbourhood, I have begun to notice that it isn't just me enjoying the weather but all the plants and creepy crawlies too.

Our little street has a sort of rusty, run down beauty in early fall. The train tracks become lined with a healthy tangle of blooming cosmos and red spider lilies and the green mountains rise up in the distance. After a year and a half in our little house, it is really starting to feel like home.

The view down our street

Higanbana, or red spider lily

I have been coming across a lot of hornworm and hawk moth caterpillars (from the Sphingidae family of moths). It is almost impossible to miss seeing them since they are about 7 cm long, as thick as your finger, and have a little wagging "tail" at their end.

An Impatiens Hawk Moth (Theretra oldenlandiae) caterpillar making its way across the street

This caterpillar was a little smaller and also from the Sphingidae family (I have no idea
what genus and species though!)

A tobacco hornworm caterpillar making short work of a morning glory leaf on our bike shelter

And we have also seen the adult stage of these hawk moth caterpillars frequenting our four o' clocks and morning glories each evening. Dustin and I never grow tired of seeing huge hummingbird moths flitting in and out of the flower bed. 

There has also been a boom in the spider population as of late. Dustin managed to get a picture of this stripey and colourful individual last weekend.

Last year Dustin was pretty disappointed by the vines I chose to plant near our fence and bike shelter. He was envisioning a lush green blanket enveloping everything in sight but the flowering vines I planted barely covered half the fence before frost killed them off in December. This year I promised Dustin that I would make his dream come true and so I planted morning glories. I didn't really even plant that many of them, maybe six or seven plants around the yard, but they have really taken off. Every weekend I have to spend a few minutes cutting them back or else they would have long since eaten the road in front of our house, been all the way up the electric line and across the street, and completely covered the entrance to our bike shelter. 

Now that the weather has cooled, the morning glories have started to bloom. I love it! 

William posing outside our fence on a bright, sunny morning (yes, there is a fence under all those vines)

We also trained morning glories up a net in front of our window

From inside, it fills the room with green, dappled sunlight.

and the side of our bike shelter

Maybe I did go a bit nuts planting vines this year but there has not been one complaint from Dustin!