Hello, Creatures!
Statistics say Sunday’s a slow internet day, so we’ll take it nice and easy with another humorous backyard adventure.
This is mine and 1950s Dad’s first spring with our very own back yard after moving out of our apartment and into the wilds of suburbia. And while Atlanta seems reluctant to let go of it’s brief, and out-of-season cold weather (it’s APRIL, already. Let’s dispense with the 55 degree mornings, please!), Winter is truly over, and that means cleaning up the yard that we’ve had the luxury of neglecting all season.
It’s here that I should mention the previous owners of the house were kind of yard nuts and so we inherited this crazy-landscaped back yard, complete with a waterfall. That you turn on with a remote. I’m serious. And while it was something that I probably never would have considered putting in the yard, myself, I have to admit it’s pleasant to hear the sound of gently running water while I’m sketching out on the back deck.
Before you start thinking that I’m a total hippie, lounging in dappled sunlight sketching fairies whilst butterflies alight on the end of my pencil (NONE of this is true by the way, except the part about doodling fairies outside), let’s talk about the upkeep of said water feature.
The thing got choked with leaves this fall, because I didn’t have the foresight to cover it with a tarp to keep the leaves out. Pro tip: it’s impossible to rake rocks, so borrow a leaf blower from a friend. The leaf blower, however will NOT be able to get all the horrible rotting leaves that have collected in the middle pool of your waterfall and sunk to the bottom in a disgusting sludge. And neither will you be able to dip the rake in to scoop them out.
…
So you’ll find yourself up to your elbows in frigid standing water pulling oozing leaves out and dumping them into a bin, like I did. I’m sure there was a better way to do this, but this was the fastest, and I clearly don’t have any sense when it comes to sticking my hands into the unknown. After several handfuls of what-used-to-be-leaves is when I started pulling out:
The creatures.
These bizarre little grub things that seemed to be fine living in the water considering I was pulling them up from the bottom, but also didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that they’d been dredged up on to dry land either. They’d just sort of…I dunno grub around like you’d expect. And they had tails. Really long whip-like tails, adding to their creep-factor.
After panicking about weather or not I’m inadvertently breeding some kind of suburban version of Cthulhu, I turned to the all powerful Internet for help. And God bless Google for catering to the layman because after several attempts I finally typed “What the hell is this weird grub with a whip tail in my pond” and got what I was looking for.
Allow me to introduce the Rat-tailed Maggot.
Hold it.
Maggot. That means this creepy grub thing is going to turn into a fly. Which is pretty gross, considering they generally eat things like poo. But fear not! I got lucky. These guys actually turn into something called a Drone Fly. Which I discovered is fly that likes to pretend it’s a bee. They’re even good pollinators and they don’t bite or sting, so I guess I shouldn’t really complain. Now I just gotta figure out how I can keep them around, but still kill of the mosquito larvae that reside in the same pool. Oh yeah! And that tail that I thought was for swimming is actually a snorkel for them to breathe. Nature is weird!
So concludes your lesson in weird backyard fauna! That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
