Thank you, Cheryl. You never disappoint!

I had one of those beetles in my room last week! I was trying to get to sleep and I heard something on my nightstand. I thought the fan might be blowing some papers around so I flipped on the light and saw that thing! He got flushed. Not getting out of bed to take him outside. Plus, those things look scary! I think he came in on one of the many packages I had delivered that week.

I sure do enjoy this thread, seeing all the amazing pictures of various garden guests and always learning something new!

These chrysanthemums are a big hit in the garden right now! Thinking I might actually harvest some of the medicinal flowers, it's not looking like the bugs will cooperate.

Christine, your mums are sure popular with the pollinators!!!! Beautiful flowers - even with bugs.

Melanie, I would not be a happy camper to find a pincer beetle on my nightstand! But yesterday I captured a grasshopper that had somehow gotten into the kitchen. I threw him outside where he belonged.

Wasps and Bees and Flies, oh my!

Wow, that's quite an Insect Zoo you have there, Robin. Great photos too!

Congrats to @GrammaChar for being a "Noteworthy Acorn Tip" in the newsletter this week. If you missed it the first time around, here's her post: http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Char fully deserves to be mentioned with her pictures as the most seen ones: they are out of this world!

I love Char's pictures

A blowfly for your thoughts. It is on the daylily Just Gorgeous.

Peek a boo. I can actually see you, little Eastern Bearded Dragon.



It is good to have one back in the garden. He is small and probably only this year's hatching. I haven't seen my large male this year.

NICE photo Glen!

Now, I miss our pet Bearded Dragon we used to have. Technically, it was my brother's, but I liked watching her splashing in the tub. And I have some kind of compulsion to help molting lizards. Just can't stand to see them with those huge flakes. So we would have girl time and exfoliate together.

Yesterday as I was moving pots for the anticipated cold snap, I came upon this little green one. He was trying to hide from me behind a pot and I was trying to get a better look at him to figure out if he was a grasshopper or a cricket. I'm still wondering...



So as I moved the pot out of the way to get his picture, he went on the move.



As I was snapping his picture, I realized that he was moving right towards me, instead of away! He was looking right at me too!



Pretty soon, he was right at the edge of the potting bench thingy, staring straight at me...



and then he did it! He jumped right on me! But I jumped too and he landed on the patio! I was laughing out loud! It was even funnier when I turned and the dogs were lined up laying in the grass across the patio, all just looking at me like I'm crazy!



I'm pretty sure it's a green cricket. With red eyes!

Bearded Dragons are great to have around Melanie. But I have to keep alert because he gives me a fright when I don't notice he is there and is telling me to be warned. Today he caught are very large worm. He had such a tussle being only so big. He is eating all the violet flowers and anything he can reach, too. I am keeping the white ibis out as much as possible because they will take him. I am hoping he is a bit too big for the kookaburras.

Technically, not in my garden, but in my neighborhood. This is a Gopher Tortoise. They are a keystone species because dozens of other species rely on the burrows they make for habitat. They're also threatened in the state of Florida. I took the picture with my phone because I was reporting the sighting using the Florida Wildlife Commission Gopher Tortoise app.

Gopher Tortoise is an amazing creature!!

mellielong said:Now, I miss our pet Bearded Dragon we used to have. Technically, it was my brother's, but I liked watching her splashing in the tub. And I have some kind of compulsion to help molting lizards. Just can't stand to see them with those huge flakes. So we would have girl time and exfoliate together.

Right Mellie they're so cute! Over the years I've had various things in the bathtub too. Haha I had girl- time long ago with my pet Burmese Python who had reached a length of 18ft I'd give her in a 55 gallon drum of warm water and she loved it. Afterwards, I'd help her de-flake. Hated that clouded over look on her eyes until she shed and her skin looked like a rainbow!
On park excursions people always came up and asked questions. I was even told to leave by a cop once

mellielong said:Technically, not in my garden, but in my neighborhood. This is a Gopher Tortoise. They are a keystone species because dozens of other species rely on the burrows they make for habitat. They're also threatened in the state of Florida. I took the picture with my phone because I was reporting the sighting using the Florida Wildlife Commission Gopher Tortoise app.



What a lucky sighting Mellie! You were definitely the right person in the right place. I'll have to go read up about them now. Once, in Florida I found a soft shell turtle crossing the road. Here's a link to a photo of one of them if anyone wants to see

https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...

Read up a bit on that Gopher tortoise and even watched a video of mating ritual- and wow it was over fast! The male on top of the female almost got knocked over as she headed back to her burrow. It reminded me of one of those cartoons when someone is on top of a train and a tunnel comes up

Here's the clip if anybody is bored waiting for that turkey to roast, HaPpY ThANkSGivinG everyone!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Interested to see the giant Galapagos tortoise? I'd never heard of them until once while visiting the Philadelphia zoo I saw a pair of them mating. Oh my! It was so comical. The male kept making a loud bellowing Whomf! Whomf! sound several times a minute. I came back to the area a few hours later and they were stil at it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

She really gets into her work...

Just saw this girl gathering pollen from the Gaillardia on the porch