With regard to the densification issue, we should be glad that it's being advocated. While I too can't imagine not having a back yard, we just can't supply enough houses for the high demand. They can't keep taking away more and more arable land to create urban sprawl. I was a little worried about our PM wanting to build thousands of prefab homes. Where will they all go?
I would hate it too, but there might come a day when we don't have a choice. My 91 yr old mom still lives alone in her house in the country on 2 acres with huge flower beds that they used to tend, but that are now slowly turning wild. Not everyone is that lucky though. Now she just mows her weedy grass on a ride-on mower, and whippersnips the bushiest dandilions.
Is this a beetle with the killer larva you were talking about? I found 3 with these spots. That fly doesn't attack beneficial insects does it? https://photos.app.goo.gl/B9VDqBS4StytdCoKA
I'm not sure if you can see my image, but the beetles have very neat dots along the sides.
They do have the spots but you can’t always see them. The spots are actually small clumps of shite hairs along the segments of the abdomen and they can sometimes be hidden by the edges of the elytra (that’s the had wing cover on beetles) … but they are there.
Ok. I guess we don't have any winsome flies here then. I kind of like going out with my bucket of soapy water. It's relaxing. My husband does the heavy work. 😉
My wife is the one with the pot of soapy water ... she jokes about a test she once read that says "The secret of happy gardening. Put on a hat with a broad Brin, hold a cold glass of wine and tell the man where to dig". In reality she probably digs more than I do.
Hmm. I just looked up the winsome fly, and apparently they lay their eggs near the head on the green part. I don't think they know too much about them because they too have been introduced. I think I will just collect as many as I can.
Sewer systems and septic systems ... it's all relative to location, as to which is best. Here at the southern end of the Olympic peninsula of Washington state I am on a septic system much like you Richard with lots of surrounding land. Though it is being logged off rather quickly. We have the septic system pumped from time to time and keep a record of that for the county and were we to want to sell the property. The water table is not too deep, it is good to be aware of that. Though as the logging takes away the forests that protect that underground water, who know how that source will change. And where does that pumped sewerage go??? I do not know. And was actually told, it is better not to ask!!! For another side of the story, not too far away is our beautiful Hood Canal. In recent decades it has gone from having a few state parks and camp sites to being heavily populated with 'summer homes' each on separate sewer systems that mostly dump into the canal. This, among other wrong doings (like contractors and dry cleaners dumping their waste, that they don't want to pay to have properly disposed of) .. this dumping of sewerage into Hood Canal has severely diminished to viable oxygen of those waters. As the shoreline around Hood Canal is divided among many rather poor counties which all want those property taxes, and the state being strapped for cash to fund land/water management, things are not looking good to get this situation put to rights. As Hood Canal has been the only place to find our native Olympia oysters, it is unthinkable that this is happening for the oysters and all else that lives in our native inland saltwater ways. To think of how we whites have been here destroying this once beautiful land for less than a few hundred years, has always made me sick at heart. Even as a child, I knew what humans are doing to the land and nature is so very, very wrong. But heck, I am only a stupid woman in an all knowing white man's world. What could I possibly know about anything.
Re. Densification - puzzles me too. We live in a town which is just about in the Greater Toronto Area but far enough north to be called The Country by locals. Roughly four acres, a large pond full of frogs, fish etc., less than an acre cleared. Septic bed, well water, no streetlights or sidewalks, but less than ten minutes by car from ‘civilization’. I know people who would HATE to live here, ‘it’s so dark’, ‘nothing to look at but trees’, ‘it’s so quiet’, ‘where IS everybody?’, and the birds and wildlife we love make them very nervous. To each his own, I guess. Now we’ve acquired a neighbour who has a similar property which he is doing his best to turn into a large version of a suburban home - manicured grass, paving everywhere, nothing blooming or blossoming (so untidy!). Boring, to us. And very critical of all our weeds, aka wilding.
With regard to the densification issue, we should be glad that it's being advocated. While I too can't imagine not having a back yard, we just can't supply enough houses for the high demand. They can't keep taking away more and more arable land to create urban sprawl. I was a little worried about our PM wanting to build thousands of prefab homes. Where will they all go?
That’s the problem … I understand the need, I just struggle with the idea of having to live in the solution.
I would hate it too, but there might come a day when we don't have a choice. My 91 yr old mom still lives alone in her house in the country on 2 acres with huge flower beds that they used to tend, but that are now slowly turning wild. Not everyone is that lucky though. Now she just mows her weedy grass on a ride-on mower, and whippersnips the bushiest dandilions.
Is this a beetle with the killer larva you were talking about? I found 3 with these spots. That fly doesn't attack beneficial insects does it? https://photos.app.goo.gl/B9VDqBS4StytdCoKA
I'm not sure if you can see my image, but the beetles have very neat dots along the sides.
That’s the Japanese Beetle - the dots along the side are part of its marking. If the parasite lays eggs they go on the back of the head, usually two or three. As far as I know it doesn’t affect any other species. See https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/gotpests/bugs/factsheets/THE%20FLY%20THAT%20ATTACKS%20JAPANESE.pdf
Ok. Thanks. They don't all have the dots along the side though. Maybe that's the difference between male and female?
They do have the spots but you can’t always see them. The spots are actually small clumps of shite hairs along the segments of the abdomen and they can sometimes be hidden by the edges of the elytra (that’s the had wing cover on beetles) … but they are there.
Ok. I guess we don't have any winsome flies here then. I kind of like going out with my bucket of soapy water. It's relaxing. My husband does the heavy work. 😉
My wife is the one with the pot of soapy water ... she jokes about a test she once read that says "The secret of happy gardening. Put on a hat with a broad Brin, hold a cold glass of wine and tell the man where to dig". In reality she probably digs more than I do.
Hmm. I just looked up the winsome fly, and apparently they lay their eggs near the head on the green part. I don't think they know too much about them because they too have been introduced. I think I will just collect as many as I can.
Sewer systems and septic systems ... it's all relative to location, as to which is best. Here at the southern end of the Olympic peninsula of Washington state I am on a septic system much like you Richard with lots of surrounding land. Though it is being logged off rather quickly. We have the septic system pumped from time to time and keep a record of that for the county and were we to want to sell the property. The water table is not too deep, it is good to be aware of that. Though as the logging takes away the forests that protect that underground water, who know how that source will change. And where does that pumped sewerage go??? I do not know. And was actually told, it is better not to ask!!! For another side of the story, not too far away is our beautiful Hood Canal. In recent decades it has gone from having a few state parks and camp sites to being heavily populated with 'summer homes' each on separate sewer systems that mostly dump into the canal. This, among other wrong doings (like contractors and dry cleaners dumping their waste, that they don't want to pay to have properly disposed of) .. this dumping of sewerage into Hood Canal has severely diminished to viable oxygen of those waters. As the shoreline around Hood Canal is divided among many rather poor counties which all want those property taxes, and the state being strapped for cash to fund land/water management, things are not looking good to get this situation put to rights. As Hood Canal has been the only place to find our native Olympia oysters, it is unthinkable that this is happening for the oysters and all else that lives in our native inland saltwater ways. To think of how we whites have been here destroying this once beautiful land for less than a few hundred years, has always made me sick at heart. Even as a child, I knew what humans are doing to the land and nature is so very, very wrong. But heck, I am only a stupid woman in an all knowing white man's world. What could I possibly know about anything.
Re. Densification - puzzles me too. We live in a town which is just about in the Greater Toronto Area but far enough north to be called The Country by locals. Roughly four acres, a large pond full of frogs, fish etc., less than an acre cleared. Septic bed, well water, no streetlights or sidewalks, but less than ten minutes by car from ‘civilization’. I know people who would HATE to live here, ‘it’s so dark’, ‘nothing to look at but trees’, ‘it’s so quiet’, ‘where IS everybody?’, and the birds and wildlife we love make them very nervous. To each his own, I guess. Now we’ve acquired a neighbour who has a similar property which he is doing his best to turn into a large version of a suburban home - manicured grass, paving everywhere, nothing blooming or blossoming (so untidy!). Boring, to us. And very critical of all our weeds, aka wilding.
I don't have your acreage but otherwise I know exactly where you ate coming from ... those macmansions are proliferating.