Giant African Land Snail

 

A Giant African Snail (Lissachatina fulica) found in my garden. KwaZulu Natal is South Africa’s Texas, everything is bigger! 

This is one of the most damaging snails in the world because it consumes at least 500 types of plants and can cause structural damage to plaster and stucco structures. This snail can also carry a parasitic nematode that can lead to meningitis in humans.

However, Google says “snail therapy” is suitable for both young and aging skin, helps to fight a variety of aesthetic defects. Reviews indicate that Achatina mucus has a beneficial effect on the skin and does not cause side effects.

7-10 cm (3-4 in.) (Shell length)

Gaudy Commodore

Precis octavia male or Gaudy Commodore in my garden. The wingspan of the Gaudy Commodore is 50-63 mm, and the colours of the males and females are the same. The females lay eggs on shoots of specific host plants, mostly grassland plants in the mint family, including Plectranthus, which is obviously why it chose to visit me. 

The Gaudy Commodore breeds twice a year and the subspecies Precis octavia sesamus has a wet season form and a dry season form. In this photo, taken now in late winter in August, the dry season form colouration can be seen. In the wet season form the colouration is predominantly red-orange. The two forms are so different that it is hard to believe that they are forms of the same species of butterfly. 

The caterpillars of the Gaudy Commodore are about 45 mm in length and they are tawny brown in colour, banded with black. They carry branched spines along the length of their body and a pair of spines on the head. 

Even those who don’t like caterpillars tend to like butterflies, perhaps forgetting that caterpillars are the larvae of butterflies? 

Info from “Letting Nature Back In”

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South African Paper Wasps—Vespidae

 Don’t reach for the Doom!

These are the most common wasps and all species build papery multi-celled nests of chewed wood pulp and saliva. 

They are highly social. So if you see a paper wasp nest under the eaves, do not reach for the Doom. They are not aggressive and will not attack you. They are keeping the ecosystem in your garden in equilibrium, by preying on insect larvae and aphids.

They gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use it to construct nests made of gray or brown papery material. The resultant wood pulp is remarkably strong.

“Paper wasps have an interesting lifestyle. The nests are usually founded by a single queen. A mated female from the parental nest emerges in spring and starts building the nest. She becomes the queen and is soon joined by other mated females from the same nest to form a colony. The late-comers are relegated to the worker caste. After the queen has started construction of the first hexagonal cell of the nest, the worker females add more concentric circles of cells to enlarge it.

The queen will lay all the eggs. The worker females are destined to be the workers – building the nest, hunting for food and minding the offspring.”

— Read more here :

(The pics are of 4 different wasps and they are all chewing wood on my wooden clothes drying rack.)

Black Snow

It’s sugar cane burning season in South Africa and here in KwaZulu Natal, it starts late-winter (July/August) and continues into early-summer. 

 

Before the sugar cane can be harvested, it must first be burned to remove the outer leaves and make it easier to cut.

While this process is necessary for the sugar cane industry, it can have some negative effects on the environment and human health. The burning of sugar cane releases large amounts of smoke and particulate matter into the air, which can cause respiratory problems and other health issues for people living nearby.

At the start of the sugar cane burning season in Southern Africa, many residents brace themselves for what has become known as ‘black snow.’ This term refers to the thick, black smoke and soot that fills the air as sugar cane fields are burned to prepare for harvest.

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Sunsets teach us

It was sunsets that taught me that beauty sometimes only lasts for a couple of moments. By the time I turned my back, went inside and closed the door, all the fiery orange had disappeared, leaving only a few splashes of pink and grey. 

I also found out that sunset or dusk is a good time for photography--it lends a certain peaceful quality to the garden.