3:00 snapshot, #113.

[urbpan]

A tangled clump of garlic mustard, buckthorn, black swallow-wort, and Norway maple that I decided to attack today.

Disgusting substance of the day: Wet autumn leaves that have been marinating in a garbage bag since October 2006.

On this day in 365 urban species: Crane fly, that harmless insect that resembles a giant mosquito and scares the heck out of some people. The comments to this post are very interesting, with a discussion of regional common names and folk entomology.

Comments

This is a mosquito lion. It eats mosquitos. (Or maybe not.)

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

I assume you are putting in some Japanese Knotweed there, right?

The other day I was wishing that the damn deer would stop eating the native plants and get to work eating the invasives. Then I realized that of course they eat the native plants. I've been trying to get rid of invasives and replace them with local plants, but now I think, until the deer are excluded, it's a Sisyphusean project. Any ideas? I know there are deer resistant varieties etc, or at least plants they don't much like, but my dream of restoring this area seems pretty impractical.

Re: This is a mosquito lion. It eats mosquitos. (Or maybe not.)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Your best hope, if you can't exclude the deer, is to plant something native that's very toxic, and hope for the best.

[morty-baby.livejournal.com]

I am afraid of those giant mosquito-eaters, myownself. Funny thing is, I am not afraid of mosquitoes. I think it's that they look a lot like daddy-long-legs if they could fly and I definitely don't like them.

Specially in large packs.