Guess, in the photo above, what the dark brown mat is on the water in the ditch after a two inch rain. In case you don't know, it's a floating mat of fire ants. The most common ant on the farm is the Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta). This species is not native to North America but is ... Read More
farm fauna
Copperhead Bites Sadie
Photo: Sadie on sofa about a half hour after being bitten by a copperhead. I hadn’t planned on blogging about copperheads any more for at least a year, but Sadie our son’s family’s rescue pit bull was bitten, so here goes copperheads again. In previous blogs I’d explained that copperheads ... Read More
Copperhead Eating a Cicada
The photo shows a copperhead with a cicada nymph in its mouth. This time of the year at the farm cicada nymphs are emerging at dusk from ground to ascend into a shrub, tree, or other object where they eclose into winged adults. This typically happens from June 1st to about July 15th. They and ... Read More
Copperhead Hunting a Cicada
The photo shows a copperhead stretching for cicada that is just out of its reach. During July and August each year copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) flock to our yard to harvest emerging cicadas and June bugs. Both of these insects live underground for a year to several years as grubs. When ... Read More
Maya’s Copperhead Bite Update
The photo shows Maya's copperhead bite a couple days after it occurred. Maya, one of our German Shepherds was recently bitten by a copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix (see my blog: http://goliadfarms.com/mayas-copperhead-bite/), which are very active at this time of the year. Fortunately, ... Read More
Maya’s Copperhead Bite
The photo shows Maya’s foot, swollen from a copperhead bite a couple of hours earlier. Maya is one of our German Shepherd Dogs (GSD). She’s just less than 22 months old and lives here with her brother, Oso, and mother Tally. Here are some links to earlier blogs about the GSDs: ... Read More
Chupacabra?
The photo is of the trunk, with missing chunks of bark, of an old Arizona ash tree in our yard. A week or so ago Susie, my wife, and I were sitting on the back porch enjoying a cool evening breeze when I noticed chunks of bark missing from a large ash tree in the yard. I remarked about, ... Read More
Gambusia Road Trip – Day 5
Photo shows San Felipe Creek in Del Rio, Texas, home of Gambusia clarkhubbsi. The dogs, Tally, Gus, Oso, and Maya enjoyed romping in the creek. Day five started early because it was going to be a long haul. From Marathon we would follow US 90 to Del Rio, TX past Seminole Canyon State Park, a ... Read More
Gambusia Road Trip -Day 4
Photo: Cara, Tally, Maya, Gus, and Oso on the Gambusia Road Trip Day four had a great start. The second heater made the camper toasty warm all night. Even Gus had a comfortable night. Also, we had camped adjacent to the spring and its outflow, so getting to the habitat of G. nobilis and the ... Read More
California Bound
I’ll be speaking twice this next week. On Sunday, March 1st I’ll speak at COAST (http://www.coastfishclub.com/ncms/) in Costa Mesa, California at 12:30 pm on fancy livebearers; how we breed and raise them. Then Friday, March 6th, I’ll speak at the San Francisco Aquarium Society ... Read More