Thursday, September 16, 2021

What's bugging you???

I recently came across some of my old poems that seem to fit a current theme. These are pesky poems, but instead of shooing them away I decided to share them. One today... maybe two next time.

We just returned from a family vacation near a remote lake in Wyoming. What a fabulous time... three delicious meals plus "teatime" each day, hiking, archery, horseback riding and fly-fishing. Also canoeing, which afforded my son and I a close view of an elk, an osprey, two otters and a little family of grebes. Wow!!! But... I noticed that many pines are dying due to the infestation of pine beetles. 


BEETLES

Being
Egregiously
Enthusiastic
Through 
Long 
Entomology 
Seminars

     - Karen Eastlund

Here in NJ we are fighting the invasion of the spotted lanternfly. They are beautiful, but so destructive. I cringe each time I step on one. 

The spotted lanternfly causes serious damage in trees, including oozing sap, wilting, leaf curling and tree dieback. Its annual damage exceeds hundreds of millions of dollars in lost agricultural production.


What bugs are in your bonnet?  Feel free to share them in your comments.

Of course it's Poetry Friday, and our host this week is Denise Krebs at Dare to Care. Be sure to check out her blog for other poetry postings. Thanks for hosting, Denise. 


10 comments:

  1. Bugs in my bonnet-no but on my legs-YES! Unfortunately, when gardening and/or in the apple orchard I will the main course for some flys. They not only took a bite, they left their itchy sting and it turned a bright pink the next day. I like your beetles acrostic poem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karen, your Wyoming vacation sounds magical, and the loss of all the pines seems all the more egregious, as the other animals would benefit from their health. I can picture the "egregiously enthusiastic" beetle hearing all about the devastation they dispense. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your canoe ride sounds idyllic. The bugs and beetles, not-so-much. (We're moving towards Summer here, so expect lamentations in coming weeks/months.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't know how to fight the pine beetles but they are devastating our mountain pines. No one seems to find a way to fight them except very cold weather. As for me, every year I fight the Japanese beetle, picking them one by one off the leaves, am & pm. Indeed, they, too, are "Egregiously
    Enthusiastic". Sorry to hear of your lantern fly, Karen! Time for them all to stop "bugging" us!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love hearing about your vacation, Karen! Sounds idyllic (esp. with daily teatime). :) Amazing wildlife sightings too. I hope those lantern flies don't make their way down to Virginia. They are pretty to look at, but I shudder at the damage they could cause around here. And it's too bad about those pine beetles (cool acrostic though). :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your vacation sounds wonderful, Karen!I haven't seen any lantern flies around my house in Connecticut, but some of the trees I pass on my way to work have suspicious "leaf curling." I also wrote about a bug this week--a skinny for a walkingstick I found on my car a few weeks ago. Such an incredible creature!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'd love to see Wyoming. What a great vacation you had. I hate to hear about tree loss and hope these pesky bugs go away. We are having a lovely autumn here in New York.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your trip sounds idyllic! I love canoeing. Your acrostic is a fun way to express frustration at the damage the insects are causing to the forests.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sorry about the damage those beetles do, but it sure sounds like you had a good time, anyway!

    ReplyDelete
  10. We are looking forward to cooler weather to eradicate the pesky mosquitoes here! Those are our buggy bugs!!

    ReplyDelete