Here come the bugs

Summer is coming.  You can feel it everywhere.  The warm air, the warm rain, the warm ground.  The garden is growing at a rate of knots but life is never all rosy because here come the summer bugs!  My rose buds are about to burst forth and decorate my driveway garden with dazzling colour... if the aphids don't get them first.

And while admiring the fresh, lush new growth on my raspberries I came across the first caterpillar and first 'fluffy bum' of the season.  Grrrr ... I loathe fluffy bums!  My garden is packed full of flax and hydrangeas - both host plants for these annoying little critters (also commonly called Passionfruit hoppers).  I guess in a couple of days I'll have to get out there of an evening with my fly spray.  They absolutely decimated my hydrangea buds last season and stung all the new growth severely.  Not this year!

Fascinating!  I wondered why this Cineraria flower was covered in a writhing mass of ants.  On closer inspection I was able to see the 'aphid farms' that the ants were tending.  The ants 'farm' the aphids so that they can collect the honeydew they excrete - gross!

 A closer look at the aphid 'farms'.