Old Antique Toys: bugs

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Still More Insect Toys!

Tuesday, May 28, 2013
(A Related Second Post of the day)

Still More Insect Toys

I decided to check out another of my fine contributors to my blogs, and found a whole "batch" of other excellent insect toys, so I couldn't pass up the idea of adding a second post on the same subject. I might even do this more often.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I prefer to give each auctioneer a unique posting for their fine photographs. Usually I have enough images form the auctioneers from many years of auctions, so I stay exclusively with one. These 2 postings of insect toys has given me an idea. What I might do in the future is add a second different post by another auctioneer, and then "link" the 2 posts together.

To add 2 posts daily would simply be too much work for 1 day!

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Dan Morphy's fine website

Please do not copy without their written permission

I have a funny story to tell you before I finish. Last week, I went to help my neighbour with her lawn. Anouk came over to ask for some advise, and I decided to help her. We removed all of the weeds and grass (mostly weeds),and then we added grass seeds and black earth and fertilizer.

Naturally, the topic of grubs came up, but she didn't find any when she had already started the seeding process. Anyway, as I was turning up the soil, I immediately came upon several white grubs (please see the previous post for their photos), and "squished them". Anouk was surprised, and said that she though they were "good insects" and simply put them back in the soil.

When I went home to my house across the street, I pondered her words,and then laughed at myself. We have a swimming pool in my our back yard, and I'm always playing "lifesaver" to insects that happen to fall into the water. I think the blue paint of the swimming pool tricks them into thinking that's the sky, and they lost their sensde of sky and ground.

What happened is that I kept saving evolve into grubs, which kill my grass - I had a good laugh at myself!

As you can see from today's 2 posts, there certainly are a lot of nice looking beetles and a few bugs and other insects. I like them as toys, but after all these years, I still don't like insects all that much!

Please Click Here to be redirected to my other post on insect toys from Bertoia Auctions

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Get Those Bugs Out of Our House!

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Get Those Bugs Out of Our House!

The Background Story

Today's post comes from my gardening, specifically my lawn and grass. I'm in charge of the lawn, and my wife takes care of the trees, shrubs, flowers,and herbs.

I live in Canada, specifically in Montreal,in the Province of Quebec. About 10 years ago, both the federal and provincial governments decided to ban pesticides and herbicides that were in common use then. Their decision was based on trying to avoid harmful poisons getting into the environment, as well as protecting children from coming into contact with these poisons.

By banning pesticides that had been used from anywhere form 20- Aa a result, flowers are eaten by all kinds of insects, as well as being attacked by fungi and moulds. As for grass, my lawn is infested by at least 10 weed species, and grubs. I did out the weeds by hand, which is not that hard. If you spend about 2 hours a week, weeding, you can have a beautiful lawn without using herbicides. However, not everyone has the time, and if you have a large lawn -that's not possible. As for the grubs, they're another story.

Grubs are the larval stage of assorted insects such as beetles. The beetles lay their eggs in the earth below the grass level. The eggs mature to small grubs, which then eat the roots of your grass, and the grass dies. So you end up with large patches of dead and yellow grass, that comes out with an easy pull from your hand.

I went on the Internet last year, and discovered the world of nematodes. . These are microscopic types of wormlike creatures. You buy them live, add them to water, and spray them on your lawn. You then apply plenty of water, so they can burrow into the ground. Once in the ground, they search out the grubs, and then eat and kill them. By biting and eating the grubs, even smaller bacterial organisms start to feast on the grubs, and the grubs die.

The Damage Caused by Grubs

The Adults Beetles and Their Larvae in the Grub Stage

A Microscopic View of Beneficial Nematodes

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Bertoia's fine website

Insect Toys

The 5 photos above are all of the same Lehmann beetle # 431.

I just wanted to show you the different camera angles, and the open wings after it is wound up

for movement (Clockwork mechanism).

Some of the toys presented today are mechanical wind-ups like the Lehmann Beetle. The # 431 moves as well as opening and closings its wings. The remaining 2 images (above) simply are push toys that a child would push along the ground.

Because I like to keep each post to just 1 auctioneers,

I decided to present 2 posts today on the same subject.

If you like insects, wait until you see the next post!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be,

Stacey