Spotted Cucumber Beetle

I meant to have this post up a week ago. It seems like there's so much to do around here, but also nothing to do at times. As you can see by the title of the post, my mystery bug is a spotted cucumber beetle.

This bug turns out to be a very destructive little creep. As you may have guessed, it likes to eat things like cucumbers. It also likes watermelon, soybeans, and many other similar plants. They can destroy crops pretty quickly.

It's really a shame because these beetles sure are colorful little guys. That's how I noticed it in the first place. I saw that yellow color in one of my pictures. I immediately ran back outside hoping the little yellow bug was still there. The rest is here in my pictures.

I recently discovered that I'm afraid of heights, or at least afraid of being high up on a ladder. My dog Isabella has a dog run that consists of a cable that runs high up from one tree to another. Her chain comes down from that cable. That way she can move around in a much larger area.

The other day she got her chain stuck on the cable right at one of the two trees. I had to climb up the ladder to unhook it so it would work right again. It all started off just fine. I never anticipated that I would be afraid. But when I got about two steps from my destination I completely froze.

I had no idea I would be afraid, but I ended up having to go back down the ladder to gather myself. The second time up the ladder was a bit slower and shakier, but I finally made it up all the way and unhooked the chain with quite a bit of fear. Being up so high on that narrow ladder was not a fun experience. I'm happy to say that I got the job done though.

My quest of learning about plants was something else that was paused this past week. It's just that I got so busy that I kept putting it off. I need to hurry up and examine a few of the plants around here before they all go away for the winter.

I did get to work on my photography a little bit though. That really consisted of me playing around in the house with taking pictures of Isabella. I didn't get anything very good. I was just getting some practice with the manual focus on the camera. It might help me get clearer pictures. That's a good place to start.

I hope to have a few posts up a little sooner next time and I'm trying to get caught up with reading a few blogs too. Hopefully I won't get busy with other stuff this time. How can all that other outside junk keep getting in the way of my blogging fun? I hate when that happens!