critters, critters everywhere!

Living in the desert, we are seeing some bugs and wildlife we have never seen before! This week we have had the chance to capture a few of our backyard vistors with the camera.

I was outside watering plants and saw something skitter by my feet out of the corner of my eye. It looked like a short, white stick running across the rocks. When I got down close I was able to see that it was some type of praying mantis! I don't think I have ever seen one before, let alone a desert-colored one. The pictures I had seen were of green ones. But when I looked it up, I found that they can be green, brown or tan. I suppose depending on their environment. So here we have a tan desert camoflauged praying mantis!

And then there is the Black Widow spider. We've seen a few of these already, but this is the first time I took a photo. We were a bit freaked out to find one in our garage right after we moved in here, and we've seen several others around the backyard since. This one was right outside our back door, near the ground. Her web was under a little ledge that hangs along the house above the cement patio. But after checking it out, we found that they are not usually deadly. Of course, I do not want to find out exactly how sick one can get from a bite, so we are careful. Their webs are very cobweb-like, so I try to keep the corners and other areas where cobwebs build up swept out well so that we are sure there are no spiders.

And lastly, a pesky little bug has taken up residence on our tomato plants. I have yet to identify it for sure, but I think it may be fungus gnats. They don't appear to be causing any damage, but I don't like them anyway. We are not using chemical pesticides or fertilizers though, so I need to try a few things and see if I can't get them to go away.