So, fair warning … if bugs make you squeaming you may want to stop reading after the Squirrel. Just saying.

Life here in Payson is interesting. We are regularly visited by elk. We don’t see them every day but, when they do come, there are usually many. For example, recently a whole slew of cows (females) and calves came and took a siesta in the lot next to us.

They stayed for about an hour, then casually got up and meandered on down the street. What a treat that was!

We also have all kinds of activity in our back yard. We have lots of birds so I got an app called Merlin that helps identifythem. So far, besides the usual hummingbirds, dove and crows, other feathered friends we’ve seen are Spotted Towhee, White Breasted Nuthatch, Juniper Titmouse, House Finch, American Robin, Lesser Goldfinch and Mexican Jay. We adore the Nuthatch. Besides being so dang cute, they are amazing to watch traverse up and down tree trunks!

Another amazing thing to see is our acrobatic Tree Squirrels. These bushy tailed “rodents” frequent the bird bath for a drink of water. I love watching them flick their tails and jump from tree to tree while chasing each other!

And then there are the insects! We battle the usual, and quite annoying, mosquitos, no-see-ums and black flies, but we also have some interesting other varieties of the Coleoptera taxonomic order, such as the Jewel Scarab, which is related to a dung beetle, can communicate in multiple languages, and uses very bright and unnatural coloration to blend into its environment. The pic does not adequately show how “metallic” it looks, especially on it’s underside.

And this is what I believe is a Common Black June Bug. This leathery looking beetle is apparently nocturnal and is attracted to light. A clumsy flyer, it has the tendency to crash into outdoor lights at night.

Both of these beetles were about 1 1/2″ long. Recently I found a black beetle that was at least 3″ long running by our garage. It made a beeline toward our back yard so I grabbed something to “scoot” it with. I’d scoot it and it would head back. This went on several times until I gave it a really big scoot, at which point it turned tail and ran into the front yard. Turns out it was a Palo Verde Beetle. I didn’t get a pic of it (I was too busy scooting), but you can look it up.

Then there are the hungry beasts that like to eat the stuff in our small garden, such as this Hornworm (tomato worm). Fascinating and creepy!

Hornworms are the large, green larval stage (caterpillars) of sphinx or hawk moths. Can you believe that slinky green thing turns into this?

They are primarily known as garden pests that feed on nightshade plants like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants. I found one of those green crawlers on one of our tomato plants and promptly bounced it!

Recently I ran into a couple of these interesting looking bugs. It’s markings give it kind of a “southwestern” look, don’t you think?

As usual, I turned to Google to determine what it is and if it’s harmful or beneficial in the garden. Turns out it’s a Western Leaf Footed Bug. You can’t see the hind legs in this pic but they actually do have little “leaf” looking things on them. Also turns out that they’re not beneficial, at least not to us. Sigh . . .

I’m sure as we continue to grow our garden we’ll find more and more creepy crawlers and my already huge respect for farmers will continue to grow as well.