quiltingshorttimer

Here in the MidWest we had oak mite infestation this past summer and because we've had almost no real winter--absolutely almost no snow or ice and very few really cold days, the forecast is for the little buggers to be out again--like now! Seriously, it's in the 70's here all this week and next and only dropping into 40's at night! Doubt we are really finished with winter, but who knows!

I live in the Kansas City area,btw. We are looking to have a drought this summer if we don't get RAIN and lots of it soon.

Oat Mites are invisible and seem to be anywhere there are oaks (very good trees around here) and the bits are miserable--worse than a chigger cause they sting and itch and seem to stick around longer.

Teddybear Lady

We've already been killing mosquitoes! Didn't have much of a winter either. Today it was sunny and 71 degrees. It's still February! I guess every place has their pests.

sewbizgirl

Never heard of oak mites... I've probably been eaten by them for years and just thought it was chiggers.

Battle Axe

Oh Great! We have had the usual invasion of Asian Lady Bugs. The kind that stink to High Heaven. I was minding my own business in my recliner reading a quilting catalog and took a big drink of my ice tea (really it was ice tea) and found something in my mouth. I thought it was a lemon seed from my fish at lunch. So I rolled it around in my mouth and then crunched on it a couple of times.

Suddenly there was this huge terrible taste in my mouth and this dreadful fowl smell. I fished it out of my mouth to see what it was: ASIAN LADY BUG. I made it to the bathroom where I began vomiting uncontrollably. It took several hours to get the taste and smell out of my body.

Now I look in my glass first.

Reba'squilts

How horrible battle axe. We have those too here in Mi, we also have emerald ash borers, and about 500 ash trees. Our woods is going to look like the end of the world pretty soon. Now I will have to find out if we have those oak mites too.

nativetexan

oh my goodness. lady bug in your tea! My house gets them all the time. found a tiny frog dead in my sewing room windowsill. How he got there is beyond me. i put him out in the garden in case he came back to life. rain didn't do it for him though. long ago i found one thought to be very dead and he came back to life. amazing.

quiltingshorttimer

we'd never had them before either--something about the perfect nexus of lack of moisture, lack of cold weather and then lots of oaks. We basically live in the middle of a hay field with few tree--only one oak but people in the KC burbs were eaten alive with them cause lots of oaks. Made mowing yards, etc risky

We are also losing lots of ashes being wiped out by the emerald ash borer and losing pines to the pine bark beetle--we've lost 2 big ones in about 4 years--only hits older trees too.

toverly

We get those little tree frogs in the house also nativetexan. They dry up inside. We call them frog popsicles because they seem to dry with one leg stretched out and you can pick them up by a leg. I always toss them outside just in case. Glad to know they can sometimes revive.

sandybeach

Here in California we are losing thousands of trees. It started with the drought leaving the trees vulnerable, then the borers came in and now everything is dying. I lost a 20+ year old Raywood Ash in my back yard and am worried about the Modesto Ash now. Most of the pines are dying. My tree man says the only thing that is going to survive are the palm trees. (Don't like palm trees).

sewbizgirl

I'm sorry... this is so FUNNY I laughed out loud! You painted a really good picture of the frog popsicle with your words.