Of Mice and....Larvae?

Ah, the great outdoors! Even if one's view of the great outdoors extends only to the patio with potted plants. I love the feeling that thus far, I have not managed to entirely kill off much of my greenery, despite the warring efforts of my toes vs. the green larva. It's been a while since I've written about my little patio efforts, so here goes.

I wandered outside after work a a couple of days ago to survey my "landscape." I noted a few more holes in the leaves of my potato vine, and decided to do some inspecting for the culprits. After a few "ah-hah's" I smashed a number of the little green delinquents underfoot. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I started noticing something else on the leaves that I had mistaken for larvae eggs. The green-brown spots were significantly larger. Hmmm....I seems we have unwelcome rodents that have been staking out the joint; Mike told me he saw a mouse the other night among my flowers. What is a gardener to do? Lay traps? What if he's eating the larvae? I don't really want the pest invasion! But...what if he's eating the larvae? Does he stay or does he (or they) go? No question, I should probably have some form of rodent control near my door.

After my brief thought of disgust, I then noticed my poor lamb's ear looking a little bedraggled and droopy. The upper portion of the blooming stalk had a brown-black streak across half of one side, with blackened flowers. Hmmmm. I wasn't quite sure why, but I had the feeling that I ought to investigate this problem, as well.

Any guesses? Well, upon closer examination, I discovered that the marks on the plant were burn marks. My suspicions were confirmed when I found a crispy blackened worm fried to the plant. Mike thought he was doing me a favor with his cigar lighter one afternoon when he spied one of those little green devils. He meant well.

After learning a number of things this summer on a trial-and-error basis, however, I have to say that I'm pretty happy spending time on my patio.