Peach thief!

I seriously slept for about an hour and a half tonight because I am in the peak period of breeding activity for one of the species I work with and during that exact window an opossum took the peaches that juuuuuust reached proper ripeness. I was looking at them maybe two hours ago and thinking I should pick them today. So much for that. I hope it was a female with babies or something instead of a big old male.

I haven't even been down to look at the peach trees lately. The yellow flies are terrible. Now I remember why Connie and I would go to Sanibel this time of year. We are getting a lot of rain now, so at least Connie and I don't have to go out to water anything.

Oh yeah, I still have that live trap out by the peach trees. I know I should check it every day, but I guess just tough luck if that possum gets in there now. I don't normally welt up from the fly bites, but I've got a pretty large welt on the back of my left shoulder from something biting me. The other day I was in the garage changing the oil in the Jeep when I looked down at my arm and there was a fly just sitting there. I didn't feel a thing but when I swatted him what seemed like an ounce of blood splattered everywhere. I didn't get any swelling from that bite, though.

These yellow flies don't mess around. They bite and bite HARD. I do hate to think that Connie and I are going to be cabin bound for a month or so because of those damn things, but that might be the reality of it. I've got the mosquito magnets working, which do seem to help, and have got a few lawn spinners on order that should help attract them to the traps. They are highly attracted to motion.

I was reading about a technique that people have had success with in helping to cut down the population of yellow flies. It involves using a beach ball or even an empty plastic milk jug, painting it black, and then covering it with a sticky substance called "Tanglefoot". You then hang it from a tree about 4 ft off of the ground in a shaded area, and the wind motion moving the coated object around attracts the flies, that wind up getting stuck to it and dying. The problem with that sort of trap around here, is that for certain we would be getting green anoles stuck to the traps, and Connie won't have any of that. Perhaps if the adhesive were just enough to hold a fly but not a lizard, that could work, though. I don't know if yellow flies are attracted to Venus Fly Traps. I don't think the sticky surfaces of the sundews would be strong enough to hold them. I have seen seeds being sold for a giant African form of thread sundew, so maybe I should look into that.

Walked down this morning to check the live trap after putting on a windbreaker and floppy hat to confuse the yellow flies. Nothing in the trap. So yeah, quite likely that possum learning to avoid the live traps. Unfortunate, as I may have to consider a PLAN B.