EVERY DAY'S A SCHOOL DAY ON BLIP!

I had intended taking part in the Mono Monday challenge, but as the theme is “Old”, Mr. HCB politely refused when I asked if he would pose for me!!  Actually, he wouldn’t have minded, but said if I could find something else, then he would be happy to “give it a miss.”

Apologies - and thanks to JohnRH - Gold Star to you, Sir, - and well done Mambo too - I got the wrong theme for MM - well, you can't be right all the time, can you? ;-) 

I have five orchid plants on our landing windowsill and they have bloomed well, even though it’s not the hottest place in the house, but last night, I noticed lots of little black bits on the windowsill underneath one of the plants.  On closer inspection this morning, there were more black bits and also lots of little black bits on one of the leaves of the same plant.  I decided to bring them all downstairs to water them and look more closely at each plant, so even before I had had my breakfast, down they were brought.

Whilst looking at one of them, suddenly, I noticed one of the “green stems” started to move, which actually quite freaked me out.  On closer inspection of this, I saw the little “stem” had legs - the first shot in my collage - and we both came to the conclusion that it was a caterpillar and that the little black bits were caterpillar poo or if you want to be more polite, “caterpillar frass”.  This was an interesting VIDEO that will make you smile, but don’t watch if you are about to have your lunch!

Having found this video and then looking up the meaning of the word “Frass”, I found the following information, courtesy of Mr. Google - and as you know, every day’s a school day on Blip:

Frass is a term for the solid waste, or excrement, of insects.
Thrips: Glossy black dots of frass on plants are a sign of thrips infestation.

I didn’t take any photographs of the glossy black dots on the leaves of this particular orchid, and it has now been consigned to the Green Bin, but if there were thrips, then hopefully by disposing of the plant, they will not have infected the other plants.  However, be assured, I will be inspecting the plants and the windowsill on a regular basis.  

The second shot is one of the new shoots that fell off when I was watering another orchid plant, complete with tiny buds - I’m not sure whether I knocked it, or whether it had been chewed off by something unknown, but time will tell and hopefully that plant will throw up another shoot.

We decided to get out the steps to inspect the landing window, and then opened it right up and did a more thorough inspection.  I cleared away any debris on the inside grooves and underneath the opened window, where I did find a couple of dead spiders but no caterpillar frass, thankfully.  It’s not a job that gets done that often, but I will be looking more carefully at the landing window from now on.

Phew - after all that it was time for breakfast, after I had put the remaining plants back on the windowsill and then washed my hands thoroughly.

So now you know - time for everyone to inspect their orchid plants to see if there are any moving parts!  This would have been a good one for Silly Saturday - but I’m not sure the Silly Saturday Gang would be happy to be ousted from their spot by a little green caterpillar that “fires its frass” all over the place!