Oklahoma weather will always give you something to talk about.
Tornado season was late this year. Nothing until late May and then we had two “big ones” before the month was out. A two-year drought was broken in places with fifteen inches of rain in some places.
Temps of 100° have been scarce and then it rained three days last week in the middle of July. With all that wet, mold allergens are off the chart, and tree and grass pollens are also spiking when they’d usually be settling down this time of the summer.
Here’s one of a bundle of rare July mushrooms that popped up this morning in my yard. Evidence of the blooming fungi that’s causing a run on allergy meds.
It’s also playing havoc with the bugs in my yard—way too many mosquitoes—and introducing me to some new characters. 
I’ve never seen this one before. It was on the underside of a pecan leaf.
It was early morning so the light is kind of flat.
He didn’t seem inclined to fly away or run off so I plucked the leaf off the tree and brought him to my “studio” for a better look.
I googled “yellow and black spiky bug” and checked out the images. With “lady beetle” in his common name, I wonder if he’s related to lady bugs. I found him on bugguide.net called the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis).
He’s about a half-inch long, and never budged while I shot these pix. No idea what those little tiny rice-like pellets are on the leaf.
I found him when I took a look at the young pecan tree out back. I found these clumps on the leaves and evidence something is snacking on them.
When I turned the leaves over to see what might be related to these clumps I found my spiky friend. I haven’t noticed these clods before so I don’t know if they’ll cause problems for the tree or not.
Other never-seen-before-bugs in my yard have decimated my Sweet Autumn Clematis and I don’t expect to enjoy that wonderful fragrance this year.
**Sigh**
I’ll share that sad story in another post.
Have you noticed any unusual bugs or other critters in your yard this year?
Cottonmouth Creek 