Tag Archives: leafroller caterpillars

We Are in Hell

The morning river, looking east.

I pretty much hate everything about this heat wave, and heat in general. Yesterday (Saturday) was 31C and Wednesday could be 40C, which would be a historical high. In my opinion, anything over 22C is excessive, and the sun (which I normally love) streams though my south and especially west windows until 10 pm. The blinds and fans only go so far.

On the bright side however, Tom and I have been heading out in the early mornings for our walk (today, 6:30 a.m.). The temperature is in the high teens but feels cool and beautiful. Hardly any people, mostly shade, and the cool shower after I’ve come back home feels absolutely gorgeous.

The morning river, looking west. So quiet.

One disturbing observation, however. In Glenora south (across 102 Ave), there are worms hanging from some of the trees. I hadn’t noticed that the Elms of Glenora eventually give way to Ash trees, and I fear these might be the dreaded leafroller caterpillars that I’ve written about ad nauseum in previous posts. Up until this year (as far as I know), they’ve only infested Rossdale and the lower river valley near the University of Alberta. Could they be up here now, or is this some other vile pest? In either case, we are able to mostly avoid them by walking down the middle of the street, but that first early morning walk, I had to brush a few off Tom. Ugh.

A hot air balloon waits….
Free at last! The hot air balloon aloft, and Tom (Ravine Drive)

Addendum to this post: the record breaking heat continues. As of Monday, we stopped walking in the mornings. It’s no longer cooling off at night, so it’s already too hot to walk (especially after an uncomfortable sleep). Hopefully we can return to our morning walks this weekend!

From Mike Sobel (Global Edmonton)
I thought it was interesting that the graffiti artist took the time to add hair sprouting from the arms and legs

Rossdale: the Eve of Infestation

The little historical shack near the bridge in the river valley (near Kinsmen)

First time since Joanne’s birthday in February that I’ve been in Rossdale, and the last time until July. Although it’s still early, I did spot a few small leaf roller caterpillars, or as I call them $&?@! worms (see this post), just as we entered the trail. The caterpillars, endemic to the Ash trees in Rossdale and the lower university area, will soon swing by the hundreds on their devil strings killing the leaves and tormenting humans until the end of June, so yeah, that’s a nope.

Walt Jr. on the way to Rossdale
As close as we could get. By this point, I’d seen two worms…
Some friends for the magpie

Gorgeous day though. We started at 9 a.m. to avoid the heat, but it was still hot. Next week when it gets really hot we’ll go even earlier. Along the Victoria Park Road lower trail, a young snowshoe hare with giant clown feet let me get pretty close for a photo, which was awfully nice of him. I’m seeing more of these smaller rabbits lately, as opposed to the larger jackrabbits. They could almost be mistaken for domestic bunnies, if not for their comically large feet.

My what large feet you have…

15,166 steps! 15C to 24C.