Saturday, June 23, 2012

Soybeans, Bugs, and Green Leaves Turned Brown

What in the world?!

I stared at the once green leaves, which looked as though they had gone through a blender on pulse mode.  Brown along the crinkled edges, the leaves were dried out husks of their former selves.

I had bugs.

Lots of bugs.

The thing is, though, that I have never actually seen a bug on my soybean plants.  Naturally, that makes identification of the problem bug a wee bit difficult.

Is it some kind of wormy thing?  A beetle?  Has the chupacabra turned vegetarian and moved up North?


I took a Deep breath and rationalized the situation at hand.

Actually, it's probably none of these things.  As mentioned previously, there are huge ants up here.  One of the things I've noticed on other plants, is that these ants love to eat my leaves.

Or, perhaps they're not actually eating them.

Maybe they're just tearing pieces off to build a masterful piece of technology that will be used in their takeover of my yard.  Ants are much more intelligent and organized than we give them credit for, after all.

So much for being rational...

Regardless, though, the soybeans that I had planted in my Earthbox were not in the best shape.  Bugs had been quite voracious.

I had such high hopes for my soybeans.  The two transplants I had placed on the left side of the Earthbox had grown tall, and the seeds I had planted in a line to their right had sprouted up beautifully.

I reminisced about the day the transplants were first placed there.


So green, so full of life.  The leaves didn't have a hint of brown marring them.

I kneeled beside my soybeans, pained that they had gone through so much destruction at the hands of an invisible pest.  I stared at the plants, examining every inch of them.

That was when I noticed something.


Sure, the leaves were brown husks of their former selves.  Sure, bugs had preyed upon them without mercy.

But life goes on.


And I have soybeans growing, soon to be picked!

It's good to have such a reminder that no situation is ever hopeless, don't you think?

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