I was looking at this photo i took this evening of a nice hairy, bee-mimicking robber fly, when i noticed that my blue salvia has a nasty case of spider mites. See the fine webbing and little black frass?
Down here in eastern NM our gardens are really getting stressed in this unending heat and absence of precipitation. I think it has rained 5 times since last fall, and the avg. temp. has been about 95F for months. And before you say "well, xeriscape, then," i'd like to point out that i have xeriscape areas also, and they have needed extra water this summer, too. It's just been unusually nasty droughty here.
