Tanks bristol! love your photos!!! I am still so envious of all this beetles or wild life that visits you. Not the roaches though, please post a warning next time you share the roaches pictures. I am so scared of them. How come the nectar is toxic?

I'm loving this thread. Great narrative and pics!!!The Greek philosopher Socrates is said to have killed himself by drinking something called 'hemlock tea,' made from a plant calledThat plant contains a poisonous alkaloid called coniine, which some Sarracenia (like s. Flava) use as well to help nudge insects in the right directionwiki on Coniine

The Tarantula Wasp comes around only in Spring, the next time I see one I will definitely take photo. Roaches come around only at night. I could only photo one that's already caught. They come out of street storm drains which are normally cleaned out by the rains, but due to the CA drought, they have multiplied in numbers. At work we'll open up street manhole covers and I kid you not, the walls of an entire eight foot hole is swarming with them. Thousands, 1-inchers, 2-inchers could crowd up a hole with not an inch of concrete is visible. My foreman will tell me "I'm am not going down there NO-WAY! I'll take a photo of that too. I've seen the flying coach roach on top of a Flava Lid licking away but I tend not to get too close. One time I saw one I came too close and it flew towards me. Their BIG, brown, yellow headed and SICK looking.... 2015_06_16 My CP's (10) by Bristol Quebral , on Flickr

If any of you see them licking nectar off your plants, please take the shot and feel free to post your photos here. FIGS are California wide. I recall seeing plenty when I stayed in Fairfield CA.

We get June bugs around here, but they never go for the pitchers. About the same size as your beetles. Also, got to see in person one of those Tarantula Hawks last weekend, down at the other end of my state. Rather beautiful, but frighteningly huge...and the sting.....

Great post Bristol! So THATS what those massive, beautiful wasps I've been seeing are. Scary hooks on their legs, gorgeous wings and BIG. Never seen them before in my life in NorCal but they have been about this fall. Maybe venturing farther north because of the drought? I saw one captured by my sizable Wilk Red Rocket leuco and freed it because it was so beautiful and unique. But then it (or another one like it) got caught again by WRR so at that point I just let nature take her course. Good to know about the sting. Not that I was inclined to try to handle them before...

"FIGs" are good nurishment for the plants, but they cause allot fo damage so photo taking is a must before they wreck new pitchers. Sometimes when 5 "figs" fill up a tube, its instant rot or indigestion at the center. They really struggle to get out but only get crushed by other "FIGS" piling on-top of the other.......................Here an intersting photo of a rotted tube belonging to "Reptillian Rose". "FIGS" are attracted to the "ROSEY" smell of the plant so photo taking is done as soon as possible, because this plant, above all the others gets really thrashed.................... 2015_04_17 My CP's (1) by Bristol Quebral , on Flickr 2015_09_15 My CP's (117) by Bristol Quebral , on Flickr