Sri Lankan Robots

Late last night I received an encrypted message from the CIA on my brain phone. The plant that I thought was a monk's cap is actually a Turk's cap plant, Malaviscus penduliflorus. It sometimes is called sleeping hibiscus, probably because it always seems droopy and never quite opens up its bloom.

Turk's cap is native to Mexico and South America and is fairly common here, so why am I just now learning about it? (And how many more of these things are there to learn?) I once saw this plant growing along a remote caminho in southern Brazil just outside a house that sold hand-spun yarn. Cheryl and Gisa are like crack addicts for yarn.

The little white bug in the picture, however, is the real concern. It is a Sri Lankan weevil, a brazen pest with a healthy appetite for Turk's cap, citrus trees and just about everything else. Though they will deny it, the CIA suspects that this bug is actually a biobot recently designed by a group of cyberterrorists living in the jungles of Sri Lanka and plotting the destruction of mankind. It is lazy, slow, as gentle as a lady bug, with no defensive mechanisms and no natural enemies. Not even my koi will eat them (they, at least, understand the danger). Diabolical.

If not controlled this bug may destroy everything. I will find its weak spot and defeat it, if only as a patriotic gesture. But no pesticides will be used. We need to maintain our humanity and common sense, even with a threat to the homeland.