The tomatoes in my garden are doing very well. They are still green, but some of them have gotten pretty big. A tomato-loving bug I remember well from last year is also making a return. A bit larger and flatter than a ladybug, it is green, but it has an intricate black-and-white pattern on its hard back. Every day I go to the garden with a plastic cup to collect as many of these pests as I can find. At the bottom of the cup there is a little grape brandy to sweeten their demise. At this stage in the growing season, I find only four or five of them a day. But one of them escaped me only minutes ago. Somehow it slipped through my fingers and fell down through the leaves. I looked for it everywhere. I looked under the plant, too, but there was no sign of it. I even returned to the same plant several times in a row, but without any success. Anyhow, I will look for that particular bug the next few days, and I am sure to find it in the end. I remember it well. I know exactly where to look for it, as well. And the cup with grape brandy is ready.

Addendum (June 26, 2009)

I found the cleaver bug a few minutes ago. It was resting at the very same spot, on top of a plump tomato. It was fatter than I remembered it. And it attempted to scurry away as soon as it spotted me. On this occasion I had no grape brandy for it, though. No frills of any kind. I just grabbed it as quickly as I could and squashed it between my fingers. A thick, green paste is all that remained of the clever bug. Mission accomplished, as the inane expression goes.