Wild Kingdom

I suspect the beetles are making salad of the hostas. No wonder moles love it here...a fat beetle would be a nice turkey dinner for a mole. 

I occasionally see giant striped beetles, a fearsome dinosaur of the insect world.  If you tease them with a blade of grass (I know, I know) they arch up on their hind legs and hiss like dragons.  This is fun if you are bored with garden chores (or easily amused.)

Beetles make up the order Coleoptera, which has a half million species and still counting. It is the largest of all life orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms.  Think about that astonishing fact: One quarter of the world's animals belong to the beetle family.  And when the homo sapiens are long gone, they'll still be around.

Beetles are highly selective and seem to like leaves better than flowers. I could care less about a few ratty hosta plants.

On the other hand, lucky for them, they hate lilies.  In fact, it seems like most insects and even hummingbirds avoid lilies.

Every now and then, something truly magnificent like this one comes from a cheap Costco bag of mixed bulbs.

Speaking of moles, maybe the stinky deterrent is finally starting to work?  They've abandoned most of their old mounds and are making new ones now further out along the edge of the yard.  Migrating?

Here's another fun fact from Wiki:

Moles runs are in reality "worm traps."  The mole senses when a worm falls in the tunnel and runs along to kill it.  Their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, so moles are able to store their still living prey for later.  The construct underground larders, and researchers have discovered over 1,000 worms in storage.