Pet Tales: Attracting Fireflies, Warding Off Mosquitoes.

Saturday, August 08, 2009
By Linda Wilson Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mosquitoes thrive when wet weather leaves pools of water where they can lay eggs.

Where have all the lightning bugs gone?

Growing up in the 1950s, I saw hundreds of them on warm summer nights. Now I see few, if any. The kids in my Bethel Park neighborhood had contests to see who could catch the most fireflies. We scooped them into jars and punched holes in the screw-on lids. We oh-so-helpfully put blades of grass in the jars to give the bugs something to eat.

The bugs always died in their jars while we slept. Some animal lovers we were.

The lightning bugs' disappearance isn't my imagination, says David Mizejewski, naturalist at the National Wildlife Federation. They've been driven away by "light pollution" and the overuse of pesticides, he says. They lose habitat when fields, woods and wetlands are destroyed to make way for houses and shopping centers.

While Pittsburghers call them lightning bugs, Mr. Mizejewski calls them fireflies, although he says they're neither bugs nor flies. They're beetles. He has tips for attracting them to your yard, and he's not even judgmental about the jars.

"The best way to enjoy fireflies it to turn off the TV, put away video games and go outside," Mr. Mizejewski said.

The federation has launched a "Be Out There" campaign "to get families across the United States to open the door and get outside." The organization hopes to see healthier kids with a lifelong appreciation of wildlife and nature.

Here's my favorite fun tip from Mr. Mizejewski: "Use a flashlight to mimic firefly flashes. When you flash, the fireflies will respond."

Everyone can attract fireflies, songbirds and other animals by creating "wildlife friendly" yards.

Don't use pesticides. Plant native wildflowers and greenery that provide shelter for fireflies. The grass in your lawn holds no attraction for wildlife, especially if you used chemicals to kill weeds and insects. For more tips, go to www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife.

"It's OK to catch a few fireflies and keep them in a jar with holes poked in the lid for a few hours," Mr. Mizejewski says. "Just make sure to release them back into nature."

Don't bother putting grass in the jar because that's not what fireflies eat. Adults eat nectar and larvae eat slugs, worms and other soft-bodied invertebrates around streams and ponds.

If you do go outdoors, you'll have to deal with another type of bug -- mosquitoes. Mr. Mizejewski has tips for dealing with them, too.

Mosquitoes are a stretch for a topic in a pet column, but they can carry heartworms that can harm dogs and can carry rare but deadly diseases, like Eastern equine encephalitis, that kill horses.

DEET-based repellents are effective for people but Mr. Mizejewski says don't apply them to dogs or cats because DEET is not approved for pets. Chemical-free solutions include "aromatic herbal repellents," like lemon eucalyptus, which "work if applied frequently."

Here's my favorite skeeter tip:

"Mosquitoes are not strong fliers, and the breeze created by a fan is often all you need to keep a patio or deck mosquito-free so you can enjoy the outdoors."

Fans won't get to the root of the problem, however.

The most important thing is to get rid of standing water that collects in clogged gutters, flower-pot drainage dishes, children's toys and tarps that cover stacks of firewood.

Birdbaths attract birds to your yard, and some birds eat mosquitoes. But empty and refill birdbaths every few days because "it takes a minimum of a week for the metamorphosis from egg to larva to pupa to winged adult," Mr. Mizejewski says.

Another way to deal with mosquitoes is to attract their predators. In ponds and water gardens, "fish feed on mosquito larvae. Just don't release goldfish or other exotic species into natural areas. ... Add plants that attract frogs, salamanders and dragonflies," he says.

Don't put insecticides or oil on the surface of bodies of water because that will kill "beneficial insects" and mosquito predators.

And here's something I've never heard:

"Bug zappers aren't effective against mosquitoes" but they "do kill thousands of beneficial insects each night."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09220/989411-62.stm#ixzz0NnKO9EI8

Invasion in the Badlands

On vacation in the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, I witnessed another invasion of beautiful ecosystems. Angry for several days and feeling helpless to do anything about the Yellow Sweet Clover marching over the landscape, I told my wife, Donna that I had to do something to alert people to this takeover of these beautiful landscapes. After several nights, I thought about how over the past 60 years I have been aware of invasive species and have seen the list grow and grow and grow.
What is our place on this planet? Does our labeling of plants as negative aliens and as invaders invite more negative thoughts? What good has become of our waging war on these alien species? Shouting and preaching that this just isn’t right nor nature’s way and getting all fired up and angry at one of God’s creations just didn’t seem to fit well with me anymore. I’m tired of generating negative feelings inside of me. This thought made me start to question the overall picture of man and nature and our relationship to plants, each other and our interaction with all species of our world.

Here are some of my questions that I ponder often:
· Were any species created out of negative thoughts?
· Were any plants or animals meant to remain in one area? If so, why do they do so well when introduced into different areas?
· What is the long-term succession of these so-called invasives or alien species? I mean over thousands of years?
· Can we live with these aliens and make peace or will we always wage war on them?
· Does the attack on the “invasive species” ultimately do any good?
· Are we supposed to sit back and do nothing?
· Can we make any peace with this rapidly changing world of the intermingling of species?
· Is this really a natural event and man truly is a part of nature but thinks that he isn’t because of his ability to choose and reason?
· Is it logical to think that man isn’t a part of nature or is this just another arrogant thought that puts us as the ultimate animal separated from all nature and we stand alone still fighting and compartmentalizing all species.
· Is there a kinder, more positive and cooperative way of dealing with what we perceive as invasive species?
· Does prejudice produce more prejudice?
·
If we are just holographic pieces of the “Great Spirit”, then we are included in this great magnificent process that created the universe and all within it. Are we not programmed to keep creating something different?
·
Does any one thing deserve to be eradicated or is that part of the plan?
·
Are the invasives just signals to us that we need to change our ways and they are just messengers sacrificing their lives for a cause yet unknown to us?
Some of the species that I have come into contact with and waged war over the years are:
· Japanese Honey Suckle
· Kudzu
· Multi-flora Rose
· Crown Vetch
· Yellow Sweet Clover
· Garlic Mustard
These are just a minute number of species that I have allowed to cause stress and negative energy in me. I think that now after decades of fighting, I am ready to accept that these aliens are just part of the cosmic progression to a different place on earth and the universe that is neither good nor bad.
What do you think?

Tired of struggling over this issue,
Howard Bright President Ion Exchange, Inc.
www.ionXchange.com

Munching on Garlic Mustard

A New Weevil in the Works

  Garlic and mustard are common ingredients that can be found in American households. But garlic mustard? Well, that’s a different story.

Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, is considered one of the most problematic invaders of temperate forests in North America. According to legend, it was brought here from Europe in the 1860s as a culinary herb, but unfortunately, it doesn’t taste very good. Since then, garlic mustard has spread to 34 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces.

“Garlic mustard is an invasive plant that gets a lot of attention,” says ecologist Adam Davis, who has been studying the weed for years. “It’s very noticeable and hard to eradicate because of its seed bank.”

The term “seed bank” refers to seeds in the soil that are dormant but capable of germinating. Garlic mustard seeds can remain viable for more than 10 years. A single plant can produce hundreds of seeds, which scatter as far as several meters from the parent.

“You can spend a lot of time and money pulling garlic mustard up or spraying it with pesticides, but it’ll just come back the next year,” says Davis. “That’s why it’s such a problem. It’s very resilient.”

   <http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/jul09/d1496-1.htm>
 Flowers of garlic mustard produce up to several thousand seeds per plant, making it difficult to control.
(D1496-1)  

A member of the mustard family Brassicaceae, garlic mustard got its name because its leaves, when crushed, smell like garlic. Garlic mustard is a biennial plant, meaning it takes 2 years to complete its life cycle. During its first year, the plant is in the form of a rosette with kidney-shaped leaves that remain green throughout the winter. In its second year, the plant matures and produces small, white flowers, each with four petals in the shape of a cross. The mature plants either self-pollinate or are pollinated by insects, producing seeds that fall to the ground and enter the soil.

Garlic mustard is cold hardy and shade tolerant, enabling it to grow early in spring when most plants are not able to grow. It also secretes allelochemicals into the soil. Allelochemicals are chemical compounds a plant introduces into the growing environment to suppress growth of another plant. “It’s kind of like chemical warfare against the native plants,” says Davis.

The insects and fungi that feed on garlic mustard in its native habitat are not present in North America, increasing the weed’s seed productivity and allowing it to outcompete native plants.

   <http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/jul09/d1495-1.htm>
 In Urbana, Illinois, ecologist Adam Davis records the position of garlic mustard rosettes (clusters of green leaves low to the ground) on a sheet of transparent mylar. The locations are recorded in June and October of the first year and in June the following year to estimate rosette survival rates.  Once garlic mustard rosette locations are recorded, they are then converted into digital coordinates in a GIS (geographical information system) program, permitting spatial analysis of rosette survival.
 (D1495-1)  

A Model Solution

To better understand garlic mustard and find a suitable biocontrol, Davis—in collaboration with colleagues at Michigan State University, Cornell University, the University of Illinois, and the Centre for Agricultural Biosciences International (CABI) in Switzerland—created a computer model that simulates the weed’s life cycle.

“In part, we wanted to answer ecologists’ criticisms that biocontrol can potentially cause as many problems as it solves because of unintended consequences,” says Davis. “We were looking for a way to choose agents that are most likely to succeed while reducing their potential for harm to native plants and environments. Ideally, we want to try to release only one organism, if possible.”

Through this model, Davis was able to predict the type and severity of damage that would be needed to reduce garlic mustard’s population growth rates. Davis performed an analysis using computer code that enabled him to change one variable at a time while keeping all the others constant, allowing him to probe the life cycle for the plant’s weak point. He found that in order to make an impact, a biocontrol agent has to reduce garlic mustard’s survival in the rosette stage and its ability to reproduce in the adult stage.

Well before Davis created the life-cycle model, CABI scientists began looking for and testing potential biocontrol agents to tackle garlic mustard. They collected data on the amount of damage each insect could inflict on the garlic mustard population. From a list of more than 70 natural enemies found to be feeding on garlic mustard in Europe, four Ceutorhynchus weevils were selected as the most promising control agents.

Combining the feeding information collected by CABI scientists and the demographic information of garlic mustard in North America, Davis used the computerized life-cycle model to assess each weevil’s ability to inflict damage on the weed and inhibit its growth. One weevil, C. scrobicollis, came out on top.

High Hopes for Little Insect

The tiny C. scrobicollis has a life cycle of 1 year and produces one batch of offspring per lifetime. Itlays its eggs on garlic mustard’s leaf stems in the fall. When the eggs hatch in the spring, the larvae feed on the weed’s root crown, the area from which the rosette’s leaves grow and where nutrients are stored.

By feeding on the root crown, C. scrobicollis stops the flow of nutrients and water from the roots to the rest of the plant. It also damages the meristem, the area of the plant where new growth takes place. As a result, garlic mustard produces fewer seeds or, in areas with high weevil populations, dies prematurely in early spring without producing any seeds.

C. scrobicollis also appears to be monophagous, meaning it eats just one thing: garlic mustard. That means scientists won’t have to worry about any unintended consequences when using this insect as a biocontrol agent.

During preliminary testing, CABI scientists believed C. scrobicollis was the best candidate to control garlic mustard. Putting the weevil’s feeding data through Davis’s life-cycle model confirmed their beliefs and created a stronger case for the permit process.

“The model gave teeth to the permit application to release this weevil in the United States,” says Davis. “It provided a peek into the future as to the impact the weevil could have on the garlic mustard population here.”

C. scrobicollis is currently in quarantine at the University of Minnesota. If all goes well, this beneficial weevil may soon be roaming North America to find a nice garlic mustard meal.—By Stephanie Yao, <http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/contacts.htm#Stephanie> Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.

This research is part of Crop Protection and Quarantine, an ARS national program (#304) described on the World Wide Web at www.nps.ars.usda.gov <http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov/> .

Adam Davis <mailto:adam.davis@ars.usda.gov>  is in the USDA-ARS Invasive Weed Management Research Unit <http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/site_main.htm?modecode=36-11-25-00> , 1102 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801-4730; phone (217) 333-9654, fax (217) 333-5251.

"Munching on Garlic Mustard: A New Weevil in the Works" was published in the July 2009 <http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul09/>  issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

National Pollinator Week

Did you know that one out of every third bite of food comes to us
thanks to pollinators? From beautiful butterflies to busy bees, it’s
clear that pollinators are essential to life on our planet.

But, declines in pollinators in North America and around the world
pose what could be a significant threat to biodiversity, global food
webs and human health.

Help pollinators in your neighborhood during National
Pollinator Week (June 22-28) by taking one or more of
these five simple actions:
1. Use Native Plants
2. Hang Hummingbird Feeders
3. Build a Bee House
4. Plant a Butterfly Garden
5. Certify Your Yard with National Wildlife Federation

The Popularity of Butterfly Gardening

At Ion Exchange, Inc. we love butterflies and we have many native plants that are excellent at attracting butterflies. Check out our butterfly package HERE

By Wings On June 23, 2009 @ 5:27 am In Guest Authors No Comments

Butterfly gardening has become popular, both to magnetize the scenic travelers and to help domain species of butterflies that were dwindling due to soul encroachment into their innate habitats. Butterflies feeling sunlight! Whether you wish to works a traditional plot or a container plot, make positive that the plants are in sincere sunlight for much of the day. If you’re forecast a butterfly plot, it’s important to keep in psyche that there is no one recipe for a successful plot. Butterflies like to “pond.” Your plot desires a place of watering puncture for the butterflies to juice from. This could be done by basically rich a terra cotta pot or small plastic bucket with small rocks or pebbles about two inches from the edge. Butterfly species that are indigenous to different areas are attracted to different types of plants. To forward butterflies, you’ll poverty to know the butterfly species that are found in your blackhead, and suggest them with plants that are special food sources for adult butterflies as well as those plants that they pretty for laying their eggs and nourishing maggot. Add water to permeate the lingering liberty. Place the puddle in the midpoint of your backyard, some values that relate to all butterfly gardens. Wherever you live and anything butterflies you prospect to magnetize, you’ll attract more of them if you pursue a few unfussy basics, Butterflies dearest to eat nectar. Use some of these nectar-producing plants to attract them: milkweed, azalea, goldenrod, black-eyed susan, zinnia, aster, phlox, Japanese honeysuckle, ironweed. A few nectar-producing shrubs are butterfly plant, many fruit leaves, privet, blue and redbud. Butterflies will flock to large expanses of plants in analogous colors that flourish at the same time rather than to release plants with just a few blooms. A carpet of violets, a sea of buttercups or a thick open pasture detailed of Queen Anne’s Lace is solid to be visited by dozens of butterflies. Butterflies like bags of influence! Group clusters of the same plant together to make them easier for butterflies to see. A group of quaint plants attracts them easier than distinct flora. Butterfly gardens should to provide both sun and shade. Like all insects, butterflies are cold-blooded creatures. They boom on thaw sun, and will relax on fixed rocks or perch for long notes on the twigs of a high plant in the sunlight. At the same time, they require shade and shelter when the sun is too hot, or on cool, imprecise living. A field that gets lively sun for at least 4-6 hours per day is the best spot for a butterfly plot, but don’t forget to embrace landscaping facts that offer shade.

Mounting Evidence Shows Native Grasses Could Destroy Explosives Pollution

By SCOTT CANON

The Kansas City Star

COLUMBIA Besides the obvious reason, TNT is not good for you.

But grass, it turns out, might be dynamite for the problem.

TNT contaminates hundreds of sites, from military firing ranges to old production dumps to waterways, and poses a threat to the human nervous system and to the liver and kidneys. It’s suspected to cause cancer. It can cause allergic reactions and attack the immune system, and it may lead to birth defects.

Left alone in the soil, TNT breaks down into an even more toxic substance.

If the problem is left in the dirt, maybe that’s where the solution can grow.

Three Missouri researchers have hit on an idea that could potentially scrub away the TNT danger: Simply plant the right kind of grass.

The notion started with mounting evidence that native grasses could render harmless a common weed killer.

That herbicide, atrazine, is the second most common herbicide used in the U.S. and has been a stubborn pollutant in the nation’s waterways. Mounting evidence has shown that certain native grasses, and the microbes that thrive around their roots, convert the toxic leftovers from atrazine into harmless carbon dioxide.

Robert Lerch, John Yang and Chung-Ho Lin began talking about how chemically similar atrazine is to the explosives TNT and RDX.

“If it worked for atrazine, we thought it might work for these things,” said Lin, a research professor for the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry.

Should their idea succeed, it would offer a greener, cheaper and possibly quicker way to clean up more than 530 sites across the country contaminated by the explosives.

Trinitrotoluene, or TNT, and cyclotrimethylene trinitramine, also called RDX, began creeping into U.S. soil and waterways decades ago, before the manufacturers of explosives came under stricter regulation.

The problem isn’t small. Of the 538 locations identified by the Department of Defense with RDX or TNT contamination, 20 are Superfund sites — classified by the federal government as the country’s most dangerous abandoned toxic waste sites. Congress rejected a Pentagon proposal in 2005 to exempt the military from regulations for pollution from munitions.

“It’s a serious problem, and it’s widespread,” said Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

To clear a field tainted by those explosives — typically to haul away the dirt for incineration — can run from $100,000 to $1 million an acre.

The researchers in Columbia have doped soil samples with explosives and planted two species of grass.

In essence, the explosives practically disappear.

It’s unclear whether it’s the grasses — Eastern gamagrass and switchgrass seem to work best — do the work themselves, whether it’s two forms of bacteria that thrive in soils around grass roots that do the trick, or if something happens in how they work together.

But in a closet-size room basking in fluorescent lights, a solution to explosives pollution looks to be taking root.

The scientists added RDX and TNT to cup-size soil samples and planted the grasses. In just weeks, the toxic chemicals degraded harmlessly into carbon dioxide and water.

“It’s a controlled situation to look at how these chemicals break down,” said Yang, the director of the Center of Environmental Sciences at Lincoln University.

The next step, perhaps still a year or two away, is to test the process outdoors.

The researchers are talking with the Army — the initial research has been covered by $110,000 in Defense Department grants — about trying the grasses on already contaminated sites.

Since the grasses are native and grow easily across the Midwest and the Southeast, they pose no threat of kudzu-like exotic species seen as their own environmental threat.

Initial tests show that the amount of RDX in soil is reduced by 50 percent in a matter of weeks, and TNT contamination drops by 95 percent.

So, Lerch said, a year or two after planting, a field could be cleaned of the explosives contamination.

And the cost might run less than $3,000 per acre.

“If this works, it will be great,” he said.

“It’s so simple.”

To reach Scott Canon, call 816-234-4754 or send e-mail to scanon@kcstar.com

Urban Birds Tweet A Different Tune.

An interesting study between urban and rural birds.

Birds in cities 'singing louder'
Scientists from Aberystwyth University have discovered that some urban birds sing at a different pitch to their rural cousins
Great tits are tweaking their tweets to be heard in noisy urban areas, but for their country cousins it is like they are speaking a different language.
Scientists at Aberystwyth University found male great tits in 20 UK towns and cities sang at a higher pitch to be heard above the man-made noise.
Rural birds were confused by urban bird song while city birds "didn't understand the lower rural pitch".
The male great tit sings to defend his territory and attract a mate.
Research student Emily Mockford visited 20 towns and cities in the UK to capture the bird song.
The singing was played back to rural male tits during the breeding season when they are at their most aggressive, but there was a "slower and weaker" response than normal from the countryside birds.
Scientists also recorded countryside great tits and found they sang at a lower pitch and, in turn, city birds found the rural droll difficult to understand, the study found.
Project leader Dr Rupert Marshall explained how the city bird song was captured.
He said: "We just stood there and pointed a microphone at them (the great tits).
"We went for medium-sized areas which were close to rural locations so that's why we avoided London.
"We played the urban bird song on a speaker to rural males during the breeding season. Usually this would provoke a strong reaction - the tits get quite worked up about it and would normally attack the speaker.
"But there was a slower and weaker response from the rural males.
"They were less aggressive and not quite sure what to make of it. It was like the city birds were speaking a different language.
"Likewise, we found city birds didn't understand the lower rural pitch."
Project scientists said the urban great tit reacted to man-made noise by raising the pitch of its songs, but in quieter rural locations a few miles away the pitch was found to be lower.
PhD student Ms Mockford said: "The next step is to find out what the females make of these different songs - will they want to mate with a guy who sings too high or too low?"