Late summer Monarchs

I found this little guy hanging from a thread in the garden. I had a large area of milkweed, but late this summer it turned skunky. Lots of rain, humidity, little wind, and the leaves were mildewing. This attracted aphids, and there were clouds of flies and wasps feeding on the aphids! Nature's full circle; but not quite what I had in mind for the planting area. 

The plants had no signs of eat marks from caterpillars (indeed, who could compete with those aphids!?) and adult female Monarchs wisely avoided egg laying in this area. After ripping out nearly the whole bed, there was one, little, wayward milkweed left. With eat marks. And upon inspection I found this little caterpillar dangling in the wind! I put him/her back on the leaf. I cut the plant and brought it inside. I set up a vase with water and now this tiny caterpillar is enjoying a prime view of my living room. And pooping all over my mantle. 

You go little caterpillar, you go! 

This one is probably around 2nd instar..? I'd have to look it up, but it's got a few more molts before it's ready to pupate into a butterfly. And yes, it should have time yet this late summer or fall. In fact I'll probably bring this one into the nature center for visitors to enjoy the process. We will also tag the adult that emerges. The tags provide valuable info about migration routes, overwintering locations and other pieces of the life history puzzle of this far-traveling insect. 

Thanks for reading, 
Laurel 

Pretty Important Pollinators

Native bee genus Melissodes

Pollinators are a hot topic on many people’s minds.

 

The act of pollination can be achieved by wind, water, and animals. Animal pollinators are birds, butterflies, bats and insects; specifically bees! Bees (and other highly-visible insects like Monarch butterflies) are taking a hit due to habitat loss and increasing use of chemicals that are integrated into plants. I will briefly outline similarities and differences between bees and changes you can implement to improve habitat for these important invertebrates.

In much of the US we rely heavily on the European honeybee for large-scale pollination. However, there are roughly 400 species of native bees that are of great importance in Minnesota.

          The main difference between European honeybees and native bees is the scale of the colony and how social they are and the conditions they are able to forage in. Honeybees work on a huge scale, with one colony containing up to 60,000 or more individual bees and able to cover up to 2 square miles of territory on their search for resources. Because of this large colony, they are excellent for commercial/large scale crop pollination. Large colonies need large stores of honey to survive winter. But honeybees don’t forage in cold conditions, and struggle with cold Minnesota winters.

          Native bees are more solitary. The Bumblebees are the most social; sharing a hive entrance and nesting area, and each female tending her own larvae. Most native bees work on an individual scale to mate, build a home, and provide resources for the next generation. They are able to forage in temps just barely above freezing. Many are even stingless.

          With this large to-do list, native bees tend to occupy much smaller territories. Many of these native bees only fly 300ft to find all their habitat needs. Meaning if your yard contains all the nectar, pollen, and nesting materials needed, you could be an important home for generations of these insects! As they say in real estate: location, location, location!

          Some simple gardening tips can be a great aid to all our pollinators! Use native species that have a variety of bloom times, trees and shrubs too. Stop using insecticides; particularly neonicotinoid class chemicals. You have to be extra careful when purchasing plants to ensure they are not grown with “neonics”. If they are steer clear: they will be deadly to all insects including pollinators. Provide a little patch of mud and sand for ground nesting natives like Mason and Bumblebees. With these simple changes you can sit back and enjoy a huge variety of pollinating visitors.  Check out www.hummingforbees.com for great local pollinator info, and www.xerces.org for nationwide pollinator info.

 

Laurel Sundberg

       

 

 

Bees!

I was a bit worried about where all the bees were this year. Bumble bees to be specific. The worry is well founded, with bees in decline, I thought maybe something had gotten into the hives and taken them out.

Well then I was reminded that bumblebees emerge in more balmy weather then we've had so far. Whew!! I am very excited to see a great crop of bumble bees buzzing around our False Blue Indigo this year. And the Indigo is lovely as usual.

I'm starting to get some native bee survey results. It's been a slow start, but one of the survey blocks is filling. Not Mason bee, the nest tunnel is too small, but another little one that uses mud to create tunnels and larval galleries. I'm hoping you can see the bumble in the video. If not check out the still shot at the beginning of the post.

Prairie Burn

I drove by a smoldering, charred grassland on the way home last week. A prairie burn.

It seems counterintuitive, but a prairie burn is a huge opportunity for renewal. Recently restored prairies have been burned out at Carver Park Reserve, where I teach at Lowry Nature Center. The sky last week was hazy as winds blew smoke from west to east. It made me cough, was slightly disconcerting, and pretty awesome. Last week was toasty warm (too toasty really) and this week has been cold and rainy, but small green shoots are coming up from the blackened prairies. Why do this? It burns up biomass from dead grass and forbs, cuts back on invasives like brome, release nutrients and triggers flowering forbs to use those nutrients to renew their growth. Basically, this season we should have a bumper crop of flowering plants thanks to the fire. 

Cool huh? Well, hot really... So whenever the sun decides to pop up and warm up the earth, I'm looking forward to those new shoots rapidly turning into a flowering prairie with amazing habitat! 
-Laurel