- (Focus Area) Yard & Garden
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's beginning to look a lot like...Halloween.
If you haven't noticed, stores are gearing up for Halloween with assorted ghosts, goblins and ghouls for you.
We remember Halloween 2023 when a female migratory monarch fluttered into our pollinator garden. She checked out the milkweed (we had several native and one non-native species) and chose to sip nectar on the tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, a non-native.
We managed to capture several images of her around 5:30 p.m. before she left on her journey to overwinter in coastal California.
The Center for Biological Diversity, headquartered in Tucson, says on its website: "Across their range, monarchs are threatened by pesticides, climate change, ongoing suburban sprawl, and fragmented and poisoned habitats as they navigate their way across the continent. They need a helping hand from the government, businesses and concerned individuals."
Threats? To that we'd add a minor threat: such predators as birds, spiders and mantises.
Monarchs in western North America overwinter in coastal California (roosting in eucalyptus, Monterey pines, and Monterey cypresses), while those in eastern North America "have a second home in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico" (roosting in oyamel fir forests), as noted by the U.S. Forest Service.
"Researchers are still investigating what directional aids monarchs use to find their overwintering location," the U.S. Forest Service says. "It appears to be a combination of directional aids such as the magnetic pull of the earth and the position of the sun among others, not one in particular."
We're glad to see that the raging controversy over native vs. non-native milkweed is subsiding a bit, as the more crucial threats are pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change. After all, tropical milkweed, a native of Mexico, has been in California for more than 100 years. And longer than that when you consider that California was once part of Mexico. A. curassavica is also native to Central America (including Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) and South America (including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), according to Johnny Butterflyseed.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So, here you are, a newly eclosed Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, eager to sip some nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden.
It's a warm, windless day, and you're anxious to score, score, score.
You touch down on a Tithonia, but something whizzes by your tails.
Whoa! What was that?
You're startled, alarmed, and irritated. It's a territorial male long-horned bee, probably a Melissodes agilis. He aims to dislodge you from your blossom in his attempt to save the nectar for his would-be girlfriends.
You teeter, then totter, then take off. You touch down on another Tithonia.
Hey! Bee brain! Quit targeting me? Go away!
You head for another blossom, determined to grab a least "a little" nectar.
Stop it! Leave me alone! Go take a vacation!
But the bee isn't about to take a vacation. And he won't allow your "staycation."
Spoiler alert: The butterfly admits defeat and departs the flower garden, exasperated but with tails intact. The bee emerges victorious, its real estate intact.
Score: Bee, 3, Butterfly, 0.
The turf battle is over for today. Tomorrow? That's another day and another battle.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
On Sept. 6, 2016, it happened.
A monarch fluttered into our pollinator garden in Vacaville and touched down on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola.
It wasn't just "any ol' monarch"--if there's ever such a thing as "any ol' monarch."
This one, tagged with my alma mater, Washington State University, came from Ashland, Ore., as part of a migratory monarch research project launched by entomologist David James.
The tag's serial number read “Monarch@wsu.edu A6093.” It hung around for about five hours and then left.
James, an associate professor at Washington State University, studies the migration routes and overwintering sites of the Pacific Northwest Monarch population, which overwinter primarily in coastal California. (Access his Facebook page, Monarch Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest, for his latest research.)
When we emailed him, we learned that citizen scientist Steven Johnson of Ashland tagged and released the monarch on Sunday, Aug. 28.
"So, assuming it didn't travel much on the day you saw it, it flew 285 miles in 7 days or about 40.7 miles per day," James told us. "Pretty amazing. So, I doubt he broke his journey for much more than the five hours you watched him--he could be 100 miles further south by now."
Repeat: 285 miles in 7 days, or 40.7 miles per day. Incredible.
Fast forward to today. It's the anniversary of the sighting of A6093.
Any sightings today? Not. A. Single. One.
And not a single sighting of a tagged monarch since Sept. 6, 2016.
It's an exasperating experience. You go to the nursery, pick out a flowering plant, shrub, or tree and bring it home only to have some critter damage or destroy it within the first week. Pests cause damage and waste time and money. The most common pests in the home landscape and garden are voles, moles, and gophers. By knowing what you're dealing with, it will be easier to eradicate the problem.
Voles are active both day and night and do not hibernate. They are shy creatures and build complex tunnels under dense ground cover such as lawns, grasses, and meadows. They live in colonies, spending most of their lives underground. Voles have an extremely short life cycle, living just three to six months, but females can become pregnant at three weeks old. The gestation period for female voles is sixteen to twenty-four days. A typical litter is five to eight baby voles. Young voles become self-sufficient after several days, at which time the mother vole moves on to find another partner to mate with. Because of their rapid reproductive rate, one mating vole pair can be responsible for producing one hundred voles (offspring, offspring of offspring, you get the picture) in a year. Even a single pair of voles can rapidly become a vole kingdom.
Modifying the habitat can be effective in controlling vole populations. Keeping the yard cleared of dense vegetation, any lawn mown, and shrub branches trimmed up off the ground can deter voles. Circling tree trunks with guard mesh is also helpful. Voles often thrive underneath weed cloth put down to prevent weeds from growing around ornamentals, and beneath mulch used to keep plant roots cool in the summer. Removing both is a deterrent tactic. It is also helpful to remove bird feeders, or control birdseed spillage. Keeping birdseed off the ground reduces food for voles.
Exclusion, repellants, and traps are more effective means of controlling voles. Hardware cloth (with one-quarter inch or smaller mesh) can be a useful barrier. The cloth can be fashioned into a fence at least twelve inches high and buried three inches in the ground to surround flower beds. Baskets can be made or purchased to protect trees and shrubs. Because coyote and fox urines are stressful to voles, application encourages them to move on. Coyote urine and fox urine can be purchased online. Repellants containing capsaicin (and active component of chili peppers) and thiram (a fungicide) have also proved to be effective on ornamental plants, but remember that repellants often wash away with rain and need to be reapplied. Although bait is not required, peanut butter mixed with oatmeal can be smeared on trap triggers when using mouse traps to eradicate voles. Two to three traps need to be set by each hole or runway. Baited traps need to be covered with a box or PVC pipe to deter other critters such as birds and squirrels. Make sure the box has a one-inch hole cut out in order to allow the vole to reach the trap.
Gophers. Like voles, pocket gophers are rodents and herbivores. They prefer the fleshy underside of plants and roots. Called pocket gophers because of their furry cheek pouches that carry food and nesting materials, these critters are larger than either moles or voles, ranging from six to ten inches long. Gophers have long, yellow-orange front teeth, small eyes and ears, and short tails.
Gophers can wreak havoc on a row of plants by pulling entire plants down into their tunnels. They use their sense of smell to locate a source of food, preferring herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees. Gophers will also gnaw on drip irrigation tubes and hoses.
Gophers reach sexual maturity at one year. Females produce up to three litters a year, with an average of five to six offspring per litter. Gophers live alone in their burrows except when females are caring for their young or during mating system. Since gophers can live up to three years, a gopher colony can become quite large over time.
Voles, moles, and gophers can wreak havoc in the garden but they can be managed using various methods to control, deter, or eradicate. Consider your natural environment, whether children and pets can be harmed by deterrents, the expense of the deterrent method, and your commitment to the program of eradication when choosing a plan to deal with these pests.
For further information, see Kim Pokomy, Moles, voles and gophers dig the garden | OSU Extension Service (oregonstate.edu).
For in-person help in dealing with these critters (including a demonstration on exactly how to set a gopher trap), attend our free workshop on gophers, moles, and voles October 9th, part of the Master Gardeners' Fall 2024 Workshop Series. For details, and to register, visit our website.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When a tiger meets a Tithonia, or a Tithonia meets a tiger, Nature bursts forth in all its glory.
Such was the case when we spotted a Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, foraging for nectar on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden.
It was a newly eclosed swallowtail in perfect form, devoid of ripped, stripped and shattered wings signifying non-successful predatory attempts.
The magnificent butterfly fluttered over the Tithonia, sometimes chased by a territorial longhorned bee. But still it cruised. It raced. It soared.
Spread your wings, little tiger. You have no claws, but you need not pause. The Tithonia, the touchdown, the nectar--they're all yours for the taking.
(Taken with a Nikon D500 with a 200mm lens. Settings: Shutter priority, 1/4000 of a second; f-stop, 6.3; and ISO 800.)