Garden Articles
Biodiversity, the Safety Net of Life
By Jim Bliss
How well do you know your community? When you first hear that question, you think of the location of shopping and where your friends and family live. What if I were to tell you that you were missing the big (and small) picture? The things that are usually beneath our notice like earthworms and big things like mountain lions create the immense network of life that truly makes up the community in which we live. September 7 was California Biodiversity Day with the entire week of September 7 – 15 being California Biodiversity Week. Our world, especially California, forms a vast interconnected ecosystem that stocks grocery stores, feeds our towns and cities and gives us a healthy place to live.
Click here to read more about Biodiversity, the Safety Net of Life
Proboscis Pain
by Julie Silva
You just finished mowing your lawn, then sat down in the lawn chair to watch the sunset while having a beer. You might as well put up a sign that says “Bring your proboscis, I’m here waiting!”
What’s a proboscis? It’s a tube-like mouth piece used to suck blood, using saliva to increase blood flow into that darn mosquito. The saliva gland fluids move the blood to the mosquito and may send parasites, viruses, or bacteria into the innocent but sweaty gardener. The female mosquito needs blood to develop her eggs.
Mosquitoes are relentless. They initially smell carbon dioxide (CO2) output, even from a long distance away. Once they find you, they take a whiff of your body odor, deciding if it’s appealing. Then your body heat cinches the deal. People with Type O blood will be approached twice as frequently as people with Type A. Larger folks are more in mosquito demand since there is more CO2 expelled. Pregnant women have a double chance of mosquito abuse since they are warmer and produce 21% more CO2. Mosquitoes are also clothes conscious, liking black, red, and dark blue clothing.
Possums: Garden Good or Bad?
by Jim Bliss
Many of us who live in the mountains have probably never run across a live opossum. They are nocturnal, live in trees and are very shy of people. My dog, however, changed that for me. Well before dawn one morning, I awoke to a frenzy of barking and loud thumps. I shuffled my pajama-clad way along my vegetable beds where my dog was throwing himself against the fence. There on the top, as still as death, was a possum. They really do play possum! After Tucker ceased his attack, the possum never twitched. This behavior is not under the possum’s control and is accompanied by a spew of foul-smelling liquid which many believe makes the animal unappetizing to predators.
What Is That Huge Thing on the Milkweed?
(aka Tarantula Hawk Wasp)
by Rebecca Miller-Cripps
We’ve all heard about plummeting populations of Monarch butterflies and their arduous multi-generational migration journeys. In our area of the Mother Lode, the Xerces Society (https://xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action) recommends protecting and planting pesticide-free native milkweed and nectar plants to support Monarch future generations.
After years of “editing” milkweed volunteer locations in my backyard, two substantial patches now attract an occasional butterfly or two. However, the great surprise to me is the complex ecosystem represented by these tall (but not particularly attractive, in my humble opinion) flower heads. There are shiny black carpenter bees crawling over the blossoms. Tiny, light-reflecting sweat bees zip around. Orange and black milkweed bugs mate on the stems. And, later in the season, the seed pods are covered by yellow-orange milkweed aphids. Even small orange butterflies and honey bees are in attendance.
Archived Articles by General Topic
Go to the Archived Articles webpage for a full list.