Blog Archives

Behold: the work of the potter wasp

8/30/2014

My garden fairy brought me a tiny gift the other day: this amazing little clay pot affixed to a branch. It looked like it had been thrown on a potter's wheel.

Wondering who might be the artist, I googled "insects that build tiny clay pots" and BOOM! Another blogger with a similar story and photos of the adult insect.

Not so strangely, the insect is called the Potter Wasp and it is a more skilled artisan than its larger relative the Mud Dauber. The Potter Wasp is a vespid and is considered a beneficial insect, as it hunts caterpillars which it paralyzes and seals inside the pot with an egg.

My little pot is not sealed, so I am guessing that the wasp was interrupted in its endeavor. The Bug Guy has more on the unsavory habits of the Potter Wasp in his bug-of-the-week post "Scary Potter".

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Monarchs Vs. Monsanto

8/21/2014

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Art credit: New Yorker magazine cover, March 2010

Petition from SaveOurEnvironment.org:
Monarch butterflies need a plant called milkweed. It is the only plant they can lay their eggs on and that the caterpillars can eat. But the combination of genetically engineered corn and soy and Monsanto's Roundup herbicide has wiped out nearly all the milkweed that used to grow along the monarchs' migratory routes, leaving the butterflies nowhere to lay their eggs.

Every fall hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies have taken to the skies, flying more than 2,500 miles across Canada and the U.S. to reach their winter home in the thick forests of tall oyamel fir trees that grow in Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. This winter, only 33.5 million butterflies made it to Mexico – the lowest level ever reported.

Like honey bees and other pollinators, monarch butterflies are now in crisis, with populations plummeting dramatically since the introduction or Roundup-Ready corn and soy bean crops in 1997. The huge increase in the usage of GMO crops and potent weed killers like Monsanto's Roundup that accompany them is a major culprit for the monarch's disappearance, along with rapid deforestation in Mexico and extreme weather caused by climate chaos. The world needs monarch butterflies. But they can't survive without milkweed. And milkweed can't survive Monsanto's Roundup.

Please join me in speaking out to help save monarchs by signing this petition; we must convince the USDA and EPA to revisit the safety of toxic herbicides like Roundup and to stop approving more. Send your message now, and Thank you!

Visit the Center for Food Safety for more information on this issue and an infographic.

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Drink a beer, save a butterfly

8/8/2014

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Next week I will be out in the field doing research on the Oregon silverspot butterfly, Speyeria zerene hippolyta. The Oregon silverspot butterfly is a federally threatened species which has been reduced to just four small salt-spray grassland habitats on the Oregon coast. We'll be monitoring the butterflies at two sites that have been the focus of restored habitat and larvae releases to augment the dwindling populations: Cascade Head, an area that has been the focus of habitat restoration efforts for The Nature Conservancy, and Rock Creek, with habitat restoration by the US Forest Service; additional oversight, plant propagation, and research in conjunction with the US Department of Fish & Wildlife, the USDA National Resources Conservation Service, and Lewis & Clark College.

Both the Woodland Park Zoo and the Oregon Zoo are engaged in the population augmentation of this endangered fritillary. We will be gathering data on the success of the released larvae and pupae, as well as celebrating the 2014 release of the Oregon Silverspot IPA at the Pelican Brewery.

Do you believe in magic? Michael Durham, an Oregon Zoo photographer, captured the OSB transformation in this time-lapse video:

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Petition to ban gas powered leaf blowers

8/1/2014

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Update: My BeePeeking blog has been receiving lots of hits from my April post on leaf blower noise and the Seattle City Council plan to ban them=YAY! Please sign this MoveOn.org petition: MoveOnNoBlowers to support the microflora and fauna of our city and help create a healthier environment for all urban life.

from MoveOn:
Gasoline powered leaf blowers are noisy, negatively affect our health, and pollute our precious environment. Many are powered by two-stroke engines which can emit 30 percent of their unused gas and oil as exhaust according to the California Environmental Protection Agency. The American Lung Association states that leaf blowers "can pollute the air even more than cars." Seattle City Council will be studying leaf blowers. But the research is clear. They are harmful to us, our kids and the environment. You have the power to convince City Council to act.

To sign the petition click here: MoveOnNoBlowers and Thank you!

For more information, go to banblowersseattle.wordpress.com

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Behold: the work of the potter wasp

Monarchs Vs. Monsanto

Drink a beer, save a butterfly

Petition to ban gas powered leaf blowers

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