Beez In The Trap (or... in a sweater)

It was bound to happen sooner or later: I got stung by one of our sweet little native bees this morning!

But let me put the incident into context:

I had been outside tending to some caterpillars and apparently she landed on my sweater. I didn't notice her, and I went back indoors while she hitched a ride. I felt a little chilly, so I folded my arms- and felt a sharp pain on the back of my hand! (Which, admittedly, is a very sensitive place.) The bee, being stuck between the crook of my sleeved arm and bare hand, must have felt trapped/threatened, because from what I've heard, that's the only time the natives will sting. My knee-jerk reaction was to fling the offender off myself, and that's when I saw it was one of these beautiful coppery-green bees.

She landed on my floor. I know native bees are very unlikely to sting, so I decided to give her a 2nd opportunity... sort of like a test. I do all this talking about how- under normal circumstances- native bees don't sting, so I better have some experience to back myself up, right? I held out my finger to let her climb on so I could place her back outside where she belongs. She was hesitant at first, but she climbed on, and made no indication that she felt threatened and did NOT try to sting me again. That's the thing with these bees... you *can* handle them (to a point) and they're gentle and docile 99% of the time.

The 'welt' she left on my hand is tiny and almost unnoticeable- I was going to take a picture and post it here, but honestly it is more of a small red mark than a welt, not even half the size of a mosquito bite, and is hardly worth the effort of "showing it off." I'm also quite certain had she stung me in a more fleshy area, it wouldn't have hurt very much at all. But a sting is a sting, and never a pleasant experience. After placing her back outside, I put a little ice on the back of my hand and in less than 5 minutes the pain was gone.

And now that I'm done writing this quick post, the mark is completely gone and I can't tell where she stung me to begin with. Considering that over the past few years I've done a TON of gardening outside while being surrounded by all kinds of bees and wasps, and gotten up close and personal with them to photograph them, and let many of them climb onto my hands and fingers, and this accident has been the only time I've been stung- I'd say the odds of an average gardener or bee enthusiast getting stung are pretty darn slim ;)

Moths & Fauxhawks

"Well, hi there, little moth! I'm sorry to disturb you- I wasn't expecting to find you here on this anenome leaf."

"Hey... what's up."

"Just doing a little weeding. Oh- look what you've got there! A little fauxhawk! That's quite a cute little spikey 'do!"

"Thanks, I guess. It's not really supposed to be cute."

"Oh, of course. I didn't mean to imply-- wait, is that turquoise I see in there? It IS! You've gone and dyed your hair with bright blue and orange stripes, too! Look at you, little non-conformist. Way to stick it to the man."

"I'm not trying to stick it to the man. I'm just trying to express myself. Lunas and those obnoxious butterflies get all the attention because they're big and colorful. Show-offs. 'Ooooo, look at him! He's big and green!! And here's another boring tan one.' I'm sick of being judged by my looks. Sure, some lepidopterans have bright colors, or some have a different hairstyle, or big antennae... But because they think I look 'boring', I can't find a job, and I can't pay my rent, and I got a wife and kids........they shut off my electricity.........I'm a moth... I need bright lights........"

"Wow, would you look at the time! I need to go back inside and........ um...."

"It's cool, man. Before you go, though, could you point me in the direction of the nearest Hot Topic store? I still need to update my 'look' a little. I'ma hit up a Starbucks on the way, too."

"Sure, dude."

Collecting Swallowtails

A couple of weeks ago, I was really excited to find tiny swallowtail caterpillars on my Rue for the 2nd time this year. The first time was back in April, and a couple days after I first spotted them, they all disappeared. I decided not to let the new caterpillars meet that same fate. I brought them indoors, to the caterpillar playground!

They're doing quite well, getting nice and big!

2 different instars of the black swallowtail caterpillar, chowing down on some rue.

This morning I went outside to gather some more rue for them, since they are going through lots of it.

And I finally got to see something I had never seen before- a black swallowtail egg!

Isn't it gorgeous? This tiny pale green perfect little globe. I've seen pictures of the eggs, so I immediately knew what it was. I was so excited and wondered where Momma was, and if she would be back to lay more eggs soon.

About 30 seconds later, as if to answer my question, there she was! She didn't even seem to mind that I was sitting right there.

A couple of my neighbors know that I'm raising caterpillars and when they wanted to know about finding them, they asked, "Did you just go out looking for caterpillars? Or you just happened to find them?"
"No, I found the eggs."

This always seems to blow people's minds at first- like I have some super human powers for finding butterfly eggs. Which I think is funny, since once you know what to look for- and possibly more importantly, where to look- it's very easy :)

Now I've got about 10 of the eggs and will go out later to see if there are more. I will have to do some research since it is getting late in the year- these caterpillars might want to overwinter as a chrysalis!

Sipping on Lantana

Butterflies and Moths: Not Always Glamorous

Have you ever said to someone, "I am so embarrassed for you."
It's kind of a mean thing to say, even if you're trying to be empathetic.

But yesterday around 7:30 in the morning, I had those thoughts. And instead of trying to spare further embarrassment to the subject, I grabbed my camera.


I had let my dog out early to do his business, and went out with him to dump out a container of banana peels and coffee grounds into the compost. I noticed my dog, instead of doing his business, was very interested in some bug flying around in circles, low in the yard. I watched him while several thoughts were flying through my head.... Obviously hoping he wouldn't catch and chomp down on the bug- at first, for the bug's sake, but the longer I watched, the more that bug was resembling one of those giant Japanese hornets, and I started to worry for my dog. (I don't know if we actually have Japanese hornets around here, but growing up, that's what my stepdad called them.) And if it WAS a giant hornet, I wondered if it was circling its own nest in the grass there- which would be a REALLY inconvenient place for bigass hornets to have a nest.

My dog decided to leave the thing alone- quite unlike him, actually- so I went inside to grab my camera, thinking from far away this bug looked interesting.

When I arrived back on the scene, I was simultaneously thrilled and disgusted. Right before my very eyes was a beautiful Nessus Sphinx moth! I see them every now and then (a couple times a year), but never when I have my camera with me, and they never hang around long enough for me to run all the way inside and get it.

The moth had been flying around in little circles, just above the grass, right over....

A fresh pile of my dog's poop.
And feeding on it.

Disgusting.

I actually feel sort of bad for uploading these photos because, obviously to zoom in close and get good photos of this cool moth, I also had to zoom in on the poop. No one needs to see that. I debated whether or not to just color over it in Photoshop, or use the clone tool to copy the grass over top of the poop, but as of this morning, ain't nobody got time for that.

There are just.... so many jokes I could make right now.

Necessary things for your butterfly garden include:

• Host plants for caterpillars
• Nectar plants for butterflies
• A puddling area
• Fresh dog turds

Ugh!
Gross!

NESSUS STINX MOTH

LOL

But if you can get past the poop (and if you can't, I understand), the moth itself really is a beauty. And from far away, totally looks like a big hornet.

Caterpillar Time!

Saturday (the 28th), before my race, I was out doing some gardening for a few hours. (Maybe not the best way to spend pre-race time, but oh well.) I was DELIGHTED when a Monarch butterfly fluttered into the garden amongst my milkweed!! I hurried into the house to get my camera, then came back out in hopes that she would lay some eggs.

Just hangin' out...

It didn't take long- almost immediately I saw the tell-tale reverse abdominal crunch move that indicates that a butterfly is laying an egg!

"UUUNNNnnnnnnnngh!"
Tucking her abdomen under the leaf to deposit an egg

I followed her around for a while until I no longer saw her in the garden. I have milkweed plants in 4 different places in our yard and found eggs on most of the plants.

Egg!

I prepared an empty plastic cookie container (reduce, reuse, recycle, right??) for the eggs by washing it thoroughly and putting a paper towel in the bottom. I punched holes in the lid from the inside out (so the jagged edges are pointing up and out of the container, and the caterpillars won't rub on those sharp edges if they climb up!) with a wine bottle opener. Then I went outside and collected the eggs (10 total) by pinching off the entire leaf, but you can also just tear off a piece of the leaf with the egg attached.

Lastly I took an old knee-high pantyhose and cut off the top, then cut a slit down the side so I could stretch it out into a square shape. I laid this on top of the open container and stretched it out, then closed the lid over it, securing it in place.
Those caterpillar babies are going to be about the size of a small ant, and can easily fit through the holes in the container!

Then I waited.
I didn't have to wait long.

On day 3 (July 30th), TWO eggs hatched!

The first hatchling caterpillar baby! Meet Eddie Murphy.

A little video I made of the first few moments of Eddie Murphy's life...


Eddie hatched first, in the afternoon, and Charlie hatched later in the evening. For the rest of the night I was pretty excited.

The 2nd hatchling caterpillar baby! Meet Charlie Murphy.

I recently watched Eddie Murphy on "Inside the Actor's Studio" (he is GREAT by the way) and the names just sort of... happened.

When I woke up this morning (day 4), I couldn't wait to check on them!

You can imagine how happy I was this afternoon when I looked in the container and saw......

FOUR CATERPILLAR BABIES!!! The two born today don't have names yet.

Check out the little holes in the leaves, and all of that poop. They are already eating and pooping lots. After I took this photo, I cleaned out the poop. Kind of glad I didn't clean it before the photo was taken though, just because it is amazing how much they can poop in just a couple of hours!

Next I plan to separate these four into a different container and wait for the rest of the eggs to hatch. I don't think I'll be waiting long, cause.......

See how dark that egg is? That means it's almost ready to hatch. A couple of the eggs look like this now, so they will probably hatch some time this evening!

(You can click on any pictures in this post to enlarge them.)

This is a wonderful website that I keep going back to visit- tons of useful information if you're curious about raising caterpillars, too!!
http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/05/raising-caterpillars.html

Random notes:
I have since read that for the first few days, you don't actually need air holes in the container. Can anyone confirm this?
I've also seen pictures where people have taken thumbtacks (or other objects that make a very tiny hole) and poked airholes in the container with that. Are holes that tiny sufficient to get the caterpillars enough air? You'd need a lot of holes, but then you probably wouldn't need the stocking or other barrier.

Any questions or advice for me? Please leave a comment and let me know!

Pollinator Disguises & Deception!

I had a bunch of fun surprises during Pollinator Week this year, but I've been so busy I haven't been able to post about them. But now that's going to change!

First of all, an update on the plates- we have 366 applications collected and need 84 before the end of the year. Yay! That's about 14 applications a month needed by the end of December. So if you know someone in VA who loves pollinators, please tell them about this initiative to get them represented in the wonderful world of wildlife license plates!

Ok, back to the Pollinator Week excitement!

I have a few different kinds of milkweed in my yard: Common milkweed, swamp milkweed, and butterfly weed. Occasionally at random times during the day, I grab my camera and do a lap around my yard to see what I see. The first plants I check are the milkweeds, because they're the "water cooler" for insects in our garden. Everyone stops by to hang out for a little while.

On this particular day, I noticed a wasp crawling around on the common milkweed. I moved in closer to get a better look at it.
.

Wow... looks intimidating!
And check out the little bee friend up at the top of the photo!

But then the wasp paused for a rest, and something about it seemed.... off.

"Ho, ho, ho... who's this? How's it goin'?"
That's the first thing I say to you.....

Those look a lot like waspy wings. And the rear end looks waspy as well. But the thick thorax, the fuzzy legs..... Hmmm....

I went around to the other side of the plant to get a look at his face. 

The face sealed the deal for me that this wasn't a wasp, but WAS a lepidopteran (moths and butterflies). Do you see the coiled up proboscis at the bottom of the face? That was the clincher.

I've seen lots of pictures in my insect field guides of moths mimicking wasps, but haven't ever noticed one in person- probably because for a long time I never thought to look twice.

One of the other neat things I had learned earlier during Pollinator Week was that wasps aren't all evil or aggressive, and in fact, many of them are friendly and nice- as long as they're nectaring and you're not disturbing their nest, of course. Learning that for myself, from experience, was what made me take a second look at this critter at all- which I would normally have dismissed as a wasp and not wanted to venture too closely, so I'm glad I stopped to check it out.

Knowing it's a moth and not a wasp is cool and all, but I did a little bit of research and found out that it's a Squash (Vine) Borer Moth, or, the adult form of the worm or caterpillar with the same name. I probably won't be raising any of these in my butterfly rearing cage, since it seems like I'd need an entire squash plant in there for them! But next time you think you're seeing a wasp... you might actually be looking at a very convincing moth in disguise ;)

Pollinator Disguises & Deception!

I had a bunch of fun surprises during Pollinator Week this year, but I've been so busy I haven't been able to post about them. But now that's going to change!

First of all, an update on the plates- we have 366 applications collected and need 84 before the end of the year. Yay! That's about 14 applications a month needed by the end of December. So if you know someone in VA who loves pollinators, please tell them about this initiative to get them represented in the wonderful world of wildlife license plates!

Ok, back to the Pollinator Week excitement!

I have a few different kinds of milkweed in my yard: Common milkweed, swamp milkweed, and butterfly weed. Occasionally at random times during the day, I grab my camera and do a lap around my yard to see what I see. The first plants I check are the milkweeds, because they're the "water cooler" for insects in our garden. Everyone stops by to hang out for a little while.

On this particular day, I noticed a wasp crawling around on the common milkweed. I moved in closer to get a better look at it.
.

Wow... looks intimidating!
And check out the little bee friend up at the top of the photo!

But then the wasp paused for a rest, and something about it seemed.... off.

"Ho, ho, ho... who's this? How's it goin'?"
That's the first thing I say to you.....

Those look a lot like waspy wings. And the rear end looks waspy as well. But the thick thorax, the fuzzy legs..... Hmmm....

I went around to the other side of the plant to get a look at his face. 

The face sealed the deal for me that this wasn't a wasp, but WAS a lepidopteran (moths and butterflies). Do you see the coiled up proboscis at the bottom of the face? That was the clincher.

I've seen lots of pictures in my insect field guides of moths mimicking wasps, but haven't ever noticed one in person- probably because for a long time I never thought to look twice.

One of the other neat things I had learned earlier during Pollinator Week was that wasps aren't all evil or aggressive, and in fact, many of them are friendly and nice- as long as they're nectaring and you're not disturbing their nest, of course. Learning that for myself, from experience, was what made me take a second look at this critter at all- which I would normally have dismissed as a wasp and not wanted to venture too closely, so I'm glad I stopped to check it out.

Knowing it's a moth and not a wasp is cool and all, but I did a little bit of research and found out that it's a Squash (Vine) Borer Moth, or, the adult form of the worm or caterpillar with the same name. I probably won't be raising any of these in my butterfly rearing cage, since it seems like I'd need an entire squash plant in there for them! But next time you think you're seeing a wasp... you might actually be looking at a very convincing moth in disguise ;)