Friday night I killed a wasp. It was sitting on a table with some pre-dinner munchies and I crushed it with my napkin. We had company. A few minutes later, as I stupidly sat continuing to visit with the crumbled napkin in my hand, it crawled out and stung me on my left ring finger…
This is pollinator week. July 21st – July 27th, 2021, has been designated as a week to celebrate, learn about, and act to help our pollinators. My hope is that by sharing some information about pollinator week, more people will see the need to take action in the field of conservation. When I was in…
Planting for pollinators is currently all the rage! And, rightly so, we need our pollinators more than ever even as their populations have declined. The reason for this decline is multi-factorial. Contributing factors are habitat loss, competition of non-native species, pesticide use, climate change, and disease. Stabilization or reversal of pollinator population losses are essential…
This summer was like any other summer with respect to my plans to raise more monarch butterflies. It’s a hobby that has kept me occupied for the last seventeen summers. Starting in 2002, raising monarchs has been part of each breeding season. In addition to creating habitat in our yards (2) and school yards (numerous),…
Yesterday, falling short of my daily writing goal, I failed to publish my blog. I worked on it, of course, but it failed to come together as I wanted, in part due to time spent looking for my own photos to share on the post. This morning I was able to finish it. I wrote…
It’s mid-August! This means that it is time to start tagging monarch butterflies! The monarch’s life cycle is amazing! Monarchs undergo what is referred to as a complete metamorphosis, or change in form. This is accomplished through four stages. Stage 1 Stage 1 is an egg. It is a tiny, pale yellow oval, usually found…