The Hickory Horned Devil

This message does not really have to do with backyard wildlife management. However, it is an interesting note about a species you may run into in your backyard one day.

About a week ago an Office Assistant (basically a secretary) where I work asked me to come to the back door to see something. What I saw surprised and, to some extent, frightened me. I had never seen this creature in the past. It was a Hickory Horned Devil!

The Hickory Horned Devil is the caterpillar of the Regal Moth. The scientific name is Citheronia regalis. It is the largest caterpillar in the United States.

Why did it frighten me? I had been stung by the hairs of other caterpillars and the stings can be quite painful. Especially when one gets down into hip boots and stings you a number of times before you can get the boot off! I speak from experience. I was not sure if the hairs on this one were of the stinging variety. When I pushed it into a container the caterpillar quickly wiggled. I didn't want to get stung. Later I found out that it does not have stinging hairs.

The part you see with the black spots is not the head. The caterpillar tucks its much smaller head under the front of the body when frightened. These large, black eyes and horny projections look like the head of a fearsome creature and are designed to frighten potential predators. If a predator does bite it at this false head, the real head remains protected and the animal may live to see another day. Other caterpillars, such as that of the Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly, try to fool predators in much the same way.

Apparently, it is OK for some animals to fool part of Mother Nature. Just don't try to fool all of her.

Left click here to see a web page that provides information about it.

The Value of Bees

Honey bees provide an invaluable service to nature and, of course, their honey is wonderful. Bees in general provide this service (as well as flies that visit flowers and other creatures, such as bats). What is it? Pollination of plants. You likely know that the structures like hairs on bees pick up pollen when they visit flowers and transfer it to other individuals of the same plant species, thus fertilizing the female reproductive parts of these plants. Results are fruits and seeds. This relationship has developed over time. Without this service, many plants without wind blown pollen or that are not self-pollinated would not survive. The honeybee, and perhaps other native bee species, have been declining in numbers. This should not be of concern only to the beekeeper. It should concern all of us. Thus, consider placing plants whose flowers attract honeybees in your yard.

Of course, some precautions are in order. If your child walks around the yard in bare feet, you may not wish to plant low lying flowers that attract bees in a likely location where those little feet may step. Likewise, this may not be a smart thing to do if you or a family member is allergic to bee stings. However, many of us do not share these concerns. For those that may be afraid of bees, just be careful when you are around them. How many times have you actually been stung by a bee?

I mentioned in an earlier post that butterflies are attracted more to asters that have more disk flowers (that is, the center portion of the flower is relatively large). This is because these disk flowers produce the nectar attractive to the butterflies. Likewise, for the same reason, these flowers also attract the bees and flies that will end up pollinating plants. Plants like clovers have an infloresence (this is the biological term for the group of flowers on a plant) that is all disk flowers. Many people prefer the taste of honey bees make from feeding on clovers. These plants attract pollinators. Clovers are also good for your soil because they fix nitrogen and add it to the soil- natural fertilizer. There are native clovers in most areas and you can easily collect seed by removing the mature flower head of a small portion of the plants in an area and planting the entire head.

If you watch you can learn which plants attract these pollinators. Achillea is one that I quickly learned attracts a number of them. Some of the herbs are very attractive also. Lavender and verbenas are good choices.

In the next post I discuss an important aspect of the choice of plants to attract butterflies and bees to your yard- providing species with different flowering times.

Butterflies are "Cold-Blooded"

Butterflies are "cold-blooded." Basically, they do not use internal methods to heat their bodies and their body temperature varies with that in their surroundings (the scientific term for this is they are a "poikilotherm"). The source to heat their bodies comes from something external to their bodies (the scientific term "ectotherm" applies)(humans are endotherms, which mans we produce our heat internally, and homeotherms because our temperature is regulated by our body). Chemical reactions occur faster in warmer temperatures - reactions such as digestion and muscle movement. If your surroundings are cold and you are ectothermic and poikilothermic, your chemical reactions are slow. This means you cannot moooove very fast and your digestion is slooooow.

How does this apply to managing butterflies? Well, if a butterfly's muscles don't work well on a cold morning it cannot fly. So, the butterfly must warm up in order to fly. Usually, they crawl out from under the vegetation or out from the crevices in the bark of a tree where they roosted for the night and walk to a place where it is sunny so they can warm up. This is when you see them spreading their wings and placing their bodies in a direction where their wings will soak up the sun. You may have noticed that butterflies that were fluttering about on some cool days all of the sudden go to the ground or on vegetation when the sun goes behind a cloud. They are having a difficult time keeping warm enough to fly. You'll notice them spreading their wings and waiting for the sun to come out and warm them again.

One way to help butterflies warm their bodies is to place an object that heats quickly and maintains its warmth for a while in their vicinity. The butterflies can move onto such an object and warm up quickly, even when the sun is behind a cloud. A rock, especially a flat one, serves this purpose well. Placing some in your butterfly garden will help the butterflies on cool or cold days.

Why is it so important for them to warm up quickly? They are "sitting ducks" for predators when they are waiting to warm up and cannot fly! Thus, the rush is on for them to find some place warm on a cold day.

Did you know some butterflies overwinter as adults? Once they get cold, they cannot move well at all and if they get too cold they will die. One way to help them is to provide some type of cover or place for them to hide while they wait for Spring to arrive. An example may be a pile of logs. Butterflies are known to get inbetween logs that are close together and spend the winter. Under leaves is a good spot for two reasons. First, it is difficult for predators to find them. Second, the leaves slowly rot and this process gives off some heat. This helps keep the butterflies from freezing to death. I believe butterfly boxes or "houses" were designed not only for a place to hide during the night but also one to over-winter. Many people who have owned these tell me they don't attract butterflies. I believe the reason is the space in the box is too large. These boxes would likely be used more if the inside consisted of boards placed very close together but large enough for a butterfly to crawl between them. A design similar to a bat box but on a much smaller scale would likely work better. Anyone want to experiment with one like this and a regular one placed in the same location to determine which would receive more use?

Be careful about warming butterflies or anything that is "cold-blooded." All of these animals have an ideal body temperature. They try to keep their bodies near this temperature by moving into warm places when they are cold and into cool places when they are hot (sounds like me). They will die if you put them into a place which is too cold or too hot for too long. A good example is when a child places a butterfly in a jar and accidentally leaves it in the summer sun. Even a jar with some breathing holes can get scolding hot in the sun, especially if the top is metal. Both glass and metal will get very hot and this heat will radiate into the air in the jar. You can literally cook a butterfly or other cold-blooded animal in this manner. Many a child has accidentally killed animals by leaving them in the car too long on a warm, sunny day. Obviously, you know what the sun does to the inside of a car on a warm day. Anything used to warm them must allow them to move away from it when they are warm enough.

I'll talk about bees in the next post. You might be surprised why it is important to provide for them as well as the "cute" animals such as butterflies.

Butterfly Poisons

OK. You may have to use them. Pesticides. The word means things than will kill pests. Guess what a chemical designed to kill insect pests will likely do to your butterflies? So, how does one deal with this? There are a number of ways.

I'll start with the one that you may think makes no sense - let the caterpillars eat your vegetables and flowers. OK, so you think I'm out of my gourd! Well, at least let some types of caterpillars eat your vegetables and flowers. Not necessarily that big, green, pesky tomato hornworm that will eat you out of house and home (although it makes a good photograph). However, there are caterpillars belonging to species you may wish to have in your yard that you can share the veggies with, especially if they don't eat too much. Many butterflies will only lay one or a few eggs on any plant. Although they are eating machines, many will only remove a number of leaves before they pupate.

How about trying some alternatives to pesticides, like soaps and other natural pest control measures. This will help, but it does take more effort than using pesticides. Soaps will wash off your plants in the rain and, therefore, must be re-applied afterwards. Some insects such as ladybugs and praying mantis love to eat insect pests. I gather some praying mantis caccoons in the fall as I come across them outdoors and put them in my yard in a shrub so I'll have more of these voracious predators next year. If I see a caccoon in my yard I take care not to disturb it. The internet has information available on alternatives to pesticides. Click here to see one site that has practical advice for a number of problems.

We already talked about using native plants because they are healthier and have less problems. One reason is they have been fighting insect pests for eons. So, the more local native plants you use in you landscaping the less problems you will have with pests and the less pesticide you will need. Also, certain plants (like roses) are susceptable to a number of pests or diseases. If planted, you will end up having to take special care of them. Some of those fungicides you have to spray on the leaf spots and other diseases are as bad as the insecticides when it comes to butterflies. Minimize use of all pesticides, including herbicides (kill "weeds"), insecticides (kill insects), and fungicides (kill fungal diseases).

Another way to minimize damage to the butterflies is to physically separate the area you are managing for these winged jewels from other plants, like your veggies, that you may have to treat with a pesticide. Although not ideal because it is likely some adults and/or caterpillars will die, it is better than having to spray next to the butterfly garden. In addition, small droplets of pesticides that you spray can carry a long distance in the wind. Either do not spray on windy days, which is good advice for a number of reasons, or make sure the wind is blowing away from your butterfy garden (and areas you are managing for other wildlife, if possible) when you spray.
Finally, you can choose safer pesticides. I saw a recommendation by the head gardner of a botanical garden in a newspaper that suggested using a chemical that contains 22% arsenic to kill weedy grasses in bermuda grass. You may have heard that arsenic is a deadly poison. What if Puss in Boots (your cat) walks across that newly sprayed lawn and then licks its feet to clean its fur. I don't think the arsenic will do it much good either. What if it walks across the lawn and into your house? Wouldn't it be nice to pick up your cat and cuddle! So, how do you choose a safer pesticide. There is something called an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for just about any chemical you use. It provides toxicity information for not only the environment but also lab animals, the ones they test things on instead of testing them on you. So, you can get information about not only what is safe for the wildlife in your yard but also what is safe for you. Not a bad idea, hey? Click here for a site where you can get an MSDS sheet for many pesticides (you have to click on "Services" in the upper left hand corner and then "Labels/MSDS"). You will have to put in the name of the chemical to get the information and then click on the MSDS sheet. Click here for a web site that has a number of links to tutorials about understanding MSDS sheets. You might find out that you are using a number of pesticides that are very dangerous to you as well as wildlife. Please follow the label for any pesticides that you do use and be sure not to apply too much. These chemicals have been studied for the rate that is effective and safe. You start creating unsafe situations for you and/or wildlife when you apply more than you need.

Not all pesticies are totally bad. Some contain poisons, like arsenic. Ignorance is bliss, but it'll cause you to poison yourself as well as wildlife.

I'll talk briefly about one other way to encourage butterflies to to use your yard in the next posting.

Let's Begin with Butterflies

Let's begin to talk about specifics of how to provide water, food, and cover for one group of wildlife you may wish to attract to your yard. Butterflies are one of my favorites because I like to photograph as well as watch them. Let's begin with butterflies.

Caterpillars, or larval butterflies (also moths), get their water from the plants that they eat. The adults get water in several ways. One is via the nectar they obtain from flowers. Another way is through "puddling." Ever notice a large group of butterflies huddled together on the ground when it is hot? If you've noticed, the spot is usually wet. Butterflies will use their proboscis, their hollow needle-like mouthpart, to literally suck water from the soil. Nutrients are dissolved by the water as it sits on and is absobed into the soil. The butterflies also obtain these nutrients when they suck the water from the soil. Butterflies will also stand in a dry location and drink from very shallow water. Some butterflies, like the hackberry, love to rest on people and search the surface of the skin for delicious sweat. Sweat not only has a lot of water in it but also contains salt and nutrients. I have pictures of hackberry and red-spotted purple butterflies feeding on rotting pears. They obtain water and a variety of nutrients this way, including sugars (which, by the way, are also found in nectar). Butterflies will also obtain water by sucking sap from wounds in trees and shrubs. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a bird that puts numerous small holes in trees and eats sap, also helps butterflies obtain a meal by providing ready access to these plant juices.

Obviously, many of the places where the adult butterflies obtain a drink are also food sources because minerals, sugars, and other foodstuffs are dissoved in the water. Everyone knows that adult butterflies feed on nectar obtained from flowers. But did you know that some butterflies will feed on scat (animal droppings) and the juices of decaying animal matter? I guess that's one reason to leave the dog droppings in the yard. However, I'm not sure the neighbors will buy it if the dog stuff ends up in their yard!

You should also feed the larvae, that is caterpillars, if you want more butterflies around. You likely know that caterpillars feed on plants, mainly leaves. Adult butterflies tend to lay their eggs on or near the plant that their caterpillars will eat. So, you can have eggs and young by providing the appropriate larval food plants. In addition, some plants provide food for both the caterpillar and adult. An example would be butterfly weed (Asclepius tuberosa). This milkweed provides nectar for the adults and also feeds the monarch caterpillar. The story is well known. The monarch caterpillar feeds on milkweeds and obtains some substances distasteful to birds. The distasteful substances are also found in the adult (I also assume in the pupa as well) and birds avoid them. Each species has at least one plant, and usually several more, on which the caterpillar will feed. Provide the right plant and the eggs and caterpillars will come. Assuming you are in the right area and surroundings for that species of butterly.

What about cover? Where do butterflies hide and rest? Well, normally under the leaves of plants or sometimes under the flaky bark. Some species rest high in the trees. Others will spend the night near the ground hiding in the grass or low lying herbs. The caterpillars usually hide in the same places and others where they can find protection from predators. Pupal cases or the bare pupae can be found on plants, under bark, in the leaf litter, underground, any similar places where they will have to spend some time out of the site of those that like to eat them.

So, you now know how to attract a variety of butterflies. Provide various types of flowers that produce nectar. Allow fruit that falls from your apple or pear trees to rot or take some out of the refrigerator and put them outside. Moisten soil on hot days and provide a bird bath from which the butterflies can obtain water. Grow some plants on which caterpillars will feed. It sounds bad, but leave those dog droppings in the yard -- maybe in an out-of-the-way corner. Of course, let the hackberry butterflies stop by and have a sweat meal once in a while. "Hey honey, I'm going to go lie out in the sun and feed the hackberry butterflies!" "Yes, dear. But don't feed them too long." If you have a variety of plants in your yard the butterflies will also find cover. They will also use it for reproductive cover.

In the next article I'll discuss some other things you can do to keep the butterfly population in your yard healthy.

Collecting Seed of Local Native Plants

There are some important things to know before you begin collecting the seeds of local native plants you may wish to grow in your backyard (when I say backyard I am also including the sides and front as well). Here are some tips:

1. First and foremost get the permission of the landowner. Public lands, such as National Wildlife Refuges, do not permit collection of plants, seeds, etc. without a permit. Getting this material is not worth the trouble it may bring you if you trespass to do it.
2. You should collect seeds of plants from sites that are similar to those in your yard. Is it in a wetland or area that stays wet? If so, you don’t want to collect and plant the seeds in a dry portion of your yard. It likely will not survive and you may get disappointed.
3. Do not collect all of the seeds from a plant. It is important to leave some for natural re-population of that plant species in the area. If there is only one plant, take a small proportion of the seeds and leave the rest. You can usually find the same plant species in several areas and will be able to collect enough seed for your purposes. If there are several individuals at a location and you plan to plant more than one in your yard, collect seeds from a number of individuals. When they mature and pollinate one another the resulting seed will have more genetic diversity than if you planted seeds from only one individual. The genetic diversity will help you have healthier plants if you grow them from these seeds or if you let them naturally drop seed and grow.
4. Seeds from some types of plants must be exposed to the weather or other environmental factors in order to germinate. For instance, cold may be needed to crack open the outer shell and allow the seedling to grow. It is always best to try to plant the seed when you collect it or shortly thereafter.

Of course, the seeds of plants are always contained in their fruits. Fruits come in a variety of forms and I don’t want to get into the technical aspects of their names and structure. The fruits can be similar to apples and oranges in which many seeds are contained within a large fleshy structure. They can be a nut with only one seed. The fruits can be a small structure that appears to be only a seed. In any case, if you are not sure which is the seed, plant the entire fruit. In the case of some plants, such as some asters, the seed is extremely small. Just take a mature flower head and shake or crumble it in the spot where you want the plant to grow. This will release some of the seeds.

The plant family Asteraceae has many members and the common name is typically “asters.” This family is also believed to be the most advanced. What looks like the single flower is actually a structure called the inflorescence that is made up of a large number of flowers of two types. The disk flowers are the structures that make up the center portion of the inflorescence. The ray flowers are the structures that radiate out from the center and appear to be petals. Each part of the disk and each individual “petal” is actually a separate flower and may have all of the parts to form seed. Typically, the disk flowers or those in the center produce the seed. The rays usually lack all of the parts necessary to form seed. Thus, you need to be careful not to discard the portion that contains the seed. Again, plant the entire “flower” (that is, the inflorescence) if you are not sure which contains the seed. As an aside, butterflies, bees, and other invertebrates that feed on asters will do so on the flowers that form the seed because these will be the only ones that typically produce nectar. Since this is usually the disk flowers, you will wish to pick flowers with large disks, rather than a similar variety with small disks, since the larger disks will have more flowers that produce nectar. This is true of domesticated flowers in the aster family (for example, zinnia, black-eyed susan, blanket flower, coneflower, fleabane, sunflower, coreopsis, and daisy).

Go Native

What do I mean when I say "Go native." I mean that we shoud strive to plant species that are native to our area. Why? For a number of reasons, including it:

1. Maintains "natures balance."
2. Makes maintainenance a snap.
3. Prevents problems with exotic plants.

Although each of these is a complex subject, I will try to provide some simple explanations below.

Local wildlife and those that migrate through a particular area adapted to certain plants through time. Plants and animals interact in many ways and actually effect the evolution of each other. These interactions are not always understood. Thus, animals should be provided with the foods and cover to which they adapted. Growing native plants will continue this relationship between plants and animals. For example, an exotic (not native to the area) plant's flower may provide nectar to a butterfly, but is the combination of the types and amounts of minerals and nutrients in the nectar the healthiest for the butterfly? It is if the butterfly has adapted to use nectar from a particular local flower over the eons.

Native plants normally require less maintenance once they are established. They are accustomed to the soil, rainfall, and other local conditions. Thus, they typically need little fertilization, watering, and general pampering that many exotic plants require (I will not go into the problems this prevents except to give one brief example-- the prevention of over fertilization of local bodies of water due to runoff from fertilized lawns, flower beds, etc.). Some natives can be found at local nursuries. More and more native plant nursuries are propsering as people learn the value of native plants. Try to buy plants grown in the local area when you get them from a nursery. In some cases, natives can be grown far away from where you live or from seed of plants that grew far away. This is especially true of native plants that are found over a large area (for example, one that grows throughout the United States). Having trouble locating a source? Go to a local site where you are permitted to collect seed and grow them yourself. It can be quite satisfying to grow your own plants from seed you collected personally. However, there are some things to be aware off before you begin collecting seed from local areas. I will post information related to this topic in the near future.

Did you know that the introduction of exotic plants and animals into the United States is costing "billions and billions" of dollars each year? Search the word "invasives" and you will find out why (Visit here for a wonderful place to learn about this topic.). Exotic plants grown in yards often escape and can become significant pests, especially if they are highly invasive (rapaidly spread and invade areas). Many of these exotic plants do not have the pests and diseases that keep their populations in check in these new areas. The plants can spread like wildfire, outcomplete native plants that do have existing checks and balances, change the types of food and cover available for wildife, and create all sorts of unimaginable problems on the landscape.

Do I have any exotics in my yard? Very few. However, the few that I have planted are not, to my knowledge, invasive. If I find out they are, I'll remove them! I had some control over this from the start. We built our house and I provided the builder a list of plants that he should use in landscaping my yard. Generally, he did a good job. So, I have gone and continue to go native.