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GREEN SOLDIER FLY – VALUABLE BACKYARD NEIGHBOR
Here is an insect that you have probably never seen in your backyard. If you have been fortunate enough to encounter it, more than likely you thought it was a wasp. In truth, it is not a wasp and does not have a stinger. This remarkable beautiful insect is the green soldier fly (Odontomyia cincta). This insect is also called the broad centurion fly.
My granddaughter found this soldier fly on the door of her car. It is, however, more often seen flying around flowers, damp environments, rotting fruit, and other decaying organic matter. Indeed the green soldier’s larvae are important decomposers.
If that is not enough, the adults also pollinate a wide variety of plants where they feed on both nectar and pollen.
Unfortunately, few homeowners are familiar with this insect. Now that you have been introduced to it, if you happen to seen one, please don’t kill it, as it is indeed a valuable wildlife neighbor.
TWO LATE AUGUST POLLINATOR FAVORITES
By this time of the year, gardens are often losing their value to pollinators day by day. The reason for this is many of the plants we plant for their beauty and ability to provide pollinators with nectar and pollen have already stopped blooming. This is unfortunate because butterflies, bees and other pollinators still desperately need sources of food. Consequently, if you spot bees and butterflies flying about your yard vainly looking for flowers, don’t let this happen again. With that in mind, I suggest that next spring you add some nectar plants that continue to bloom until frost. Two of the best are purple coneflower and cosmos.
Both bloom throughout the summer into the fall. They are also hardy. In addition, birds will eat the seeds produced by both plants. Although a number of birds eat the seeds, American goldfinches are especially fond of them.
DO NOT PLANT THIS MILKWEED IN YOUR GARDEN
With each passing year, more Georgia gardeners are planting milkweeds in hopes their efforts will bolster the dwindling monarch butterfly population. The University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Program recommends we do not plant the common milkweed in our gardens (Asclepias syriaca) in the state.
This reason they want us to defer from planting this particular milkweed is it is not native to Georgia. This recommendation is based on the fear that this milkweed could potentially become invasive and usurp habitats currently occupied by Georgia’s native milkweeds and other wild plants.
ATTRACTING MOTHS ON HOT SUMMER EVENINGS
One of the reasons why moths are so underappreciated is many of them are only active at night. However, those few wildlife enthusiasts that know how to attract them can often view some of the most beautiful and unusual backyard residents.
One of the best ways to lure moths to spots where you can observe them is by luring them to places where you are able to easily them. This technique is known as “sugaring for moths.“ This involves preparing bait out of some unlikely ingredients. You can find a number of recipes for these moth brews on the internet. Here is one posted by Oklahoma State University’s Extension Office. Here is the recipe:
1 can of beer
2 overripe bananas, peeled and mashed
½ cup of grape jelly
2 Tbsp. sorghum syrup
1 Tbsp. pineapple-flavored gelatin
Mix the concoction until you form a smooth liquid paste. The paste needs to be thin enough to spread to a tree trunk but thick enough to adhere to a tree. Store the mixture at room temperature for 10-12 hours before using.
Then, just before dark, paint 12-inch patches on several tree trunks (roughly head high). Then return the bait stations as often as you like. In some cases, the best time of view moths attracted to the bait occur after 10 p.m.
Do not be surprised if the concoction attracts moths that you never knew were flying about your yard while you are inside your home watching television.
If this recipe does not work as well as you thought it would, simply alter it. You just might develop a recipe that is superior to this one.
BACKYARD SECRET – CURRENT DRAGONFLIES ARE MUCH SMALLER THAN THEIR ANCIENT KIN
Dragonflies are some of the largest insects that we see in our backyards; however, they are much smaller than their ancient relatives.
The largest dragonfly alive today has an impressive wingspan of about five inches. However, the size of modern-day dragonflies is considerably smaller than some of their ancient relatives.
Remarkably, scientists have unearthed 300-million-year-old dragonfly fossils with wingspans that are more than two feet wide.
Wow! If the dragonflies in my backyard were that large, I would be afraid to leave the house.
BEST PLANTS FOR WILDLIFE
For weeks, we have been scurrying about our yards planting plants that are both attractive to us and beneficial to wildlife. Favorite plants include zinnias, coneflowers, snapdragons, salvias, sunflowers and butterfly bushes. While you cannot argue with any of these choices, a family of plants that are arguably the most beneficial to wildlife rarely makes it to the top of the list are the oaks. About now, you are probably scratching your head and wondering if I have lost my mind.
More than 20 species of oaks are native to Georgia. Many of them, such as willow, water, white and red, commonly grow in yards across the state. The truth of the matter is, however, few homeowners realize how important oaks are to literally hundreds of species of wildlife including moths, butterflies, mammals and birds.
Would believe that here in the Peach State 447 species of moths and butterflies utilize oaks as host plants. A few of these lepidopterans include the likes of butterflies such at the great purple hairstreak, Horace’s duskywing, and banded hairstreak. The moths that lay their eggs on oaks includes the underwings, clymene, cecropia, rosy maple, polyphemus, and imperial.
The pollen generated by oaks is also an important source of food for a large variety of native bees and other insect pollinators.
The caterpillars found on oaks are principal sources of food for both migrating songbirds such as warblers. The caterpillars are also the main source of food for songbirds that nest here. The importance of these insects cannot be underestimated when you consider most land-based birds eat insects (primarily caterpillars) sometime during their lives.
Wild turkeys, waterfowl, white – tailed deer, chipmunks, squirrels, woodpeckers, blue jays eastern towhees, and others gobble up acorns.
I cannot think of any other groups of plants that benefits such a wide variety of animals. With that in mind, if native oak is not currently growing in yard, set one out this year. It will be an attractive addition to your home landscape and be a reliable source for wildlife for years to come.
Before you plant an oak, do a little homework; find which species of oaks do well in your section of Georgia. Other information that you should consider is the tree’s size, how soon it will produce a crop of acorns, and whether acorns are form annually,
If you have room enough for a native oak, I recommend that you incorporate it in your landscape design. An oak, along with a variety of other native and noninvasive ornamental plants, can help you create a true wildlife haven.
THE LINK BETWEEN PUMPKINS AND SQUASH BEES
If somebody asks you, what native animal do you associate with the pumpkin, I suspect you would say the bat. Obviously, this is because both pumpkins and bats are iconic symbols of Halloween. While nobody can argue that point, the truth of the matter is the squash bee far more appropriate. Let me explain why.
The squash is one of the more than 500 species of native bees that live in Georgia. One of the things that makes it different from other bees is it specializes in pollinating summer squash, butternut squash, winter squash, zucchini squash and pumpkins. An example of just how good they are pollinating pumpkins is if there are enough squash bees and bumblebees living near a pumpkin field, a farmer does not have to bring in hives of honeybees to pollinate all of the squash plants growing in the field.
One reason why they are such excellent pumpkin pollinators is squash bees are flying about visiting pumpkins very early in the morning long before honeybees begin looking for pollen. This is important because male pumpkin flowers bloom early in the day, consequently, when squash bees visit pumpkin flowers, they become covered with pollen that is transferred to female squash flowers when they open later in the morning. I think that is neat!
Who knows? The pumpkins that decorate your yard may be the result of squash bees pollinating flowers in a pumpkin patch mile away from your home. I would like to think that is the case.
FEED THE BEES
There is a growing interest in promoting both honeybees and native bees in backyards throughout Georgia. One way that you can enhance both the number and diversity of bees in your backyard is to provide them with plants that provide these important pollinators with food.
Here is a list of ten plants favored by bees. They help provide food for bees from spring into fall. These special plants are blueberry, redbud, beebalm, blanket flower, black-eyed susan, milkweed, goldenrod, horsemint, blazing star (liatris) and fleabane.
All of these plants are growing in my yard. How many are growing in your yard?
If you want to promote bees in your neighborhood, encourage your neighbors to plant bee-friendly plants in their yards too. Studies have revealed that neighborhoods where gardeners plant such plants host more bees than neighborhoods where homeowners do not.
While all of these plants are rooted in my yard, unfortunately I am certain that most of these plants are not growing in my neighbors’ yards. With that in mind, I need to encourage them the feed the bees by plant bee food plants in their yards too. If they do, everyone in this neck of the woods will benefit.
DRAGONFLIES ARE BIG EATERS
Dragonflies are among the most voracious predators in the entire animal kingdom. In an effort to satisfy their appetites they capture and devour a wide range of prey animals including bees, flies, mosquitoes, butterflies and other flying insects.
The insatiable appetites of some species of dragonflies are legendary. For example, a single dragonfly can eat literally hundreds of mosquitoes in a single day.
A scientist once tried to see if he could determine how many houseflies it would take to satisfy the hunger of dragonfly. He held a dragonfly in place by tying down its wings. He then proceeded to feed it houseflies one at a time. Several hours later, the researcher gave up when the dragonfly showed no signs of having eaten its fill!
Hmmm, this sounds like all homeowners should rejoice when the see dragonflies patrolling their backyards.
