Create a Beautiful World - Invite Pollinators To Your Garden

 

 

Creating a butterfly garden is more than planting beautiful flowers.  It's an opportunity to create awareness of how much pollinators affect our world and how blessed we are to have them.  Pollinators such as butterflies, moths, skippers, bees, bats, beetles, lizards, hummingbirds, and many more creatures.  The Pollinator Partnership website  informs us over 100,000 animal species act as pollinators worldwide but over 1,500 vertebrates help pollinate our plants.

 

Some of the important facts from the Pollinator Partnership:   

• Pollinators provide our food include over 1,000 plants grown for food, beverages, fibers, spices, and medicines need to be pollinated.
• Foods that need pollination include amonds, apples, blueberries, chocolate, figs, melons, peaches, peppers, pumpkins, strawberries, melons, and tomatoes.
• In the United States, honey beees and other insects pollinate almost $20 billion worth of food a year.

The criteria to be a pollinator include being able to travel from plant to plant, having feathers, hair, or scales that will collect pollen and dispense them on other flowers as they move, and have unique mouth parts that are able to collect nectar from the flowers. 

 

Buckeye Butterfly

Here in Florida, we have the bats, birds, Ruby-throated hummingbird, bumble bees, leafcutter bees, honey bees, hover flies, butterflies, and various species of beetles.  We can even use the wind to pollinate our plants.

 

Called Pollinators Syndrome, pollinators react to different stimuli. They could look for colors - bats love white, green and purple, bees look for bright white, yellow, and blue, beetles look for white and green, birds are attracted to scarlet, orange, red, and white, butterflies see the bright red and purple, moths love pale red, pink, or white, while flies are attracted to browns and purples. 

 

Odors whether strong and musty, or fresh and fruity, and even rank, putrid smells are what pollinators look for in their search.  Night blooming fragrant plants attract the night creatures like moths. 

 

Nector and pollen can be easily reached or sometimes the pollinators have to work at it, heading straight into a tubular flower but have to back out carefully, getting the pollen all over their wings and body so that when they enter another flower it sloughs off and provides the needed pollen to help production of fruits and vegetables.

 

Yellow Sulfur Butterfly

 



To design a pollinator garden, you need to select a plant palette of colorful flowers and blooming shrubs that provide nectar and pollen.  Having host plants that act as larvae plants will allow pollinators to lay their eggs on the plants and provide a food source for the emerging caterpillars. Yes, you must allow caterpillars to eat your plants if you want butterflies.  Research the flowering season so that your garden has various larvae plant species blooming all year round.

 

Design with multiples plants rather than just one or two. Native plants will attract native pollinators. Provide also weather protection from rain and winds, with sturdy, evergreen shrubs and trees. Habitats that will encourage nesting and laying pollinator eggs include fallen woody debris, bare ground, flat patches of grass, and bee nesting blocks.  

 

Butterflies have six legs in a tripod shape so they need flat surfaces to stand on.  They love to get their nutrients from mud.  Placing a clay pot underliner with rotting fruit is a great way to attract butterfllies to your garden.





Eastern Swallowtail and Spicebush Swallowtail love pentas.

 

If you don't see butterflies or other pollinators in your yard, it could be a result of pesticide use. If you are spraying your yard on a regular, routine basis, such as monthly or quarterly insecticide spraying, you are wasting your money and hurting the pollinators that should be in your yard. You need some bad bugs in your yard to attract the beneficial bugs that will naturally take care of your insect pests. If you have to apply a pesticide, apply it only as needed, according to the label, and at night, when pollinators are not active.

Monarch Butterfly on Blue Salvia

 

Pollinators dont always have to have fresh, clean, plant sources.  They also like dead foliage, manure, rotting fruit, and sometimes dead animals like roadkill.  Try not to be too clean in your landscape and provide decomposing plant material or rotting wood.    

Dead banana leaves are favorites of the Red Admiral Butterfly

 

 

This week, June 16 - June 22, 2014 is Pollinator Week.  It's a great time to celebrate blooming flowers, summertime, and all the benefits we receive from pollinators.  My favorite garden flowers to attract pollinators include: Pentas, butterfly weed, Chaste trees, beautyberry, firebush, spice bush, bee balm, gaillardias, Crape myrtles, passion flowers, bottlebrush, and roses.  What are your favorite butterfly or pollinator plants?

 

More information on pollinators

• The Pollination Home Page
• Featured Creatures
• The Xerces Society
• IFAS Butterfly Gardens

California Scientists Release Citrus Psyllid Predator

Tamarixia radiata

California scientists just released the Tamarixia radiata - a predator wasp that attacks our dreaded Asian citrus psyllid.

UC Riverside Executive Vice Chancellor Dallas Rabenstein and Mark Hoddle, the director of the Center for Invasive Species Research, released Tamarixia radiata – tiny, stingless parasitic wasps that lay eggs in ACP nymphs – in a citrus grove near the UCR Botanic Gardens. A total of 281 wasps (95 males and 186 females) were released.



Over the next several years, UCR and California Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture (CDFA) scientists will raise thousands of Tamarixia for release throughout California. The Tamarixia larvae will eat the ACP nymphs, killing them, and emerge as adults about 12 days later. Adult female Tamarixia also eat other ACP nymphs, killing many in the process.

Read more.

Management of Asian Citrus Psyllid - IFAS

Tamarixia radiata - life cycle - Cornell

Why Are My Citrus Leaves Curling?

Mistletoe - Friend or Foe?

Celtic and European traditions have long associated mistletoe with our Christmas holiday.   The American oak mistletoe, Phorandendron serotium, is found in deciduous trees, mainly laurel oak trees, making it easy to see in the wintertime.  Mistletoe can also infest elms, hackberries, sycamores, and wild cherry trees. 

Mistletoe is a friend of butterflies and birds. The epiphyte is the sole host plant for the blue hairstreak butterfly.  The evergreen succulent leaves hold berries that are spread from tree to tree by birds and wind.

Despite the wildlife benefits and jolly seasonal use, mistletoe is a parasite.  Sapping the water and nutrition from its host, mistletoe can kill stressed trees.  Deciding on whether to remove mistletoe should be based on the location of the pest. If it is located in the tree close to the ground, then a homeowner should be able to remove it easily. The mistletoe roots must be removed to eradicate it.  Cutting the branch off six inches below the mistletoe's location.  But if it is in the higher branches of the tree, have it removed by a certified arborist to prevent damaging the tree's structure.


Mistletoe is easily seen in autumn.

The other method of removing mistletoe is by using a chemical growth regulator, Ethephon, that can only be applied in winter time when the tree is dormant. Ethephon is only available thought a licensed pest control operator. 

Mistletoe is poisonous, so be careful to keep out of range of pets and animals. Wash hands and clothing with hot soapy water after pruning or touching.

So is mistletoe friend or foe?  I'll let you decide.


Mistletoe - IFAS

Mistletoe - Web of Life

New Tropical Mistletoe Discovered

In Your Backyard - Fungus Gnats

Growing a herb garden indoors, or any plants for that matter, doesn't keep them from having pest problems. Somehow insects find their way inside. Visible signs of small flies flitting between the leaves when you put your hands near the herbs means that fungus gnats have found your planters. Overwatering and soil contamination are the main reasons that the little pests feel comfortable.  They lay their eggs in the wet soil and when they hatch, the decomposition provides lots of food for them to thrive.  Once you see the flies, you need to get control quickly. If you are vigilant, you will see the flies before damage to your plants and roots occur.

What should you do? First, if its herbs and you want to use them in your cooking, you don't want to use any insecticides that will contaminate the plants.  Make sure your plants are in the right location where they get enough sunlight and good air movement. Stop overwatering and only water soil when its perfectly dry to the touch. Don't let the water sit in the pot liners.  Try using the yellow sticky boards that will collect them as they unknowingly get stuck when they fly close by. Change out the sticky boards when full and replace until they are gone.  You may even want to change the soil out to get rid of any larvae.


Darkwinged Fungus Gnats , Lycoriella spp. and Bradysia spp., Sciaridae,
Credit: Lance Osborner, University of Florida/MFREC



Bee Colony Collapse Disorder Solved?

In a collaborative effort between scientists and military, the mystery behind what is killing honeybee colonies throughout the United States and Europe may be solved. Since 2006, over a third of the managed honeybee colonies in the United States have disappeared. One of the difficulties in determining what was causing the mass death of millions of honeybees was that scientists could not perform autopsies on bees. Once afflicted the bees don't die immediately but fly away from their hive and die. Causes of the high death rate have been blamed on everything from cellphones, global warming, mites, pollution, pesticides, to genetically modified food. Fortunately a cure may not be far off.

A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One.

Exactly how that combination kills bees remains uncertain, the scientists said — a subject for the next round of research. But there are solid clues: both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather, and both do their dirty work in the bee gut, suggesting that insect nutrition is somehow compromised.

Read more about the unique technology that a brother tag-team and Army specialists combined to find the facts behind Honeybee Colony Collapse disorder.

In Your Backyard: Humidity Wins When You're Outside

You know summer is here when you open your front door and it feels like a laundryroom with the dryer going full blast. The heat and humidity is hard to overcome in our tropical climate. At least we have cross breezes from the ocean which bring us afternoon showers. I'll take them if we can get them but dont count on the weatherman's rain chance percentages.

What we could be seeing in the landscape are damages from fertilizing and using herbicides during the wrong time of year. When plants are dehydrated and heat-stressed, they are not able to absorb the chemicals adequately and can die.

Reading the manufacturers' instruction label is critical for all chemical applications. The label will tell you explicitly "Do not apply this product to turf under stress from drought, insects, disease, cold temperatures, high temperatures of above 85 degrees."

Don't have the label? Here's a great site to look up MSDS sheets: CDMS Agro-Chemical database.

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Father's Day coming up - let him take a break from yardwork. Tell him that for the next two months he doesn't need to fertilize or spray pesticides and you'll mow the lawn for him! Keep the grass cut high at 3-4 inches. Another great Father's Day gift is to have the lawn mower blades sharpened. He'll be able to get through that thick St. Augustinegrass. Sharp lawn mower blades keep the grass blades cut evenly, which means less susceptibility to pest problems!

If you have missed any of the last month's "In Your Backyard," you can find them at http://www.wlbe.org/ and click on the Past Shows.

Listen and call in with your gardening questions today at 11:06 am! Tell me what's going on in your backyard!

"In Your Backyard" - Six More Weeks of Winter

Pennsylvania's favorite groundhog 'Puxatawny Phil' saw his shadow this morning. The old wives tale follows that there will be six more weeks of winter! But we knew that already experiencing La Nina's cold, wet rain this season. This has been the coldest, wettest Florida winter in years damaging thousands of Florida landscapes.

Puxatawny Phil has a distant cousin here in Florida that also causes landscape damage. Called the Southeastern pocket gopher, this little 10-inch rodent is the culprit behind all those 'sandy mounds' in your bahia lawns and on the side of the highways. They can be beneficial in aerating the soil but usually they are not appreciated when they eat your plant roots, bulbs, and tubers.

You can get rid of pocket gophers by trapping and killing them, but poisoning is against the law unless you have a Florida state permit. All the old wives tales of Wrigleys chewing gum and moth balls are ineffective.

Moles in your landscape can be seen as a problem, too but they are insectivores and rarely affect your plants. Seeing mounds in their St. Augustinegrass or bahiagrass lawns, homeowners are quick to blame the little creatures who just eat the grubs and insects attacking the turf.
Getting rid of moles in your landscape involves getting rid of their food souces. Check to make sure that you do not have active grubs or other insects. If you have them, spot treat the areas with a recommended pesticide. Once their food source is gone, the moles will move on to other not-so-green pastures.

More creatures that you might see meandering through your yard during dusk and early morning are racoons, rabbits, and oppossums. Our brave warrior Scotties treed this poor oppossum Sunday night. They were so proud of themselves. Thankfully, the oppossum didnt play dead and fall out of the tree.

Puxatawny Phil isn't so prescient. Here in Florida, we can always expect our last winter freezes before the middle of March - six weeks away. You can prune back your brown, freeze-dried foliage now. Some of my plants looked like they were okay for two days after the freeze, but as you can see this tropical Mamay Croton was affected severely.

Maybe spring is closer than we think? Did you see the thousands of orange-red breasted American robins come through Central Florida yesterday? Chirping and enjoying the warm drizzle, the spring-harbingers were as happy as larks. We will be talking about how to attact robins and other birds to your yard today on the show!

Call in with your garden questions! Listen live at 11:00am here.

Redbay Ambrosia Beetle threatens Florida's avocados.

Read an archived Jan-Feb-Mar Newsletter.

Juvenile Robin

Cardinal enjoying the raindrops in the pine tree!

What Makes A Bug A Pest?

It seems it's all in the guts. Latest Japanese studies refine what is a pest and what is a bug. Depends on the micro-organism in their stomachs.

Writing in the latest issue of the Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, the researchers said the finding sheds new light on the evolution of pests and may offer fresh approaches to controlling insects that harm livestock and crops.

The team worked on two very closely related species of stinkbugs in Japan - the Megacopta punctatissima, which is a pest of soybean and other crop legumes, and the Megacopta cribraria, that hardly causes any agricultural problems.

After the scientists switched the gut bacteria between the two species, the non-pest species thrived and reproduced prolifically on soybean plants in their laboratory.

The pest species, meanwhile, suffered sharply reduced egg-hatch rates and higher death rates of its nymphs, or larvae -- the very problems that the non-pest species used to face.

"We experimentally exchanged the gut bacteria between the species ... and we found the non-pest species performed very well after the transfer of the symbiont (symbiotic bacteria) and the pest species performed very poorly," Takema Fukatsu of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology said in a telephone interview.

"This indicates that the symbiont determined the pest status of the host stinkbug."

Fukatsu and his colleagues are now analyzing the bacteria found in the two species of stinkbugs.

"We suspect that some mutation may have occurred in their (gut) bacteria and we hope to find the difference between them. In this way, we hope to understand the molecular mechanism underlying what makes a pest and what makes a non-pest," he said.

Looking ahead, Fukatsu hopes their research will have practical applications.

"This molecular mechanism can be used for pest control," he said.

More Studies On Parkinson Disease & Pesticides

More significance being shown from research on pesticide use and developing Parkinson's disease.