The Caterpillar and the Ladybug

This is a story about a caterpillar and a ladybug. 

While out in my garden, digging up some dill plants to share with a friend, I noticed something tiny crawling on one of the plants.  Imagine my surprise when I spotted it!  It was tiny caterpillar, a pale lime green with black. yellow and white markings.  My first response was to kill it.  I had no idea what it was.  So I googled it.  And now I am glad I let it live,

Turns out it is the larval stage of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly.  How exciting!  The tiny caterpillar was very pretty and the adult swallowtail will be absolutely beautiful.  I began to question my need for dill when it would be so much more enjoyable to raise some butterflies.  I seldom use dill in anything I cook anyway.  

The Black Swallowtail female lays tiny yellow eggs on dill, fennel or parsley plants.  She attaches them to the stems and the underside of leaves..  

The larva hatches and goes through 5 stages of development.  Each time shedding its skin, which is full of proteins.  They will turn around and eat it.  I was getting more and more excited.  I couldn't wait to see all this in action.  At the end of its growth the caterpillar creates a pupa or chrysalis around itself.  The pupal stage lasts around 18 days.  

female

At the end of that stage the butterfly hatches and metamorphosis is complete   A beautiful butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. The wingspan for females is about 6.9 to 8.4 centimeters.  Males are slightly smaller.  The upper wing is black with two rows of yellow or white spots.  These spots are brighter and larger in the males.  The females have blue spots in between the white markings.   

male

When I went outside the following day, there was no sign of the little guy.  I looked everywhere.  I turned leaves over and examined every part of the plant, but I could not find it.  I wondered about the time of day.  When I had seen it earlier it was almost dusk.  Maybe it was too hot or perhaps too windy today.  Then I saw the ladybug!  I removed it from the dill plant and put it onto the rose bush.  

I googled some more.  Ladybugs this time.  It turns out that they are not the sweet bugs of stories and wishes.  They are actually vicious hunters.  They love aphids.  I used to buy them in bags of thousands to try to control the aphids on my rose bushes.   I would keep them in the fridge and release a handful into the garden on a sunny day.   As they warmed up I hoped they would prey on the aphids.  

I remember the year of the aphids.  It was sometime in the 1980s. The sky was green with them.  Farmers worried about their crops.  Some well meaning, but not too bright biologists determined that what we needed was thousands of ladybugs.  So the imported as many Asian lady beetles as they could find.  These ladybeetles were yellow to dark burgundy in colour.  The problem with this Asian variety was that they were bitters.  Not pleasant!  I was bitten many times by this species.  Also they tended to  congregate in large groups, while our native ladybugs are solitary.  When it got cold they wanted to come indoors, in large swarms, to keep warm.   I don't know if they helped the aphid invasion, but they certainly created more problems of their own.  

While ladybugs love aphids, they will also eat caterpillars and other soft bodied insects.  ladybugs are very beneficial to the gardener.  They are voracious and efficient consumers of insect pests.   A single ladybug will consume thousands of insect pests in its lifetime.  In that way they not only benefit gardeners but farmers and other food producers too.  Ladybugs don't sting or bite.  They don't transmit disease and they don't infest food supplies.  

So now what should I do?  I want ladybugs in my garden, but I also want the caterpillars to survive.  It's quite a dilemma.  I guess I will have to be more vigilant.  Keep my eye on things daily.  Maybe cover the host plant with some cheesecloth or something.   It seems this is going to be a full-time job.  But I think it will be fun.  

World Giraffe Day

Today is the longest day of the year .  The summer solstice arrived at 11:32PM last evening.  That means today will be the longest day of the year for us here in the northern hemisphere.

It seems fitting that on the longest day we would celebrate an animal with the longest neck: The giraffe.  I have always been fascinated with giraffes.  During the years that I was a member of the Metro Toronto Zoo, I went often to watch them.  

Giraffes originated in Africa.  They are to tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant.  The giraffe's main features are its very long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones and its distinctive coat patterns.  Ossicones are the skin covered bone structures on their heads.

They eat mainly leaves, fruit and flowers which they can browse on at heights that other herbivores cannot reach.  

Before William was born I decided to make a few 'wild' animals for his room.  I crocheted this little guy.  Cute, eh?  William loves giraffes too!

Happy World Giraffe Day to all.

 

National Indigenous Peoples Day

I wrote this post almost a month ago.  At that time it was mainly a rant about my revulsion at the news  of the Indigenous children whose remains were found at a residential school in British Colombia.  Today it is about celebrating.

Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day. This day has been celebrated since 1996.  It is a day to recognize and celebrate the cultures and contributions of Indigenous Peoples from all across Canada.  This is the first year that I have been aware of it.  Is this because of all the talk about the residential schools and other problems like the lack of clean drinking water?  2021 focuses on celebrating resilience through reconciliation.  Whatever that means.  I am hopeful that the observation of this day will bring about positive changes for all Native People.

I have always been interested in Indigenous people.   I live close to an Indigenous community.  It is less than a mile away.  The last school I worked at was adjacent to it.  I listened to their drumming.  I watched as they entered the sweat lodge for healing ceremonies.  I smelled the scent of burning sweetgrass.  I always found their way of life fascinating.  

A few years ago, when I was hosting a teacher from the Japanese Kamajo school, we had an  opportunity to attend the Grand River Champion of Champions Powwow.  It was a special event.  A wonderful chance to watch members of Six Nations in costumes, dancing and drumming.    To feel their power, their love of beauty and their creative lives.  It inspired me.  

Another wonderful, inspirational event was a trip to Petroglyphs Park.  When we were there the first time we were allowed to clamber over the rock and observe the carvings up close.  It was a fantastic experience for my kids who were quite young at the time.  

But things are different today.  Petroglyphs Provincial Park has many rock carvings.  It is located North East of Peterborough.  The carvings depict turtles. boats, humans, shamans, snakes, birds and other animals.  I believe it may be the largest concentration of carvings in Canada.  

Carved into a huge flat rock, the site is considered a sacred place.  The Ojibwa Nishnaabe people have erected a large, mostly glass building over the rock to protect it, both from acid rain and from being walked on.  The rock can now be observed from a raised platform.  Photographing or video recording is not allowed.  The above photo came off the internet.  There are guides to explain the carvings and the Indigenous beliefs.  Deep crevices in the rock are believed to lead to a spirit world.  A river runs under the rock.  It can be heard as it flows along.  It is believed to indicate spirits.

Happy National Indigenous Peoples Day

Wildflower Wednesday

This is such a pretty plant.  It doesn't seem possible that it could be an invasive weed.  It is in the morning glory family.  The small white or pale pink flowers (about 1 inch across) are cup-shaped and resemble its larger, more colourful cousin.

It is a perennial and is spread by roots, rhizomes and seeds.  It can strangle a lawn or garden in no time.  The roots and rhizomes create a tight mat that prevents anything else from growing there.  It also wraps itself around everything it comes in contact with.  

There is no way to get rid of this plant without using some kind of herbicide.  I hate using this poison in my garden,  But my home-made solution of household ingredients is not going to work.  So far the bindweed is growing at the side of my house, but I'm afraid if I don't get rid of it I could have it coming up everywhere. The herbicide has to be taken up by the roots and rhizomes in order to be effective.  In this case I will use something like Roundup.  The spray has to be applied at just the right time - early in the season when the flowers first appear.  That's between June and July.  So guess what I'm going to be doing this afternoon.

Fanily: Convolvuleae,  Genus: Calystegia.

Common name: Bindweed.

In my Garden

 It seems like everything in my garden is a weed.  That isn't entirely true. of course, but after spending a few hours outdoors, I couldn't find a lot of things that weren't weeds.  

There is a lovely white columbine.  I found a yellow one too, amidst the weeds, but it wasn't in bloom this morning.  I don't know if you can see the large green leaves in the columbine photo.  They are milkweed plants.  I have been keeping a few in my flower bed in the hopes of attracting some monarch butterflies.  So far nothing, but the plants are forming buds. They are doing well, but are weeds of course.

While pulling weeds and digging stuff out, I came across this crazy crane.  I thought I had lost him.  But there he was!  All covered in mud and dirt.  I cleaned him off and I think I am going to give him a fresh coat of black paint and a more prominent place in the garden.  I really like him.

Another plant that is not a weed, but closely resembles one is my maggi plant, also known as lovage.  It grows 6 to 8 feet tall and has large umbels at the top that look amazing against a clear blue sky during the summer months.  This plant can be used in soups and stews.  I have never cooked with it, but it tastes a bit like celery, parsley and anise.  In The Netherlands, it is used extensively because the flavour closely resembles maggi. A seasoning that is very popular.

Wildflower Wednesday

Let me introduce Yellow Cress.  It is a weed that is growing in my vegetable garden at the moment.  Actually, it is coming up everywhere in other parts of the garden and even in between the patio stones.    Yellow Cress is in the mustard family.  Like all mustard plants, it has flowers with four petals.  This one is a lovely bright yellow. The seeds are borne in long brown pods.  There can be hundreds of them.   It is a biennial.  The first year it appears as small, insignificant rosettes.  The second year it grows into this huge plant that tries to strangle everything around it.  Another common name is Yellow Rocket.  I have to pull it all out, hopefully before the seed pods open.  If I don't, I will have this plant forever and not much else in my garden.

Family: Brassicaceae.  Genus: Barbarea.  Species: B. vulgaris

Common Names:  Yellow Cress, Rocket Cress, Wintercress