Category: Books

Garden Insects of North America

 

©Marlene A. Condon

November 2, 2018

 

A honey bee visits a Mahonia shrub, a non-native but extremely valuable food source for insect pollinators as it blooms very early, long before most native plants. Photo: Marlene A. Condon.

I was probably eight or nine years old when I started to garden. The first plant I decided to grow in my tiny vegetable plot in the back yard was the radish. I didn’t like radishes, but they were red—my absolute favorite color—so to my way of thinking, it was the obvious choice!

My very first flower garden consisted, like my veggie garden, of just one plant: the stunningly beautiful blue morning glory commonly grown in New England. We had a carport with two support posts on one side, and I planted my seeds there where the vines could grow upwards.

I didn’t encounter “pests,” and I haven’t ever felt that growing plants was a war between me and the natural world. In fact, I have always very successfully gardened without problems, whether I was living in New England, California, or Virginia. But it wasn’t until I lived here that I realized that my own gardening experience seemed to be far different from that of other gardeners.

In 2002 I started giving monthly slide presentations in Shenandoah National Park. I talked about the wonders of nature that I’d found in my yard, from lovely pastel pink-and-yellow moths to adorable bunnies and chipmunks to the birds whose singing is so welcome.

By the end of each program, people were blown away by the fact that I could have an abundance of plants among an abundance of animals. They did not see how that could be possible.

Indeed, three years later when I wrote to Stackpole Books about the need for a book explaining the value of wildlife to gardeners, the nature editor called me up to say the Stackpole gardening editors did not believe it. Once they saw my slides and explanations, however, I immediately got a contract to write my book.

The reality is that you cannot garden without the innumerable kinds of organisms that exist to keep the environment functioning properly. The reason most people think of so many critters as “pests” is that gardeners create an artificial world around them that can’t possibly work right. Some kinds of animals then seemingly become problematic when they try to correct this situation.

Additionally, gardeners usually expect “perfection,” which is not a real-world possibility. Plants exist to feed animals, which means humans must accept that their plants are going to get nibbled. However, they can survive with holes in the leaves or even missing leaves, and even total defoliation! Therefore, it is easier on you to simply learn to live with the realities of gardening outdoors.

The first step to becoming more tolerant of wildlife and gardening successfully is to learn about the animals that share your world. Princeton Press has recently published the second edition of Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw and David Shetlar. It’s a heavy book that you might want to give a permanent spot on a table so it will be easier for you to use it.

Containing more than 3000 color photos, it will help you to identify not only insects, but also (despite the title) spiders and mites, as well as other invertebrate species that you might find in your yard and garden. This edition includes expanded sections on pollinators and other flower visitors, predators of plant-eating insects, and insect decomposers (rather than just earthworms) that folks don’t often hear about.

The most compelling reason to purchase this book is that many of the photos are of eggs and the larval (immature) forms of critters that you do not usually find illustrated in guidebooks. Knowledge is power, and if you can know what something is, you are less likely to want to destroy or kill it, “just to be safe.”

Unfortunately, and this is my one complaint about this otherwise extremely useful compendium of information, this book perpetuates the myth that many garden insects and other invertebrates exist solely to harm your plants. Evolutionarily speaking, this notion is illogical.

If animals seriously harm or kill the plants they depend upon for their lives, those plants can’t reproduce to perpetuate their species. Over time, the plants will die out, which means the animals will die out right along with them! To keep this scenario from taking place, predators work to limit plant-eating animals. Therefore, overpopulations signify that your yard is not functioning properly because it obviously does not support the necessary predators.

Every type of plant is represented in this book, from flowers and vegetables to shrubs and trees, and even turfgrass. You locate the critters in sections defined by where you are most likely to spot them, such as on leaves, blooms, shoots, roots, or in the soil.

There’s a glossary near the end, right before the index. It provides explanations for many of the terms used to describe invertebrates as well plants. Thus, if you’re just beginning to learn about these kinds of critters or plant “anatomy,” there is help right at hand.

You can learn a lot by reading this book, rather than just using it as a reference. Looking through the photos, you might spot a critter you’ve seen sometime in the yard and finally discover its name and information about its life.

Or, you can learn about unfamiliar animals. During my many years of growing radishes (I did eventually come to enjoy the taste of them), I never found other critters wanting to eat them. But Garden Insects introduced me to the Radish Root Maggot, the larva of a western fly that feeds on the roots of crucifers, such as turnips and a variety of cabbages in addition to radishes.

An interesting tidbit of info, the significance of which I’m sure was lost on the authors, is that the Radish Root Maggot also feeds on various mustard-family “weeds” (their word, not mine). If folks out west would let those “weeds” grow in their gardens, they would have less competition from maggots for their radishes!

I’m no longer able to garden as much as I would like, but when I did have large food gardens, I always allowed wild flowers and wild grasses to grow among my cultivated plants. I credit this action with my extremely successful gardening endeavors, in which I was able to grow enough fruits and vegetables to eat fresh and give away, as well as to can and freeze for later use.

Consider buying this book (for yourself or another gardener) to learn about the critters that are, or should be, sharing your landscape. I can assure you that a nature-friendly garden works!

 

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Garden Insects of North America

The Snakes and Lizards of Virginia

©Marlene A. Condon

The faces of three young Northern Copperheads (born just a few weeks earlier) can be seen at the opening of the “maternity” den underneath the author’s carport. The bright greenish yellow tail tip of one of the snakelets is visible to the right of the Field Cricket that seemed to know it had nothing to fear from the little snakes.

The very first snake I saw in my yard after I’d moved in more than three decades ago was a Red Cornsnake. I was thrilled to spot such an absolutely beautiful serpent, especially because it sported a fair bit of my favorite color—red!

For the most part, snakes prefer to stay out of sight, and if they tend to be active at night, your chances of seeing one are not really very high. In my experience, only the Eastern Rat Snake seems unafraid to show itself in the open in broad daylight.

It seems to know that most people are willing to coexist with it, something that other snake species are not often lucky enough to experience. And yet, snakes are hardly the threat to humans that folklore makes them out to be.

For years I have pointed out to people attending my talks that dogs, horses, and even lightning strikes kill many more people every year than venomous snakes do. And, of course, traffic fatalities hugely outnumber deaths from snake bites. Even so, most people would rather get into their vehicle every day than allow a snake to live in close proximity, despite the fact that people are far more likely to get killed on the road than they are ever to be hurt by a snake.

I believe the best way to overcome a fear of snakes is to learn about them. We have only 32 species, and, if you so desire, you need only learn about the lives of the ones that live in your particular area. You can determine this information from the map accompanying each species account in a wonderful guide to the snakes and the lizards of Virginia that has been published by the Department of Game & Inland Fisheries.

The small book is loaded with photos, and in addition to the usual information on habitat and behavior, each account includes a “Did you know?” section. For example, on the Red Corn Snake page, you find that the corn snake may have gotten its name from its habit of hunting rodents around corn fields. I prefer the second answer, which suggests the name could have come from this snake’s belly pattern, which looks like Indian Corn!

It might surprise you to see how many species of colorful snakes we have in Virginia, some of which are quite striking. However, there can be a lot of variation among individuals within a species, such as the Northern Copperhead. Some of these animals are a gorgeous coppery color, while others are a rather bland gray.

Longtime readers of my column may remember that female copperheads sometimes reproduce underneath my carport. You might think this situation would present a big problem, but it simply requires that we pay a bit more attention when walking around the carport during the month or so that the female is around. (There is usually only one female, although one year we had three!)

I’ve learned a great deal about copperheads as a result of inadvertently supplying a maternity ward for them, such as that people can coexist with these snakes. Although one or more females have each given birth to 7-9 young underneath my carport many times, we rarely see these animals around the house other than during their birthing season. Most snakes try to avoid people.

However, since we know they live in the area, we always watch where we step and where we place our hands. Living in agreement with nature means taking precautions, but this is no different than being careful around your fellow human beings. I’ve been able to avoid being bitten by any kind of snake, but I haven’t been able to avoid careless drivers who have plowed into my car, one of whom put me into the hospital and caused me many years of lingering pain.

There is no need to deliberately run over snakes on the roadways, or to chop their heads off if you come across one on the ground. In fact, most people get bitten because they interact with the snake instead of just keeping their distance.  

Learning about the lizards of Virginia is a bit more difficult task than learning about our snakes. A lizard usually makes a brief appearance, quickly running off to hide or to look for a meal of spiders or insects.  

Amazingly, the lizard species (and many other different kinds of animals) living on my property can often be seen lounging around the same carport opening where the female copperheads hang out when waiting to give birth! We’ve spotted broad-headed and five-lined skinks as well as fence lizards in that area.

The funny thing about this is that there are not a lot of spiders or insects to be seen there, and usually when you notice animals again and again in an area, it suggests a nearby food source. However, I suspect these lizards—being cold-blooded—are taking advantage of the warmth of the concrete and nearby bricks at that corner of the carport. The sun hits that area early on summer days, and the lizards (and, in season, a copperhead) show up only after the area has been hit by photons for a while.

Although the DGIF book does not mention it in the Fence Lizard account, these particular reptiles are quite appropriately named as they can often be seen on a fence! There are still a few sections left of an old farm fence that once ran along the front of my property, and I have found this fencing to be a reliable location for spotting a Fence Lizard.

It always brings me great joy and satisfaction to see one there because I know that most people would have long ago gotten rid of that decrepit fence.  I did not, and it has afforded me more views of Fence Lizards than I ever would have experienced otherwise, making it a valuable component of The Nature-friendly Garden.

A Guide to the Snakes and Lizards of Virginia is a good book to own if you want to recognize and learn about these animals. It is available from the DGIF Store (www.shopdgif.com). It is truly a bargain for $10!