#as well as a carnivorous caterpillar that likes aphids

[snekdood]

i both love and hate that i keep finding different moths in my house. why are they here? i dont want them to get caught on the sticky traps i put out for the flies. but also, very fun to see so many different varieties and knowing my garden probably plays a role somehow.

[tribbetherium]

Lepidopterans, the insect clade including butterflies and moths, were among the invertebrate species seeded onto the planet's biome, in order to act as pollinators that allowed the numerous introduced plants to survive. While most of them adhered to this lifestyle and ecological niche, as ravenous leaf-eaters that metamorphosed into flying pollinators, a few began to experiment with more unconventional lifestyles.

Some of the stranger kinds included the caterpedes: a group of neotenic species that matured simply as larger larvae and skip metamorphosis altogether: filling niches as forest floor detritivores, folivores or occasionally even predators of other insects. And perhaps more unusual are the clade known as the Hemimetamorpha, or "half-changed", which do pupate and emerge as adults with proboscises: yet retain their silk glands ejecting silk through a spinneret located directly below the proboscis and between the labial palps, allowing them to construct nests or wrap their eggs in silk sacs for protection.

Many of the Hemimetamorpha do not develop wings, and instead, thanks to their piercing and sucking mouthparts, fill the niches of true bugs on Earth: as sap-suckers akin to aphids, leafhoppers or cicadas, predators of small arthropods, or even as as flea-like parasites on larger animals. And in the case of one clade, the spooders, they use their retained silk glands to spin webs to catch their prey, in a manner akin to their arachnid namesake.

The red-spotted skeeter (Arachnopapilo rubrum) is one widespread Middle Temperocene species, ranging well across the tropics and temperate zones of Gestaltia and Arcuterra. Despite appearances, it sports two ocelli, one next to each compound eye, large feathery antennae possessing olfactory receptors, and a proboscis, albeit a short, sharp one rather than the long, coiled ones of nectar-feeders, all of which mark its lepidopteran ancestry despite the otherwise lack of resemblance to them.

Female red-spotted skeeters spin webs among grasses and branches, waiting to ensnare flying insects that they then immobilize with digestive enzymes in their saliva, while males are smaller and nomadic, instead hunting by pouncing on their prey and traveling across larger areas of territory compared to the more sedentary females who prefer to stay in their webs. They are also more brightly colored, in order to entice a mate, as the larger female is not above preying upon a suitor she does not like, though occasionally, a male may resort to restraining a female with his own silk, immobilizing her long enough to successfully mate and fleeing before she escapes.

Once mated, the female wraps her eggs into a silk pouch, searches out a safe place with plenty of food, and leaves the egg sac there to develop with no further intervention. The young hatch out as fairly typical caterpillars, yet are carnivores like the adults, tracking down and ambushing other small insects, in particular ants due to their foraging trails being a reliable source of food that comes to them as they lie in wait, as well as their toxic compounds being sequestered by the larva for its own defense. With a nutritious protein-rich diet, the larva matures faster than a leaf-eating caterpillar, and is ready to pupate within a week or two, producing a camouflaged chrysalis that is attached to branches and stems and further disguised by bands of silk. After another 5-7 days it emerges as an adult, and is immediately ready to hunt for a meal within minutes, being wingless and thus bypassing the long vulnerable phase of waiting of their wings to unfold. Within the span of a month, another generation is fully-fledged and ready to breed: a rapid turnover vital for a species with high mortality rates and many enemies-- including members of its own species in both their larval and adult forms.

------------

[kabutoden]

Sorry if youve answered this before, but how do you chose the bugs to assign to each character ? Also they are all really cool and fun :3

Hi, I’ve explained this before but I’ll do it again! Last time I explained it was less specific to the character and more to the caste, so this’ll be a little different. I use the metaphors and associations of the insect to pick their species as well as their diet. I’m calling the species a troll mimics their ‘morph’.

Aradia: Fly. Associated with death. Detritivore. Tavros: Craneflies. Frailty, timidness, clumsiness. Thinking longhorn beetle might be a funnier pun though, so I might change it. Herbivore. Sollux: Bees. Construction, intelligence, connections to groupthink/hiveminds/psi. Herbivore. Nepeta: Caterpillar. It’s a pun. Herbivore. Karkat: Isopod. Highly social insect. Durable shell representing defensiveness/personal barriers, but also serving literal aspect of ‘thick skin.’ Detritivore. Kanaya: Hornet. Dangerous but caring parents, association with femininity. Omnivore. Terezi: Dragonfly. Good eyesight’s associated with clarity, though large eyes would also be easier to blind. Good at flying. Dragon pun. Carnivore. Vriska: Spider. Manipulative, association with femininity. Carnivore. Equius: Beetle. Strong. Omnivore. Gamzee: Praying mantis. Associations with religion due to unique praying pose. Carnivore. Eridan: Anolomacaris. Extinct skilled distance hunter. Carnivore. Feferi: Trilobite. Large curved spines, trident tongue, ‘ruler of precambrian seas.’ Detritvore.

All insects before Jade are herbivores or detritivores, and all insects jade and after are middle to highblood can hunt. This was to set up an intentionally antagonistic relationship between lowbloods and highbloods. It’s also a new way to play with themes in my personal work which are all about animal dynamics.

I mostly did the human kids as bugs as a joke, because they’re not aliens at all so its funny!! But I had a ton of fun with them so here we go again. I chose them off colors and gimmicks.

John: Spitbug. They’re bright green and gooey boys. Like ectoplasm. Rose: Rosy maple moth. Name association—also bright pink and yellow against their will. Rose wishes she was a cool goth all-black moth. Moths are associated with ‘seeking light.’ Dave: Assassin beetle/wheel bug. Have a gear shaped bump on back, large black eyes, efficient predators, some red coloration. Fits in with his expectations and pressures. Jade: Wooly aphid. They’re white, fuzzy, with rainbow wings. That’s so her.

Jane: Candy-striped leafhopper. Bright cyan with red highlights, food-themed name.Roxy: Pink-spotted cattleheart. Gorgeous pink and black coloring. Butterflies are nectar-drinkers, associated with celebration and inebriation. Kinda clumsy too. Dirk: Tiger beetle. They can move in bursts of motion faster than they can see. That’s flash stepping. Orange and black. Jake: Diving beetle. Dark green with orange highlights, explorers who go where other beetles cannot.

[phyto-telma]

[The Interaction with Aphids, within a small ecosystem]

Aphid (plant louse, or ant cow) is the tiny little insect which latches on the plants, sucking with their straw-like mouth called “stylet”. It is generally well-known that they have strong interactions with other insects, especially with ants; you may find them in some science text books introducing it as an example of  “mutualism”. Aphids are protected by ants from potential enemies like ladybugs, while they provide food, honeydew, to their guardians in return. Sometimes they’re farmed by ant species underground or on plants.

The aphids Macchiatiella itadori with a flock of ants Formica sanguinea. Japan

However, there is another distinct alliance with these convergent bugs, which live under bunches of bamboo leaves rustling and swaying in the wind.

Hidden by thriving bamboo grasses..... Japan

Taraka hamada is a small butterfly with black-spotted wings, whose lifestyle completely depends on several aphid species like Ceratovacuna japonica. As an ants mutualism, T. hamada only obtains the meal from C. japonica, which means they never visit flower to flower and feast nectar like most butterfly species. But moreover, their juveniles are thoroughly carnivores, hunting a herd of aphids as voracious predators; well, that’s the most spectacular trait of this species. Thus, T. hamada behaves rather commensally than multually. No matter what they rely on a patch of small ecosystem, they deserve a great awe as one of the extraordinal specialist species among butterflies. 

Also, there is one more species that cannot live without this secret caffeteria filled with aphids on bamboo leaves. Atkinsonia ignipicta is the vivid-colored moth species which is said it imitates the outlook of lycid beetles to prevent the predators. The caterpillar of A. ignipicta is also a hunter of  C. japonica. It builds a small nest with their thread between the leaves or stems, crawling out of it and serching for their meals. There might be some ecological conflicts between T. hamada and A. ignipicta.  

[wovav]

Soldier Beetles on the March

In his detailed and fascinating 1964 book ments on several beneficial species of soldier beetles (family Cantharidae) Beneficial Insects, Lester Swan comand their associated prey, then notes that “unfortunately, they have not been studied extensively.” Not much has changed in the last few decades. “Oh, those! I have them in my garden, but I didn’t know they were beneficial,” is the familiar refrain when I point them out to garden visitors. Yet soldier beetles surely warrant the same recognition given to lady beetles and lacewings. They are valuable and reliable allies, and find amenable living conditions in gardens more easily than in agricultural fields. Their lack of potential for commercial use explains why soldier beetles have been so little studied.

Soldier beetles have a voracious appetite for aphids, caterpillars, grasshopper eggs, mites, and other small bugs. They are even reputed to eat cucumber beetle eggs, reason enough for any vegetable gardener to agree that they deserve further study! Let me describe soldier beetles—you might recognize them. The adult is a narrow, parallel-sided beetle, with long threadlike antennae. Most species have dark heads, a red or orange segment (the pronotum), and dusty-looking gray, brown, or sometimes bluish wing covers (elytra). The wing covers sometimes have markings and, unlike as in most beetles, are relatively soft, resulting in a second common moniker, leatherwings. These beetles may be mistaken for other, similar-looking related beetles, so check your identification. Unwelcome in gardens, blister beetles can raise blisters on any unfortunate gardener who touches them. Click beetles are well-known to children, who like to place them on their backs and hear the satisfying “click” as they flip over. Adult male glowworms look similar but have long, feathery antennae. A female soldier beetle sometimes attracts hordes of males with the pheromones she emits, but generally only one male is successful. Most beetles do not engage in elaborate courtship behaviors, but some soldier beetle males may “nibble” females. When these beetles appear in my garden, there seems to be a lot of nibbling going on. I have to wonder what attracted the female to the lucky winner! Each female has a huge supply of eggs, which hatch in spring. The larvae are nocturnal and can be quite long-lived, staying in this stage for up to three years in some species. You might come upon them in damp areas beneath rocks, or nestling in leaf litter and under bark, where they hunt for insects and other small organisms. A few species are minor pests as larvae, when they feed on roots. Once they pupate and emerge as adults, they live less than a year. Many are primarily carnivorous in both the larval and adult stage. (An exception: the genus Chauliognathus are pollen feeders as adults.) Because they are generalist predators, they sometimes eat other desirable insects such as lacewing larvae as well as aphids that have been parasitized by wasps. Larvae consume eggs and larvae of other beetles, moths, grasshoppers, and more. Adults are frequently found on a variety of flowers, where they feed on pollen and nectar in addition to prey such as aphids and mealybugs. A frequently seen soldier beetle in the West, the adult brown leatherwing beetle (Pacificanthia consors), helpfully dines on citrus mealybugs.

[bethestaryouareradio]

What's bugging you?

https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1312/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Whats-bugging-you.html

  Digging Deep with Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Brian

What’s Bugging You? by Cynthia Brian

“…many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth.” Charles Darwin

Twenty-three honeybees, ten lady beetles, five lizards, three frogs, and several spiders.

Within two hours on a very hot day this past week, the rescue count from the swimming pool kept mounting. I was afraid to leave the water lest more of my garden friends would drown. It’s summer and the flying insects, creepy crawlies, and slithering creatures are in abundance. The ones I want to save are the ones that are our garden guardians.

The Good Guys

Bees We’ve all heard about the Colony Collapse Disorder affecting honey bees worldwide and the importance of protecting our all bees. Don’t confuse honey bees with carnivorous yellowjackets. Bees, bumble bees, and yellowjackets are all pollinators yet honey bees and bumble bees don’t attack humans unless they are stepped on, slapped, swatted, or threatened. They are gathering pollen and the honey bees are making honey while keeping our fruit, flowers, and vegetables reproducing.

Lady Beetles There are over 450 species of ladybugs in the United States and they are voracious consumers of aphids, caterpillars, lace bugs, mealybugs, scale, whiteflies, and mites. Lady beetles are perhaps the most beloved of all insects and even though you can purchase them for your garden, they will fly away when their food level declines. An adult will eat over 5,000 aphids in her lifetime.

Lizards Don’t be afraid of these garden helpers. Lizards are carnivores, not plant-eaters. You are fortunate if you have lizards in your yard. They eat beetles, ants, wasps, aphids, and grasshoppers. They like to bask in the sun and also shelter under rocks or in the mulch. Predators to lizards include cats, snakes, and birds.

Frogs Both frogs are toads are amphibians living on both land and in water. They need moisture to survive and prey upon snails, slugs, and other insects. However, if they fall into a swimming pool without a way to escape, they will drown. In one summer, a single toad may devour over 10,000 pests. Some species will eat mosquito larvae. Like our lizard friends, pets, birds, and snakes enjoy them as a meal. Enjoy their choral music at dusk.

Spiders Fear of spiders is one of the most common phobias even though most spiders do not bite humans. The two biting spiders with venom that can be fatal to humans are the black widow and the brown recluse. Spiders are not insects. Spiders are arthropods as they have eight legs. As happy hunters, they are excellent garden pest control managers, actually considered to be the most beneficial and efficient insect eradicator in our landscapes. When you see a spider web, admire its delicate intricacy. Don’t destroy it. Inside your home, spiders are helping eradicate more invasive bugs. Spiders don’t carry diseases like mosquitoes or ticks.

To keep the good guys attracted to our landscapes, eliminate pesticides, insecticides, and chemicals. Companion planting with a diversity of species will provide a variety of stalking and dining options. Offer shelters of mulch, rocks, small branches, and a water source.

The Bad Guys

Mosquitoes Mosquito bites cause puffy red bumps that can itch for a week. Worse, mosquitoes are vectors for West Nile Virus that they transmit to humans. Empty any standing water around your garden and punch drainage holes in containers. Change birdbaths daily or add a re-circulating pump. If you have a pool or hot tub, keep it effectively chlorinated. Check for leaky faucets. It only takes a few days for larvae to mature. Vector Control is available at no charge to add mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) to your pond water.

Yellowjackets Although yellowjackets do help with pollination, they are scavengers for meat and sugary food, disrupting picnics, summer outdoor activities, and barbecues. Never squash a yellowjacket. When crushed they emit a chemical that calls to other yellowjackets to attack. They build nests in abandoned burrows, in eaves, and bushes. Because their sting is so potent and painful, if you find a nest, call Vector Control for eradication.

Ticks Lyme disease is one of the fastest-growing epidemics with over 300,000 diagnoses occurring annually in the United States. Summer is the most likely time to be bitten by a tiny deer tick. Ticks are parasites that feed on blood. They live in brush piles, leaf litter, lawns, tree stumps, ground cover, and stone or brick walls. They even have been found on picnic tables and benches. It’s important to wear tick repellent clothing when outside and after being outdoors, conduct a full body check, take a shower, and put your clothes in a hot dryer for thirty minutes to kill any ticks, then wash your clothes. (I know, it seems weird to dry first, then wash, but the heat of the dryer kills the ticks) Check your pets. Ticks can be hard to find and can linger in your hair, clothing, or pet fur. If you find a tick, don’t twist it or turn it. Use sanitized pointed tweezers to grab the tick and pull it straight out. Wash the bite, apply antiseptic, save the tick for identification, and seek medical attention.

The “bad guys” are on my ‘danger watch out” list. I’ve had three trips already to either urgent care or the emergency room with ticks lodged in my neck that required surgery to remove. Mosquitoes are my nemesis inflicting gigantic, itching bites with bumps that last for two weeks or more. In the last year, I’ve stumbled upon three yellowjacket nests, suffering multiple stings on my hand and arms with swelling that abated after a week.

The “good guys” I’ll continue to rescue as they are my garden “watchdogs” along with the numerous birds and hummingbirds that thankfully aren’t nose-diving!

What’s bugging you?

Cynthia Brian’s Gardening Guide for August

CONTACT Vector Control for Contra Costa County at 925-685-9301for assistance with mosquitoes, rats, skunks, and yellowjackets. PROTECT yourself with permethrin-treated clothing and bug repellents. I have found relief with Insect Shield. www.insectshield.com. PLAN a trip to a national park. Upcoming days for FREE admittance are August 25 and September 28. https://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm. Seniors can buy a lifetime entry pass for $80. TAKE advantage of 20% discount on new introductions from Renee’s Garden Seeds through 8/18/19 with checkout code NEW20. http://ow.ly/eYZE50uBDE5. MARK your calendar for The National Heirloom Exposition happening at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds September 10-12. http://www.TheHeirloomExpo.com.

FILL a saucer with water to set in your garden for the butterflies, bees, lizards, and other small creatures. In the hot weather, they need to hydrate and a shallow saucer will allow them to drink without drowning. PRUNE low hanging branches on redwoods, pines, cedars, and other trees as fire protection maintenance. CUT a branch with a magnolia bloom for a vase. The huge white blossoms are spectacular and last several days while the leaves stay green for two weeks. CAUTION when walking or playing on lawns planted with clover. Honeybees may be feeding. CELEBRATE the Moraga Pear and Wine Festival with Be the Star You Are!® non-profit and Lamorinda Weekly on Saturday, September 28th. Details at https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org/eventsCONTINUE deadheading spent blossoms on roses and other perennials. EAT fresh fruit as it ripens and pick up any fruit that falls on the ground to discourage a scourge of rodents. RELAX on your patio to savor the summer sky.

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing. Happy Summer!

See photos at https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1312/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Whats-bugging-you.html

  Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, raised in the vineyards of Napa County, is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3. Tune into Cynthia’s Radio show and order her books at www.StarStyleRadio.com. Buy a copy of her new books, Growing with the Goddess Gardener and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store.

Hire Cynthia for projects, consults, and lectures. Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com

www.GoddessGardener.com

  picnics, pools, parties, #bugs, #insects, #lizards, #bees, #pest, #yellowjackets, dining outside, summer, patios,#gardening, #cynthiabrian, #starstyle, #goddessGardener, #growingwiththegoddessgardener, #lamorindaweekly

[goddessgardener]

What's bugging you?

https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1312/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Whats-bugging-you.html

  Digging Deep with Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Brian

What’s Bugging You? by Cynthia Brian

“…many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth.” Charles Darwin

Twenty-three honeybees, ten lady beetles, five lizards, three frogs, and several spiders.

Within two hours on a very hot day this past week, the rescue count from the swimming pool kept mounting. I was afraid to leave the water lest more of my garden friends would drown. It’s summer and the flying insects, creepy crawlies, and slithering creatures are in abundance. The ones I want to save are the ones that are our garden guardians.

The Good Guys

Bees We’ve all heard about the Colony Collapse Disorder affecting honey bees worldwide and the importance of protecting our all bees. Don’t confuse honey bees with carnivorous yellowjackets. Bees, bumble bees, and yellowjackets are all pollinators yet honey bees and bumble bees don’t attack humans unless they are stepped on, slapped, swatted, or threatened. They are gathering pollen and the honey bees are making honey while keeping our fruit, flowers, and vegetables reproducing.

Lady Beetles There are over 450 species of ladybugs in the United States and they are voracious consumers of aphids, caterpillars, lace bugs, mealybugs, scale, whiteflies, and mites. Lady beetles are perhaps the most beloved of all insects and even though you can purchase them for your garden, they will fly away when their food level declines. An adult will eat over 5,000 aphids in her lifetime.

Lizards Don’t be afraid of these garden helpers. Lizards are carnivores, not plant-eaters. You are fortunate if you have lizards in your yard. They eat beetles, ants, wasps, aphids, and grasshoppers. They like to bask in the sun and also shelter under rocks or in the mulch. Predators to lizards include cats, snakes, and birds.

Frogs Both frogs are toads are amphibians living on both land and in water. They need moisture to survive and prey upon snails, slugs, and other insects. However, if they fall into a swimming pool without a way to escape, they will drown. In one summer, a single toad may devour over 10,000 pests. Some species will eat mosquito larvae. Like our lizard friends, pets, birds, and snakes enjoy them as a meal. Enjoy their choral music at dusk.

Spiders Fear of spiders is one of the most common phobias even though most spiders do not bite humans. The two biting spiders with venom that can be fatal to humans are the black widow and the brown recluse. Spiders are not insects. Spiders are arthropods as they have eight legs. As happy hunters, they are excellent garden pest control managers, actually considered to be the most beneficial and efficient insect eradicator in our landscapes. When you see a spider web, admire its delicate intricacy. Don’t destroy it. Inside your home, spiders are helping eradicate more invasive bugs. Spiders don’t carry diseases like mosquitoes or ticks.

To keep the good guys attracted to our landscapes, eliminate pesticides, insecticides, and chemicals. Companion planting with a diversity of species will provide a variety of stalking and dining options. Offer shelters of mulch, rocks, small branches, and a water source.

The Bad Guys

Mosquitoes Mosquito bites cause puffy red bumps that can itch for a week. Worse, mosquitoes are vectors for West Nile Virus that they transmit to humans. Empty any standing water around your garden and punch drainage holes in containers. Change birdbaths daily or add a re-circulating pump. If you have a pool or hot tub, keep it effectively chlorinated. Check for leaky faucets. It only takes a few days for larvae to mature. Vector Control is available at no charge to add mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) to your pond water.

Yellowjackets Although yellowjackets do help with pollination, they are scavengers for meat and sugary food, disrupting picnics, summer outdoor activities, and barbecues. Never squash a yellowjacket. When crushed they emit a chemical that calls to other yellowjackets to attack. They build nests in abandoned burrows, in eaves, and bushes. Because their sting is so potent and painful, if you find a nest, call Vector Control for eradication.

Ticks Lyme disease is one of the fastest-growing epidemics with over 300,000 diagnoses occurring annually in the United States. Summer is the most likely time to be bitten by a tiny deer tick. Ticks are parasites that feed on blood. They live in brush piles, leaf litter, lawns, tree stumps, ground cover, and stone or brick walls. They even have been found on picnic tables and benches. It’s important to wear tick repellent clothing when outside and after being outdoors, conduct a full body check, take a shower, and put your clothes in a hot dryer for thirty minutes to kill any ticks, then wash your clothes. (I know, it seems weird to dry first, then wash, but the heat of the dryer kills the ticks) Check your pets. Ticks can be hard to find and can linger in your hair, clothing, or pet fur. If you find a tick, don’t twist it or turn it. Use sanitized pointed tweezers to grab the tick and pull it straight out. Wash the bite, apply antiseptic, save the tick for identification, and seek medical attention.

The “bad guys” are on my ‘danger watch out” list. I’ve had three trips already to either urgent care or the emergency room with ticks lodged in my neck that required surgery to remove. Mosquitoes are my nemesis inflicting gigantic, itching bites with bumps that last for two weeks or more. In the last year, I’ve stumbled upon three yellowjacket nests, suffering multiple stings on my hand and arms with swelling that abated after a week.

The “good guys” I’ll continue to rescue as they are my garden “watchdogs” along with the numerous birds and hummingbirds that thankfully aren’t nose-diving!

What’s bugging you?

Cynthia Brian’s Gardening Guide for August

CONTACT Vector Control for Contra Costa County at 925-685-9301for assistance with mosquitoes, rats, skunks, and yellowjackets. PROTECT yourself with permethrin-treated clothing and bug repellents. I have found relief with Insect Shield. www.insectshield.com. PLAN a trip to a national park. Upcoming days for FREE admittance are August 25 and September 28. https://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm. Seniors can buy a lifetime entry pass for $80. TAKE advantage of 20% discount on new introductions from Renee’s Garden Seeds through 8/18/19 with checkout code NEW20. http://ow.ly/eYZE50uBDE5. MARK your calendar for The National Heirloom Exposition happening at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds September 10-12. http://www.TheHeirloomExpo.com.

FILL a saucer with water to set in your garden for the butterflies, bees, lizards, and other small creatures. In the hot weather, they need to hydrate and a shallow saucer will allow them to drink without drowning. PRUNE low hanging branches on redwoods, pines, cedars, and other trees as fire protection maintenance. CUT a branch with a magnolia bloom for a vase. The huge white blossoms are spectacular and last several days while the leaves stay green for two weeks. CAUTION when walking or playing on lawns planted with clover. Honeybees may be feeding. CELEBRATE the Moraga Pear and Wine Festival with Be the Star You Are!® non-profit and Lamorinda Weekly on Saturday, September 28th. Details at https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org/eventsCONTINUE deadheading spent blossoms on roses and other perennials. EAT fresh fruit as it ripens and pick up any fruit that falls on the ground to discourage a scourge of rodents. RELAX on your patio to savor the summer sky.

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing. Happy Summer!

See photos at https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1312/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Whats-bugging-you.html

  Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, raised in the vineyards of Napa County, is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3. Tune into Cynthia’s Radio show and order her books at www.StarStyleRadio.com. Buy a copy of her new books, Growing with the Goddess Gardener and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store.

Hire Cynthia for projects, consults, and lectures. Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com

www.GoddessGardener.com

  picnics, pools, parties, #bugs, #insects, #lizards, #bees, #pest, #yellowjackets, dining outside, summer, patios,#gardening, #cynthiabrian, #starstyle, #goddessGardener, #growingwiththegoddessgardener, #lamorindaweekly

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

 Editor’s Note: Another outstanding entry from one of our regular and trusted contributors to The Prepper Journal. And, as always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award when the article is posted AND win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.

     There’s a lot to buy on the path to preparedness and self-sufficiency, and garden supplies are no different. Happily, there are a few things that can be had for free or very inexpensively that can make a big impact on garden costs. Here’s a handful we can get as we drive around during our normal daily lives.

     Tea & Coffee Grounds – Freebie – I won’t belabor this one; it’s on every garden tip list. Nutrients, moisture retention and drainage, aeration – they’re enormous garden boosts, and can be added right to the top of soil or mulch, or can be tilled in.

I mention them because hotels that provide coffee in a lobby are almost never on the lists with coffee shops and McD’s. They can be really excellent places to source a fair number of grounds early in the day as we head to work and the other places are too swamped to hook us up.

Citrus – Freebie/Cheapie – If you’re using lemons or limes or nom-noming oranges or grapefruit, stick the peels in the freezer. We can also dehydrate the fruit or peels, and store them in canning jars or Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.

When aphids show up, brew a tea (1 part citrus peels and juiced wedges to 3 parts water, 15-20 minutes simmer, let cool, strain) and spray it on the plants and buggaboos, making sure to hit the undersides of leaves and all the nooks and crannies. It won’t harm the plants, but it will wipe out the aphids.

If you know somebody who works at a bar or a restaurant, and you’re not afraid of people germs, they can be an additional source for citrus wedges and rinds.

       Cardboard – Freebie –  Cardboard has a number of applications in our lives, from doing a cover-expose-repeat kill on lawns to make it easier to break ground for a garden, to creating weed exclusions at the bottom of beds or on the surface. We can also make patches and light blocks for windows out of it, use it as a table cover for messy tasks (it won’t stick and lift the way paper towel and newspapers will) and rip it up to add to compost or till into soil as a moisture sink before we bed down the garden.

Thick, large boxes are readily available from moving companies (they dispose of boxes after they unpack people) and from new-appliance sellers. Smaller, sturdy boxes ideal for smaller spaces (or stashing goodies) can be had from liquor stores and alcohol-wine merchandisers. The green-sign dollar stores are also a good source, with few of their merchandisers retaining their boxes the way supermarkets do, and no contracts for recycling the way Walmart has.

       Curbside Pickups – Freebie/Cheapie – There are numerous sites that allow people to list free items. We can also hit condos and apartments a day or two after phone books are delivered (very few people take them, so snag 1-3 out of each big stack) and contact local handyman and contractors who do windows to grab up some mesh for pest exclusions and shade for cold crops, and glass for cold frames.

Also check out yard sale listings. After the sales, there are regularly piles of things added to the trash pickup, or, you can hit up the owners toward the end or just after “closing” on the last day. They’re regularly willing to make deals at that point.

While it’s a way to get all kinds of things for preparedness, as you drive past, keep the garden in mind.

Laundry bags, sheer curtains, and afghans can create exclusions for pesky moths and caterpillars, and some will limit or prevent squash bugs. Shelving units, dressers and drawers, cracked or lidless totes, and filing cabinets and drawers are all potential planters and water collection. Dark fabrics can be used to help warm soil. Bedframes, shelves, chairs, table legs, and headboards become trellis frames, posts or fencing for beds, and racks to vertically stack water catchment systems.

Spent Hops – Freebie – Hops is like coffee grounds for beer brewers; they get rid of it after it leaches its goodness into the lovely nectar of the gods. Their waste is our gain. Hops can be tilled in just as they come from the brewer, usually not more than a cup per square yard. Hops are acidic (pH 4.8), which makes it a great amendment for most veggies and soft fruits, and can help counter the alkaline conditions that come from extended wood mulch gardening techniques.

As an additive, hops also has the advantage of being a moisture sink, just like hair, hides, and coffee grounds. It can serve the same purpose as a mulch, increasing the moisture that stays available to plants longer than any of the other common mulches.

Forums to track down a nearby home brewer and local micro-breweries are the most likely sources for most of us.

There is one sad note: Hops smell like a bar floor with cheap lemon cleaner undertones. It’s not something I’d stick around windows or under the hammock, but it doesn’t bother me out in the gardens and orchards.

   Pine – Freebie or Cheapie – Pine needles/straw is another mulch that can help lower pH or maintain the acidic pH in our gardens. If we want to make separating mulch covers easier or mix it into a chip-mulch bed, we might want to run over it with a mower to make smaller lengths and separate the needles from the fascicle sheath (the woody tube bit that holds groups of needles together).

Small-chip pine bark mulch can give us the same acidity-raising benefits, and like pine straw, can be used as our sole mulch or can be mixed into other wood-chip mulches or clipped grass mulch.

Pine straw can usually be had for free, although we may have to drive around to find it. Try to find it from yards and private property, not parks. We can buy it if we really want to, in which case it should already be trimmed and it should be totally weed free.

   Glean fields – Freebie –  Farm fields are rarely harvested “clean” – there’s usually leftovers. There are also imperfect fruits that are left in place by hand-pickers or piled up in on-the-farm sorting areas. Farmers also sometimes abandon a crop for various reasons.

While some of them are restricted due to liabilities, many will let you come out and pick over fields. We usually have to make those contacts ahead of time, and may be best served asking if the farmer wants us to call and remind them at harvest time, but sometimes we can see harvesting taking place as we drive around, and can just make contact then.

While it’s usually going to be a hybrid, sometimes we can find OP seed doing so. Most of the time, though, all we’re doing is either boosting our own produce or collecting some animal feed.

     Junior College Starts – Freebie – Find out who teaches the local horticulture and botany classes, look up when the semesters end, and tag the instructors to find out if there are any leftover veggie starts or fruit or rose cuttings a week or two out. Sometimes (regularly) students don’t take them all at the end of class. A lot of us are happy to give them away if you’re swinging by.

Another excellent resource is the aquaculture instructor(s). Most will either shut down or severely cut down on population for at least one of the summer semesters, and some restart the systems 2-3 times a year for different fish. The water and the fish grunge left over at the end of the semester or year is an excellent garden additive, and I haven’t run into one yet that won’t let me fill a few buckets. Look at me like I’m crazy, but let me have my buckets.

Skip-It’s

There are a ton of freebie-cheapie “fixes” for the garden. Some work. Some … don’t. Here’s a few I’m not a huge fan of.

– Baking Soda-Vinegar pH test – If your soil has a serious reaction to either of these, you have a major problem. While some veggies and fruits like it significantly acidic or alkaline, most actually like it in between 5.8 and 7.0. Baking soda and vinegar don’t react much in near-neutral conditions, so all you’re going to know is that you’re near-neutral, or have a few bubbles that tell you a little acidic or a little alkaline. Those bubbles might also be coming from tap water, contaminants on tools, and soap residue left in containers.

Nab some pink-blue litmus strips at $3-$10/100 instead.

They give you the same acid-alkaline readings, and with many, you can learn to estimate the pH range by how quickly and strongly they change color. You can also use them to test the acidity of foods before canning to make sure it’s safe to water bath (many of our foods that were formerly WBC’d have lost acidity along the way).

         – Hair as pest deterrents – Hair is full of nitrogen and micronutrients, so it’s not a waste to toss those shavings and trimmings in the garden directly or into compost, but I’ve yet to see it actually repel rodents or deer. Peeing has its proponents as well, and you can buy zoo/carnivore poo, but those (and things like Zest, Irish Spring, citrus peels, hot pepper sauce and powder, and most others) have to be reapplied and may not work.

It’s not free, but the solar-run predator eyes, garden terriers doing the jobs they were originally intended for, owl nesting, and things like double-fenced chicken runs are far, far more effective in the long run. Diggers really just require predators and traps, or buried fencing.

– Eggshells as slug barriers – Save the eggshells (and beet tops – they accumulate calcium) for planting with your tomatoes to prevent blossom end rot. You need sharp fragments that form a solid wall at least an inch thick and an inch tall for slugs. Even so, the eggshells will develop a film that allows slugs to crawl over them later.

Instead, try a barrier of Epsom salt or cornmeal (both need replaced frequently), or ripped soda can collars (be careful – it’s the sharp edges that deter the slugs). Beer wells work, but beer is precious. Brewer’s mash in water also attracts and then drowns them.

You can also lay out boards. They’ll hide under them as day breaks, then you can carry the board to birds (or the trash can or choice of death) and over time your slug and snail population will drop enough to no longer be an issue.

   Garden Drive-By’s

There are many similar free or low-cost items we can pick up as we drive around to boost our gardens – and fallacies that people waste precious time on.

There are things like buckets and gallon+ condiment containers we can source from supermarkets, caterers, and restaurants, we can go dumpster diving for produce at some restaurants and groceries, but the days of having them hand us blemished produce are largely over, even for livestock. We can usually source materials to make toad, owl, swallow and bat houses to lower our insect loads, and we can dip up buckets of pond scum and algae (it’s a super boost to compost and garden soil), but I’ve yet to find a store, homeowner, restaurant or school that will give me their out-of-date milk to boost calcium in the soil.

Those lists could go on forever. Hopefully these introduce some less-known resources we can snag for our gardens as we drive around, or will save us from wasting time on some of the freebie-cheapie tips that get passed around so often.

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