Adult's Guide to Finding Monarch Caterpillars

Children are particularly adept at hunting for and finding caterpillars. I think this is so, because children are lower to the ground and their innate sense of curiosity has yet to be replaced with a mundane practicality that comes with age. Given enough time on their hands and space to roam, I believe that every child becomes a scientist; and sometimes to the exhaustion of their adults.

For the rest of us bigger, less flexible, impatient (and yes perhaps there are a few wonderless) humans among us, I thought I would help us along by assembling a cheat. Who has time for experiential learning after all when there are important adult things to do. I'm kidding of course, for what else could be more important than getting out there and discovering all that Vernon has to offer!

1) Find milkweed plants.

2) Examine leaves for nibbles.

3) Look for poop (yes poop).

4) You may find milk indicating that the plant has been recently gnawed upon.

5) You have found your plant! Start turning over leaves.

Milkweed Tussock Moth

6) Be brave and keep trying!

7) Nice try, but Monarch caterpillars have antenna on the front and tentacles on the back. Additionally, Monarch caterpillars have a black, white and yellow pattern. Keep looking!

Fall Webworm Moth

8) Borrow your neighbor's children and pay them to find one for you,

or

9) Steal your daughter's photograph that she texted to you the night before.

Photo credit- Helen Manning of Wells ME

10) Pour yourself a tall refreshing glass of iced tea, Google "Monarch Butterfly caterpillars" and pat yourself on the back for discovering what the saying "work smart not hard" means. - Norma Manning

Resource: Caterpillars-- identification guide-- Discover Life

Focused on Pollinators

I thought that it would be nice to spend an hour photographing insect pollinators in my yard and then posting my favorites. So here they are for your enjoyment. -Norma Manning

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail

Pollen on the pollenator

Size comparison of two bees

Monarch and bee on same bloom

Cabbage White

One living and one dead

Of Compost and Skunks

"Do you actually use compost? Because in Brattleboro they pick it up." Odd as it may seem, I never exactly know how to answer these sorts of questions that appear to be more comment than question. I was working to the best of my limited ability to construct out of scrap lumber a compost bin, and like the one worker shoveling out a hole with three more leaning on their shovels giving out advice from above, I thought better of offering a response that invited more observations. On the one hand, I have been composting for 29 years and on the other I wasn't building a new bin for compost per say but for the family of skunks that found my all you can eat buffet. So I stopped hammering and told him that there was nothing better for plants and soil than compost.

I began composting plant material out of necessity because in Hinsdale, they don't so much as have soil as they do beach sand as far down as one can dig a hole. Wayne wasn't too keen on paying money for bags of dirt so compost seemed a perfect compromise.  I dug a shallow depression and stacked discarded cinder blocks around it. Occasionally we would find bobcat tracks in the snow nearby; but for the most part the system served our garden well.  When we moved into a neighborhood in Vernon, we decided that we should clean up our act and purchased a designated composting bin. The bin was soon damaged by plastic gnawing critters and so was retired in short order. We replaced the bin with a chain link dog kennel and a section of privacy fence to hide it from view. I don't mind sharing a bit of compost with a passing bunny, squirrel or jay, so this "system" has been in place ever since.

A few things have changed with composting over the years; composting is now mandatory in VT, I have added non recyclable paper to the mix, and skunks have made an appearance. I'm not sure what took them so long, perhaps they were too busy spraying our dogs under the deck to notice the compost or maybe its been a dry difficult summer for food. I turned my compost and put water to it in the morning and by that evening we had four skunks rummaging in and around the fence. Don't get me wrong, I love skunks. I do my best to avoid disturbing their activities and in turn they rid my lawn of grubs and other pests. The problem with having multiple skunks drawn to a compost pile is that skunks carry among other things, rabies and distemper. Luring skunks into close proximity of each other spreads disease more quickly among the population.  The situation needed remediation and social distancing skunks donning masks didn't seem plausible.

Trying to outsmart skunks is easier said than done. I opened my front curtains one morning to find a skunk staring at me from my cherry tree. After a few seconds, the skunk meandered down the trunk head first. My daughter informed me that skunks will climb trees to eat eggs and birds from the nest. Installing a lid is something to consider for my new bin. The skunks within my fence however, had dug under it to gain access. My bin needs to have a floor. As the old saying goes where the head fits the rest follows and skunks are no exception to this rule. Now I'm not about to measure the size of a skunk's head so I have to guess on the gap between boards. Skunks are members of the weasel family. They have sharp claws and chewing teeth so I need to make it resistant to that. Skunks are not terribly picky about their habitat, (they wren't at all concerned with my getting up close and taking their picture for this blog) and they will happily live miles away from a water source. It seems that the location of the bin is not a factor with the exception of the fact that a skunk can spray up to ten feet so the bin must be out of reach our dogs. Finally, skunks are omnivores, they eat practically everything that I compost and then some. I'm still working on a plan to convince skunks that  beetles are better than bread. Since that's not likely to actually work, I am working on building Fort Knox in my driveway. - Norma Manning

Resources:
Agency of Natural Resources Department of Environmental Conservation, Food Scraps
Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, Safe Composting in Bear Country
Scientific American, Trashing Gardens: Is there a way to use compost without attracting unwanted critters? 

A Striped skunk digging in compost

Skunk digging to get into the compost

A quick warning - Tail up!

Corn cob rests on a skunk that is digging in the compost

My new compost bin, a work in progress

Button Bush is a Honey Bush

 Button bush also known as Button Willow are in bloom at Lily pond. These native shrubs are commonly between six and twelve feet tall at maturity; but they can grow to be a small tree at thirty feet in warmer zones. At Lily pond they are on the smaller end of the height range.  They like their feet wet and so are at home in swamps, bogs, lowlands and along the edges of lakes ponds and streams. If you come across Button bush in your wanderings, you are most probably in a wetland area.  While their  leaves are poisonous and the bark bitter, they are known as a honey bush. Their blossoms contain generous amounts of very sweet nectar and pollen.  They are of particular value to honeybees as they bloom for an extended period of time when there is a relative shortage of other nectar producing plants.  I suspect that it is no coincidence that many of our cherished butterflies make their appearance here in Vernon when the Button bush is in bloom. In addition to our insect pollinators benefiting from its abundant pollen and nectar, shorebirds and waterfowl feed on Button bush seeds that ripen in the fall and persist into the winter months.  -Norma Manning
Sources:
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Bee Culture Eastern Apicultural Society

Close up of the Button Bush blossom

Button Bush leaf, stem and blossom

Button Bush in an area that is often flooded at Lily pond

Button Bush at the eastern edge of Lily pond

Bullhead Pond-lily

Bullhead Pond-lily (yellow) at Lily Pond

White Water-lily; Bon Appetit!

It seems that Vernon has many native plants with traditional uses from medicinal, to edible, to cleaning pollutants from soil and water, to water runoff control, to uses for shelter and textiles... I have written about cattails, milkweed, sumac, witch hazel, dandelions and ditch flowers.  It has gotten so that each time before I post about a native, I feel compelled to search how it is or has been traditionally used. When I stopped by Lily pond to photograph lily pads however, I did so purely to capture the pond's namesake in bloom. But why stop there?

www.survival-mannual.com gives directions on how to make a decotion from lily pad rhizomes that can be used as a disinfectant and to treat anything from: pain, congestion, dysentery and symptoms of IBS.  They also claim that a decotion made from the flower is effective in, "reducing sexual desire."  Who knew that the solution to midnight rendezvous at the pond may actually grow in the pond? Of course this is just one periodical's claim and I have not confirmed its accuracy.

WebMD does have information on uses for the American White Water Lily and states that it contains chemicals called tannins that may aid in some of the above mentioned conditions; but cautions that "there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses." I do not recommend that my readers consume foraged plants without first discussing it with their doctor.

Vermont Center for Ecostudies has an excellent description of the value of lily pads to several insects for food and reproduction.  This article also discusses how sun on a lily pad's leaf, creates a pressure gradient that transports two liters of oxygen per day down to its rhizome at the bottom of the pond. Clearly this is an amazing plant! Some online gardening sites also state that adding lily pads to your pond creates shade that reduces algae growth by keeping the water cooler. They also claim that the plants remove excess nutrients from the water which also reduces algae growth. Conversely, there are numerous sites that discuss how to remove lily pads from ponds. Be that as it may, Lily pond is a VT State Class 2 designated pond and as such requires permits to make any changes to it.

There certainly seems to be quite a few reasons to embrace the lily pads at Lily pond; but admittedly my favorite reason is that in my opinion, they are beautiful and I think that Claude Monet would agree. - Norma Manning

White Water-lily

Lily Pads at Lily Pond

Lily Pond

Canada Geese among water-lily

White Water-lily

Lily Pond

Fireworks All Season Long

Commence eye rolling if you are an expert on shrubs as I am about to take up in the same instance two completely unrelated natives and somehow figure out how to tie them in together. My inspiration for doing so is nothing more than both the Staghorn sumac and the American witch-hazel caught my eye this week. The witch-hazel is growing near the end of my driveway (though typically found in the shady under story) and the sumac is growing on the edge of a sunny hay field here in Vernon.

On the Fourth of July, we  attended a fireworks display at my mom's park where the intensity of the display was such that it exhausted my senses.  The number and magnitude of bursting lights made it nearly impossible to enjoy each individual firework and I was somewhat relieved when the grand finale was over.  Sometimes I feel that same way in the spring when all of the yards in Vernon are ablaze with crabapple, forsythia, purple lilacs and rhododendrons. Neighborhoods are so saturated with color that the cooling peace of the long white winter can feel desirable.  The trouble with gardening in southern Vermont is that after the spring rainbows are overtaken by the heat of summer all of the colors fade into green lawns and leaves. Call me picky; but this is the time of the year that I often find myself at a nursery in search of  shrubs that bloom when most people are fleeing their yards for cool brooks and lakes.

It was on a hot day much like today that I selected my witch hazel shrub for its label which stated that it is the last shrub to bloom in the fall - how intriguing! I have not been disappointed with its celebratory, wrinkly, ribbon like blooms that open after most of its leaves have dropped. How wonderful that I could begin my growing season with yellow forsythia and end it with yellow witch hazel! Since its  planting, I haven't had to give the shrub much thought as it is native and hardy, so it was odd that I happened to wander over to it and found that for the first time it had seed pods. I already  knew that witch hazel is traditionally used for making astringent and treating various skin irritations and I  found many sites including Web MD, that list additional medicinal uses for it. I am including a link that shows how to prepare an indigenous tea made from its bark, twigs and leaves.  But it was when I was researching its exploding seeds (yes I said exploding) that I learned a bit of history on a US Forest Service site. It seems that witch hazel got its name from Europeans who observed the indigenous peoples of our area using the shrub's twigs as divining rods. So if your well ever gives out, please feel free to take a twig from my shrub to help you find underground water.

 A shrub stopped me in my tracks while on my morning walk today.  Though I find its leaves to be enchanting, almost fairy like, dancing on warm gentle breezes, it wasn't its graceful form that caught my eye. Who could possibly ignore the flaming red, torch like berry clusters at the tips of the Staghorn sumac? It seems this summer is slipping past faster than I had thought and its vibrancy shocked me into counting the remaining days until the start of the school year. Thirty days and some change to be exact. I have always loved this native; but I have kept it at a distance because it makes me itch. I never knew why I reacted to it until our school's artist in residence Judy Dow took our class on a walk. Ms. Dow mentioned that sumac is in the cashew family and that a tea could be made out of the fruit that tastes like lemonade. Here is the lemonade tea recipe  which when prepared correctly contains vitamin C.  I have nut allergies so it is probably a good thing that I have never tried it! Interestingly, I found that like witch hazel, sumac can also be used to make traditional treatments like astringents. Here is a resource that lists some of the Native American uses for sumac. A quick internet search brought up more uses than I have room for here, so I encourage you to explore.

So what do these two seemingly different shrubs have in common? Though they are both found growing in very different sites and they really look nothing alike, in my estimation they provide us with a native celebration of color, food and tradition during the season of green.

Fuzz covered red berries on Staghorn sumac

American witch hazel seed pods explode shooting seeds 30 feet away from the shrub

Staghorn sumac leaf

American witch hazel leaf

Staghorn sumac twig

American witch hazel twig

Disclaimer: I am not a healer of any stretch of the imagination. Any medication can be toxic even natural forms rendered from plants, shrubs, flowers and trees. Please do not consume witch hazel or sumac without first checking with your doctor. However, do enjoy their festive displays of colors after the spring blooms have faded. - Norma Manning