Why try?

Identification of various insects and spontaneously appearing plants can be tricky.   I've complained written here often, bemoaning hours of time spent fruitlessly trying to match a photo taken to images online, hoping to establish the correct name of something.

Why?  Why even bother?  Why not just throw up my hands, assign my own names to everything and call it a day?

Part of the answer is that I am (extremely) stubborn.  Once I begin a search for a name, if I'm not rapidly rewarded with what I feel are reasonably accurate results my efforts become a Quest.  The more time I spend not finding what I am looking for, the more determined I become to find it.  (see "Top Management Mistake:Throwing good money after bad")...

Most of the rest of that "what IS it!?" energy comes from the fact we are trying to take a no-kill approach here.  If a plant appears that we didn't plant, we usually accept it as a gracious gift until it is proven otherwise.   Several plants others consider weeds, we prefer to regard as native ground covers.

To properly identify a plant I typically rely upon the LBJ Wildflower Center's Native Plant Database, but I also keep an eye out on local garden blogs. Common things being common, most if not all the plants I run across are not strangers to others in my area.  Just because I don't know what something is, rarely means somebody more experienced in my area does not.  And potentially, somebody else in my area is also wanting to know.

Recently I experienced a small frisson of recognition while reading a post on Sheryl Smith-Rodger's wonderful "Window on a Texas Wildscape" blog.  She was updating readers on the watchful-waiting attitude she'd taken towards a horseweed, or mane's tail weed, aka Conyza canadensis.  Her plant was tall, and getting taller.  She had decided to let it grow until it bloomed and then she planned to take it out of the ground to prevent its spread from seed.

Please understand Ms. Smith-Rodgers is a certified master naturalist and quite a skilled gardener.  I am neither, but I do share a great deal of curiosity about the world around me, so it was a bit of a thrill to realize that the mystery plant I'd been observing in one of our front beds is the very same plant she'd written about.

The Mystery Plant appears center stage, a bit spindly with the tiniest of blossoms up top.

So, not to steal any thunder, but Sheryl, here are those blooms we've been waiting for.  Such as they are.

I nearly missed the opened flowers, mistakenly thinking the blossoms might fan further out in wider fashion.  They never did, and the appearance of the first seed ball let me know it was "time!" to pull the plant.

And you'll have to forgive me - I didn't get a photo of the seed ball because I reflexively trapped and disposed of it safely before I thought of recording its appearance.  Imagine a miniscule dandelion seed head. That's pretty close. Rather than risk seed dispersing while I waited for a photo, I pulled the plant.

Take a closer look at the blooms to the right and left of center in this frame.  Those are opened blooms.  Easy to miss.

Update:  The bloom stalks I cut and put in a vase in my kitchen window (I think they're pretty) have yielded up a seed head.  Here for posterity...the seed head of Conyza canadensis.

Bloomed and seeded and gone.  Bye-bye horseweed!  I enjoyed your tall slender stalks while they were safe to keep around.  Next time (and place) you appear I'll know just what to expect.

By similar token, when a new (to us) creature appears in our midst, we'd rather find out about it before deciding the appropriate measure to take (if any). Co-exist, relocate, or potentially exterminate, as stewards we try to establish the wisest course. Those decisions all require accurate information.

Supporting that same no-kill approach with insects and arachnids drives me to other blogs and sites established to help amateurs make good choices. Toxicity, aggression, tendency to overrun a biome, we strongly believe all these factors must be taken into consideration before doing anything other than admiring these drop-in time-share partners.

Just yesterday my daughter and I were wrapping up a lovely visit and a swim, when I noticed a nearly 3 inch long spider sitting in the skimmer basket opening.  I wasn't really worried about it, but we do have other local family (including canines) who might take issue over sharing the water with such a large arachnid.

Does it swim?  Does it bite?  Is it aggressive?  I watched for a while and it seemed to be hanging there, waiting for prey.  I knew I needed more information to convince everyone involved it would be safe to let it stay there undisturbed.

I tried (and TRIED! I promise!) to make some definitive identification, but to no avail.  Finally I sent the image in to What's That Bug and asked for their weigh-in.  Soon I had my answer.  It is their opinion the Mystery Spider of August 2015 is Dolomedes triton, also known as a six-spotted fishing spider.

Probably a female, she might stay there by the pool and hunt until she's ready to lay eggs, at which point she'll move out into the vegetation, spin a nursery web, and then stay on guard there, protecting her babies.

I read these water bug hunters might dive to 7-8 inches and grab a plant to hide if frightened, but they don't live in the water and they don't really swim per se.  No need to stress, no need to relocate, and most definitely no need to exterminate her.  We can safely admire her and swim securely knowing she's keeping the water's surface patrolled for other bugs we might not be so happy with in close quarters.

So thank goodness for other bloggers and interweb identification helpers. They all make this attempt of ours to peacefully co-exist a lot easier to support with some peace of mind.

Do you ever struggle with identification?  If you aren't surrounded by knowledgeable gardening neighbors, here are a few of the other sites I rely upon frequently.

Bug Guide
     The experts there recently helped me pinpoint what to this beauty is called:  Melipotis indomita

Valerie's Austin Bug Collection
    I don't have a recent story utilizing this website, but I turn here frequently as a first step.  When searching out identities of the locals, it never hurts to limit the starting point to the usual suspects for your locale.  Valerie has done most of that work for Austin and the surrounding area.  (Thank you, Valerie!).

For those of us living in the Lone Star State, there are a whole host of other "fill-in-the-bug type here" of Your County or "Birds of Texas" type sites to consult.  Your results will vary depending on where you live, and occasionally on how prevalent agriculture is in your neck of the woods.

Not surprisingly, there's a wealth of information to be had from the extension agencies serving farmers and ranchers.  Granted, a lot of that information includes data on eradication and/or control, but armed with the facts, you can feel more secure in making your own choices about how to respond to the various surprise appearances life delivers into your yard or garden.

There you have it.  Now you know.  I am curious, stubborn, and I am trying (hard!) to co-exist peaceably with everything and everybody Momma Nature throws our way.   What's important about all those names?  Oh, only everything...

Ask not for whom the soap suds...

it suds for thee.

They always start out innocently enough, my obsessions.  I see a butterfly, it is gorgeous. Watching it makes me stop whatever I was doing.  Later I want to share what I saw but it is clumsy communicating deeply moving experiences when your descriptive language is limited by ignorance.  Eloquence and inaccuracy are uneasy partners at best.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail/Papilio glaucus

I was raised to look things up when I had questions I could not answer, so I attempt to find out what sort of butterfly I saw.  I find images of several butterflies that look similar but none are precise matches for what I remember seeing.  I find images of many more butterflies that bear little resemblance but are still fascinating to read about.

Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta

Next time I go out to the garden I bring my camera along.  I see another butterfly, different yet beautiful in its own way, and I drop whatever work I am doing to give chase and try to capture an image.  It is blurry but better than relying on my spotty memory and the image is clear enough at least to lend confidence to my identification efforts.

I go out into the garden just to look some days.  I see more butterflies.  I take my camera out routinely now, and get many images, some of them very pleasing.  I find out some of my butterflies are actually moths.  I wonder if I can get a good photo of a bee, so I try.

Sweat bee/Agapostemon surrounded by Carpet Beetles/Anthrenus lepidus.

Editing my "bee" photos I realize I am getting images involving a lot more variety than I expected.  What are these non-honeybee bees?  Back to the internet.  It is all so fascinating and abruptly I reach a point where I am wondering how difficult could it be to get photos of everything I see crawling, hopping and flying through the garden beds?   Not just butterflies, moths and bees. I want to find out what everything is, I want to know all the names!

Uh oh.  Soldier beetle, probably Cantharis pellucida.

Right about here is where things all got a little dicey.  Now I've become a little better at sussing out what kind of crawly thing it is I just took a photo of.  (A little better...)  Now it all stops being hypothetical and gets personal, fast.

Forest tent caterpillar/Malacosoma disstria

Inevitably, a certain percentage of these critters are turning out to be bad players.  Borers, suckers, stabbers, skeletonizers, they all spell damage if not doom for some plant out there. Some plant out there in my garden beds. Some plant out there in my garden beds that somebody important shared with me, or perhaps some plant that I raised from seed. Some plant out there that I carefully selected, paid for, planted, hand watered, and protected from killing freezes. Some plant out there I am deeply invested in keeping alive.

Carpet beetles (making some area rugs)/Anthrenus lepidus

I struggled briefly with what an appropriate response would look like.  I am using mostly native plants precisely to draw in and support more wildlife.  All these potential pests are just as much wildlife as the butterflies I so admire. Where should I draw the line? Follow the Prime Directive, simply observe and chronicle?  Watch and wait and allow natural systems to find their own balance without my intervention?

Western grapeleaf skeletonizer (Harrisina metallica)

Pffft.  As if.  Once the numbers of non-benefical insects I observe in any given season reaches critical mass I cannot help myself.  I am simply propelled into action.  To me this is nothing more but nothing less than the good guys versus bad guys, the beneficials versus the plunderers. I consider it my job to teach the lesson as often as it is needed: In this garden, under my watch, plunderers never prosper.

Confession: I don't do anything about these dangling from the oaks but I do enjoy watching the birds eat them.

I am against spraying chemicals and have a low gross-out threshhold for smashing bugs with my bare hands.  My solution is to break out an empty tennis ball container, fill it one third of the way up with soapy water and then go out to wreak havoc upon the invaders.  Carpet beetles?  I'm knocking you into the soapy water. Four lined leaf bugs?  Likewise.  Grasshoppers and Leaf footed bugs?  Flea beetles?  Into the soapy Bath of Doom you all go.

This image from last year (Aztec spur throated/Aidemona azteca). Immature nymphs show up later in the season but I've already spotted at least one of the duller brown adults hopping off at my approach.  

Honestly, I take no real pleasure in the process. The tiny bodies in the soapy water are hard for me to look at, so for that very reason I make myself look at what it is that I am doing.  I try very hard not to accidentally soapify beneficial insects, but the truth is there is often a bit of collateral damage.

Occasionally in the process I end up mauling the very blossoms I'm out there trying to protect.  Pleasant or not, I feel this population control response is a necessary part of being a good steward to the plants I've introduced into these spaces.

I can sum up my philosophy best with this borrowed and slightly altered phrase from medicine:  "Better the planter than the pest".

An ongoing ID nemesis - some sort of Skipper, subfamily Hairstreak

I am not proud that I purposefully kill in my garden.  It seems antithetical, incompatible with what I believed gardening, and especially "Gardening for Wildlife" would comprise.  I try to assure I am killing specifically, personally, and accountably.  I try to understand who the visitors are that the plants are receiving, and potentially, why they felt invited in.  Beautiful, or not.

Anolis carolinensis on San Francesco d'Assisi

As native daughter and native plant/wildlife gardening inspiration Ladybird Johnson herself once said, "The nature we are concerned with ultimately is human nature.".

Everybody eats...

Alternately:  Why it is important to know what's what in your garden spaces

Recently, while obsessively stalking sphinx moth caterpillars happily munching on the stems, blooms and even seed heads of my Pink Evening Primrose plants, (Oenothera speciosa) I spotted and grabbed a quick shot of what I thought was some sort of beetle.

"Hey - that's pretty" I thought.  The teeny beetle promptly jumped off the leaf to the ground and disappeared from sight.  I didn't give it another thought.

Later the next day I noticed a second bout of leaf damage to the Four-o-Clocks emerging out front.  The day before I'd looked for insects as a cause but hadn't found any so I'd just pinched off and removed the damaged parts.  This time I not only found more damaged leaves, but I spotted another one of those "pretty" beetles sitting on a leaf nearby.

"Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "this could be a total coincidence. I wonder if the beetles I'm seeing are actually causing the damage to these plants?  Maybe they're just here hunting the true culprits.  I've gotta find out what these are!".

Thus began yet another quest to identify garden UFOs.

In my mind, most bugs turn out to be some kind of beetle. I promptly turned to all the "help identify your beetle" pages I could find.  I scrolled fruitlessly through dozens of photos with nary a match.

Having strained my eyes and my patience both, I turned to the professionals.  I sent in a couple of photos to the helpful folk who run the identification request service at BugGuide.net.  I had my answer in under 20 minutes.  The reason I wasn't finding a match on any of the beetle pages was quite simple.  This guy isn't a beetle.

Meet the Four Lined Plant Bug.

Despite their very attractive appearance, four lined plant bugs are bad players.  While they rarely kill a plant outright, they typically cause considerable unsightly damage. If left to their own devices, four lined plant bugs will set up shop, laying eggs to over winter in the leaf litter around a plant, re-emerging every spring to wreak havoc.

The damage shown below is typical of the aftermath of a four lined plant bug feast.  Their saliva liquidizes plant matter which they suck out, leaving a sunken depression behind or in some cases, a hole right through the leaf.

Yeeikes, right?  I don't kill bugs "just because" but these little fellas are known to keep moving around a garden bed.  In some cases reported nearly every plant was damaged to varying extent.  This means war!

Is it speciesism on my part to allow the sphinx moth larvae to feed unmolested while I am out to eliminate the four lined leaf bugs?  Ummm, sort of?  I justify my decision thusly:Sphinx moth adults don't feed on plants, and their larvae only feed on particular host plants as part of their growth cycle.  The four lined leaf bugs cause damage as nymphs and adults, feeding on multiple plant families interchangeably.

I'm determined to keep these pests and their unsightly damage to the bare minimum but I'm not willing to use chemicals. Unfortunately, I didn't find any reports of natural enemies to deploy as countermeasure. My current plan is to go out several times daily, taking along a small container filled with very soapy water.  Whenever I spot a four lined plant bug on a leaf, rather than trying to capture and squash it with my fingers (super organic but also super gross) I'll tap the stalk of the plant to knock the offending bug into the soapy water where it should promptly sink to the bottom and drown.

My kill count so far is five adults and a couple of nymphs who all met their end with extreme soapjudice.  I doubt I'll be able to locate and eliminate every single one of these damaging bugs, but I hope to keep their population low and the harm they do to the bare minimum.

Hey!  In my buggy obsession I almost forgot.  Happy Earth Day y'all!