Sometimes a friendship takes time to develop. I planted sawtooth sunflowers in my front yard years ago. They proved to be an aggressive neighbor and have occupied swaths of the front and back yards. I really was upset with myself until I noticed three years ago, the goldfinches and some other birds swarmed the seeds. Last year, dozens of bumblebees spent much of August and mid-September on the blooms. This year, I've decided the sawtooth sunflowers are the best thing since ice cream and lots of pollinators agree. Joining the bumblebees are a host of smaller native bees and flies and some appropriately colored beetles. By the way, whoever came up with phrase "birds and bees" had not spent enough time watching beetles. If you had to pick an animal to illustrate copulation and reproduction, these beetles would be the perfect choice.
The double-banded scoliid wasp on Topf’s sawtooth sunflowers. Photo by Sally Probasco
See the photo to the right for the unexpected star of the sunflower show. The other day I noticed and Sally was able to photograph this strikingly handsome and slightly ominous looking insect. Meet the double-banded scoliid wasp (remember the two i's if you use the word in Scrabble). This is a solitary wasp about which not that much is known. They're fairly effective pollinators and mercifully not aggressive. Their claim to fame is their predation, tied to their reproduction, of beetle grubs in the soil. Japanese Beetle grubs are among their targets. I noticed far fewer of those beetles among my raspberries this spring so perhaps I owe the double-banded scoliid wasp thanks. So I now count sawtooth sunflowers and double-banded scoliid wasps among my new friends.
The old friend is our beloved monarch butterfly and I'm worried. Besides international scientists classifying the monarch as endangered, I'm just not seeing them this summer. In my yard with heaps of milkweed and many nectar producing flowers, I've seen two. Hardly any on the prairies I've visited this summer, including only a few at Goose Pond when I helped collect seeds on Monday. In 10 days or so, Madison Audubon will begin its monarch tagging for those butterflies that will migrate south. I hope the population of that migratory flight is robust.
Monarchs nectar on New England Asters at Goose Pond Sanctuary in a prairie that has been restored with help from volunteers. Video by Brenna Marsicek / Madison Audubon
There is a connection between Madison Audubon’s seed collecting efforts and the monarchs. About the best help we can provide monarchs is more top quality habitat. Madison Audubon has dozens of acres we can convert from row crops to prairie and prime monarch habitat. Our seed collecting is essential to those conversions. We'd deeply appreciate any time you can volunteer toward seed collecting. And it's really fun.
But watch for the oh, oh—a relative newcomer who will not be my or anyone else's friend.
Returning from a trout fishing trip on an Iowa County stream, I felt a telltale scuttling along my hand and arm. Drat, a tick. Not, alas, the standard issue wood tick or even a deer tick, but a LONE STAR TICK. These are still relatively rare in southern Wisconsin but keep an eye out for them. They are large and fast for ticks. Females have a noticeable white spot on their backs.
They can transmit several unpleasant and sometimes dangerous diseases and the allergy to red meat. They don't have to stay attached to you for their bite to transmit those pathogens.
I emailed a warning about these ticks to some DNR field biologists who work in that general area. One responded immediately that her husband and she had found one of those ticks earlier in the summer. So be careful out there.
Take care,
Topf Wells, Madison Audubon advocacy committee chair
Cover photo by Peter Gorman
