Category: wild life

Be Kind To Bees

Posted on by Sue Roth

Look what I found on my walk in the woods. A Pink Lady Slipper.

 

This wildflower needs help from bees. The flower smells sweet, so the bee is tricked into thinking it holds nectar. When the bee gets inside it not only finds no nectar, but it realizes it is trapped. It cannot get back out the way it got in. The bumble bee explores and find a new way to squeeze out of the flower. To do so, it must push past a part of the flower called a stamen. The bee gets out, but it also gets covered with pollen that was on the stamen.

 

If the bumble bee gets tricked again by another Pink Lady's Slipper, it will deliver pollen from the first flower, and get covered with pollen again by the new flower. The bee may do this several times before it figures out to avoid Pink Lady's Slipper. The bumble bee gets nothing out of the relationship. Without the bee's help, the plant could not make new seeds.

Racoons in your Garden?

Posted on by Sue Roth

Here is what the Massachusetts Audubon Society suggests.

RACCOONS AND GARDENS

Raccoons will readily harvest the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor if your garden is unprotected. The only proven deterrent is proper fencing.

fencing2

Place 3 foot wide chicken wire flat on the ground and erect a four or six foot high vertical chicken wire fence on top of that. Place the vertical fence 2 ½ feet in from the outside edge of the horizontal chicken wire (there will be six inches on the side of the vertical fence closest to the garden). Animals tend to start digging at the base of a vertical fence, but this method will make it impossible to get through.

Bright flashing lights strung around the garden or a loud radio placed in the garden have also been known to discourage night raids by raccoons. Eventually, however, the animals will acclimate to these tricks if the prize is tempting enough.

For more information from the Audubon Society, click here

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