If there’s an earthquake, should bugs be part of Gabriola’s search and rescue team? The Telegraph reports on camera carrying insects: Minute cameras and microphones mounted on the backs of beetles will help emergency services find victims trapped or buried underneath rubble. Researchers aim to power a tiny backpack of sensors by scavenging energy from [...]
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Those of you who’ve yearned for a mosquito-free Gabriola might be interested in this NYT article: Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood. [continue] All very strange. Is this a [...]
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You know how sometimes on this blog we get into discussions about identifying various fauna and flora, often something Gabriolan has discovered on jaunts through the woods, or something from the garden? Well, if that ‘something’ happens to be a plant pest, here’s a neat website resource that I just found out about. ID Source [...]
Here’s what’s up in the Gabriola woods today. Wasps here. I wondered about a wasp nest fragment a while ago. Now I’ve found the rest of that nest, and can see that it fell out of a tree when a branch came down. So glad I wasn’t underneath when it fell! Wasps there. Last month [...]
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A couple of years ago I found a whole bunch of Cinnabar moth caterpillars on Gabriola. They were eating the tansy ragwort, and I noticed them in several locations. This year I haven’t seen any of these caterpillars. Have you?
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This handsome creature was lurking on a nasturtium this evening. You wouldn’t happen to know what it is, would you? One of these days maybe I’ll learn to identify all the butterflies and moths on Gabriola.
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We saw this nest fragment in the Gabriola forest today. Who do you think made it? Wasps? Bees? Hornets? And how’d it wind up in the middle of the trail when the rest of the nest is nowhere near?
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An article at The Atlantic talks about a study showing that grazing lands provide critical habitats for wild bees and other pollinators. The research was led by Berkeley environmental sciences professor Dr. Claire Kremen, among the world’s foremost pollinator authorities. The team evaluated the role of wild pollinators, concluding that they are essential to our [...]
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The problem Gabriola gardeners have with deer eating up garden produce could be worse, I suppose. In Kenya elephants raid crops, and how do you argue with an elephant? Turns out that elephants are afraid of bees, so farmers are using beehive fences to protect crops. Do you suppose deer are afraid of bees, too?
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I imagine the spiders who built this web are less than pleased with what’s happened.
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The other day in the Gabriola woods, we came across a few tent caterpillars. We said some words – being surprised and all, having almost walked into them – and they did this: this back-and-forth stuff that looks as if they are roaring like lions in their tiny little brains. pericat has had a similar [...]
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Tonight while many of you were watching the hockey game, I was watching zillions of these little bugs on Gabriola’s native roses. You wouldn’t happen to know what these particular bugs are, would you? Is there an entomologist in the house?
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Remember Gabriola’s strangest spiderweb? Maybe the spiders who created that have moved on to trampoline webs, like this one.
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Who do you suppose makes holes like this? It’s not penny thieves; I put the penny there for scale. Is it ants? Termites? House eating monsters? What do you think, Gabriola insect-identifier people?
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Next time you’re at Folklife Village, walk past the Gabriola Coast Realty office and notice the bush outside the window. (Pieris japonica, as far as I can tell.) The thing is alive with bees, and they’re very non-stingy calm and pretty bees, too. Are they from a Gabriola hive? Or…? Well, who knows, but you [...]
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Here’s something to think about when you watch Gabriola’s native pollinators flit about. From the Globe and Mail: Victoria farmer working to bring back buzz of native bees. Alarmed at honeybee colony losses that reached 80 to 100 per cent last spring on Vancouver Island, a Victoria farmer is abuzz over a program she says [...]
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I know many Gabriolans are very interested in alternative energy, but I’m guessing this is one source you might not have considered! In the news today: A Tel Aviv University team has made an amazing discovery – the Oriental hornet has the ability to take the sun’s energy and convert it to electric power using [...]
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LiveScience reports that caterpillars can whistle. Caterpillars apparently can whistle, letting out squeaks that can fend off attacking birds, scientists have now found. They don’t whistle by puckering their lips and blowing, since they don’t have lips. Instead, they blow out their sides, researchers said. [continue] So what I want to know is this: do [...]
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