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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If you’re a beekeeper or honey lover, you might recall that I blogged about bees in trouble last March. Well. Here’s an interesting twist on that story from FastCompany.com: Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees. The world honey bee population has plunged in recent years, worrying beekeepers and [...]
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Oh my. Popsci.com reports on Genetically modified mosquitoes: An Oxford-based research firm has announced the results of a release of genetically modified male mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands, the first experiment with GM mosquitoes to take place in the wild. From May to October of this year, Oxitec released male mosquitoes three times a week [...]
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Well. Do you know what kind of beetle this is? I see these ones every day in the Gabriola forest. And you know, it’s kind of hard to photograph somebody who never stands still for the camera!
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Gabriolan’s post about the woolly bear caterpillar reminded me that some people use these little guys to forecast the severity of the winter. According to a 2006 article in the Comox Valley Naturalist Society website: The width of the orange-brown band is known to predict the winter to come: if it is narrower than the [...]
Are there bears on Gabriola? Next time some visitor asks about this, you can explain that we have an awful lot of woolly bears on the island. The woolly bear is Pyrrharctia isabella.
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One of the things I love about this time of year on Gabriola is dragonflies — they seem to be all over the place on sunny days in the forest. This dragonfly is an eight-spotted skimmer, I think: Libellula forensis.
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It seems to be wasp season on Gabriola now, so I got out our glass wasp trap the other day and set it up. Marvelously effective, though we did have only thirty or so wasps to murder. Our wasp trap is boring compared to Matthias Wandel’s wasp sucking machine. That thing’s amazing!
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The leaf, it is not so small. The spider… hey! I thought we weren’t supposed to have bugs this big on Gabriola?
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In one particular part of the Gabriola woods, I find spiderwebs like this dome-shaped one. What kind of spiders make webs like this, and what are they smoking? Update: more webs like this have appeared, and I got to see what the spiders who make these webs look like, too:
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If I could change a few things about Gabriola, reducing the number of mosquitoes would be on my list. I’m not the only one wishing for fewer mosquitoes in the world, it turns out — and some are thinking about this way more seriously than I’ve been. From nature.com: Ecology: A world without mosquitoes. So [...]
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Yesterday I watched as some Gabriola residents bossed other Gabriola residents around — or at least that’s what I think I saw happening. The residents in question are all insects. Little tiny black insects were all over a thistle plant; a smaller number of ants seemed to be organizing the black bugs. Strange. And it [...]
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Oh, I want this shirt! (Bugs on Gabriola love me, alas.) (Thanks to the gentleman in the shirt for giving me permission to take this photograph and post it here.)
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In some parts of the Gabriola woods, there are crazy numbers of these caterpillars right now. Are they in your trees, too? They’re tent caterpillars. When I was a little kid I kept some as pets, much to my mom’s disgust. When they built tents in our apple tree, my dad would get out the [...]
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These boxes have appeared around Gabriola in the last week or so, tied to trees at the road-side. Have you spotted them? The notice on each box says: Canada Food Inspection Agency This trap is being used in an effort to locate new infestations of PLANT PESTS. Handling the trap or its contents may mean [...]
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