Mosquito Season Has Arrived

NPS photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I swatted my first mosquito this week and another this morning. The ones I dealt with were the larger ones, which according to the press release from the health department, are not disease carriers, but they can still bite. Fortunately, mosquitoes don't generally like me that much. I get bit, but not nearly as much as the rest of my family who end up covered with big welts when they go outside in the summer. Supposedly, mosquitoes are attracted to people by carbon dioxide. I am wondering if the fact I have a relatively low heartrate (usually around 55 bpm) might be part of the reason they don't seem to find me as delectable as they find others.

Last year I noticed a lot of homes in town had signs indicating they had a service treat their lawn for mosquitoes. I won't mention the name of the service, since I don't know what they use (their ad says "natural controls," but those words don't always mean what some of us might assume they mean).

I attended a webinar by the Xerces Society this past week, called "The Truth About Mosquito SPrays: Investigating Their Impact on Pollinators". I checked to see if it was on their YouTube channel yet so I could share it, but couldn't find it. So I will summarize some of the important parts.

It would stand to reason that a chemical that would kill mosquitoes might also kill other insects. 

40% of invertebrates pollinators may be facing extinction, so anything that threatens them should be of concern. I wasn't aware that mosquitoes do drink nectar and are pollinators of some plants. It appears plants such as tansies and blunt-leafed orchids prefer mosquitoes.

Of course, for us, the big concern is the transmission of disease. Not all mosquitoes vector diseases. In fact, of the 176 species of mosquitoes in North America, only 2 species transmit diseases. And not all mosquito species drink blood.

We all know that when it rains, the mosquito population explodes. With the rain we having over the past couple of weeks, it is no surprise the mosquitoes are coming out. Mosquitoes only need a bottle cap full of water to propagate. They can survive with no water for up to 8 months and overwinter as eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the larva eat microorganisms in the water and transform into adults in 5 days. Their entire lifespan is just 8 - 10 days, with each female laying up to 500 eggs. You can see how the population can explode quickly.

Mosquitoes are most often controlled by pyrethroids. These pesticides are highly persistent in the environment and can persist for weeks or months. They are toxic to other insects, including bees. Generally, chemicals called synergists are added to the pyrethroids to increase their toxicity. To control adult mosquitoes, these chemicals can be administered as a home barrier spray of by fogging.

Risks to insects other than mosquitoes have been documented. Monarch caterpillars fed leaves treated by barrier sprays have much lower survival rates and both monarch and bee die-offs are documented after fogging.

This webinar reported on the results of a study conducted by the Xerces Society over the summer of 2023. The studied the difference in the numbers and quantities of pesticides in yards that were sprayed with mosquito barrier sprays, yards of neighbors to those yards, and yards subjected to fogging.

Results:

• In yards with a service the average level of pyrethroids was 6.6 times the lethal honey bee dose, although the highest was 34.4 times the lethal dose.
• In yards adjacent to yards sprayed for mosquitoes, the average level of pyrethroids was 0.12 times the lethal honey bee dose, although the highest was 2 times.
• Fogging was the least harmful. The average yard in a fogged area showed 0.03 times the lethal honey bee dose and highest was 0.13 times.

There could be harmful effects beyond death for pollinators. What are the potential long-term impacts on individuals and populations?

The conclusion is that spraying your yard for mosquitoes has a high risk to other pollinators. For those of us with pollinator gardens, this leads to a couple of conclusions. First, we shouldn't be spraying pesticides in our yard. If we have a neighbor who has a mosquito spray service, drift can be an issue. You might put nonflowering plants as a barrier to drift and plant your pollinator plants on the opposite side of the yard.

If you don't use pesticides, how can you protect yourself from mosquitoes?

• Eliminate standing water. Remember how little water is needed for mosquitoes to propagate and dump out standing water.
• If you have a pond or water feature, have a pump or fountain to move the water. Mosquitoes prefer standing water. Also add diverse planting to encourage critters than eat mosquitoes and their larvae, such as dragonflies, damselflies, diving copepods and water bugs.
• Mosquito dunks (although these can also be toxic to some flies in the same order, such as craneflies, they are not a broad in their toxic impact on other insects).
• Wear long sleeves when outside. 
• Wear insect repellent,
• Check your window screens for holes.
• When you are outside, use a fan. You may have noticed that you get bit a lot less when it is a windy day.

Yes, mosquitoes are a nuisance, but we need to be careful not to cut off our nose to spite our face.

Leftovers!

Cooking up homemade chicken soup from leftovers

I love leftovers. With the holidays, most of us have LOTS of leftovers. The problem is using them up before you have to throw them out because they have spoiled. 

I do know some people who rarely, if ever, eat leftovers, and that's a shame. It reduces waste--both of food and of money. With the cost of groceries, getting more meals out of the food you buy just makes sense. From a sustainability point of view, less food waste is a great thing.

Some of the issue is--who wants to eat the same thing over and over? I don't. That's why learning to repurpose leftovers can make it seem like you're not really eating leftovers. Instead, you have an all-new meal.

Here's an example. We usually have ham for Christmas dinner. This year, we celebrated Christmas a little early because some members of my family were going on a trip over the holiday. After the meal, I took home way too much ham, potato casserole (basically mashed potatoes with mashed carrots and cheese mixed in), and some veggies. The potato casserole turned into potato pancakes for breakfast and some was added to soups for more flavor. The potatoes could have been turned into a delicious potato soup all on their own, but I love potato pancakes for breakfast.  More of the ham went into a breakfast casserole that my husband and I had for dinner a couple of days later. More ham went into an omelet one morning for my breakfast, and more went into a dinner of pinto beans with fried potatoes and corn bread (my husband's favorite dinner), and on New Year's Day, black-eyed peas. Believe it or not, I still have a few slices of ham to do something with this weekend--fortunately, ham lasts a long time. You pretty much have to forget about it for weeks before it goes bad.

I keep leftover chicken and turkey in the freezer for soup and casseroles. You can see in the picture above, I raided the chicken to make chicken soup. (The picture isn't the best as I was using my cell phone and the soup was boiling--steam doesn't help create a clear picture). I always have onions, carrots, celery, and fresh spinach around for soup making. In addition to the leftover chicken, I had some leftover corn from dinner earlier in the week and had some fresh herbs in the crisper that I needed to get used up.  I also had a jar of potato water. I was planning to make potato bread, but got side-tracked, so put it in the soup for more nutrition and extra flavor. Then I threw in some orzo. 

I know a lot of people feel making your own soup is time consuming. But it really isn't, especially if you are using up leftovers, as a lot of things are already chopped up or cooked. It's just a matter of throwing it all in a pot and watching magic happen. As an added bonus, less sodium and more nutrients.

As a way to help the environment (and your budget) in 2025, consider finding ways to creatively use up your leftovers. If you have a favorite leftover recipe, please share in a comment.

Leave the Leaves

 

Retirement has been a bigger adjustment that I thought. It's amazing when you have less to do, you get disorganized.

I think I am fairly well sorted out now and can get back to writing this blog and my other.

I came home today to see that our neighbor had blown all the leaves in his yard into ours. Why, thank you, neighbor!

He doesn't like leaves. He doesn't like mess. In fact, last year he tore out all his shrubbery and a month ago, he took down his two mature trees--an elm and a live oak--because they were messy.

Therefore, I know his actions were his passive/aggressive way to send me a message that he wants me to rake my leaves. You would think after living next to us for 12 years he would know the likelihood of that happening is about zero.

I do need to get out and pick up the leaves in the street in order to get them on the garden before the city street sweeper comes by to take them all away. I am not sure when that is going to happen since this weekend is busy, busy.

Personally, I don't rake at all, so we have a layer of leaves (read, "mulch") on our yard. I do sweep the leaves off the drive, sidewalks, and curbs to put on the garden to compost over the winter and to protect some of the herbs I overwinter (oregano and sage for examples). In the past, I have taken bags of leaves from our neighbors, but am a little more reticent now since most of our neighbors have taken to having a lawn treatment company spray their yards. Their yards have fewer weeds, but ours is greener (except in August, maybe).

Why leave the leaves? First, because it is good mulch. They provide good protection for plant roots and plants you want to keep alive over the winter. Secondly, by spring the leaves will have broken down quite a bit, fertilizing the soil. And lastly, they provide shelter for insects and their eggs/larvae/pupae. You can't have butterflies and moths if you through them away with your leaves.

If you truly can't stand to have leaves all over the yard, at least move them into places where they can do the most good. Flowerbeds to fertilize/protect bulbs and a back corner of your yard the neighbors can't see and complain about.

If you are looking for ways to improve your yard for pollinators and other wildlife, download this handout from the Xerces Society.

Volunteer for the Sikes Lake Cleanup

A previous year's haul

Each year, the Rolling Plains Chapter Texas Master Naturalist collaborates with Midwestern State University to clean up Sikes Lake. The public is welcome to take part. MSU provides trash bags, grabbers, and plastic gloves. Of course, if you have grabbers of your own, please bring them because we never have enough. If you do bring your own, you should mark it in some way in case you set it down, so you get it back.

The clean up is scheduled for Saturday, September 7, starting at 9 AM. We are usually done no later than 11:00.

Hope to see you there!

Book Review: We Are the ARK

Finally retired. Yeah! Months overdue, but we made it.

I'm not a shopper for the most part. The big exception is book stores. I buy a lot of books.

I had some spare time between appointments a few weeks ago and stopped into a local bookstore to browse. I always check out the sale area--I never know when I might find a deal. I came across We Are the ARK by Mary Reynolds. I wouldn't have paid the $28.98 on the sticker (let alone the $38 listed on the book cover itself), but I think it was on sale for $4.99. I'll go that far on a whim. You can get the Kindle version for $14.99.

Overall, it's a good book. ARK stands for Acts of Regenerative Kindness. The author advocates that all of us return 50% of our yards to nature and use the other portion to grow some of our own food. This is a very similar call to arms made by Douglas Tallamy and E.O. Wilson. Ms. Reynold's book is less science than ethics/philosophy, unlike reading Tallamy and Wilson. Therefore, the book would be a good introduction for those who may feel a little intimidated by a more science-based approach. Not that there isn't some ecology principles discussed in the book, because there are. She highlights three laws:

• Law of diversity
• Law of interdependence
• Law of finite resources

From this she builds a framework for her acts of regenerative kindness, with some practical and specific steps to take, regardless of the space we have to work with. These are probably the highlight of the book. She does live in Ireland, so some of her examples differ from our hot, dry climate, but the principles are the same.

The book contains many cute illustrations by Ruth Evans. 

She does have a website and nonprofit around the book. Very similar to the Homegrown National Park effort by Tallamy.

Upcoming Events

We (the Texas Master Naturalist chapter and a couple of other interested people) got that mess cleaned up on Rathgeber Rd, and the city did us a solid and picked up the bagged trash. We cleaned up about 35 - 40 lawn bags of trash in that short stretch. I need to go by to take a picture for a before and after.

This weekend is the semiannual compost giveaway by the city. Here are the details from their news release:

" Residents who participate in the Choose to Reuse Program can pick up a free load of compost at the Wichita Falls Organics Facility.   The City of Wichita Falls offers a variety of alternatives to diverting reusable waste from the city’s landfill, including organic collections. The organics collections are offered to both residential and commercial customers and can accept yard waste (grass, leaves, and branches), paper (newspaper, office papers, shredded paper, magazines, phone books, tissue paper, and paper bags), cardboard, chipboard, wood, and food waste. Organics recycling saves money, is environmentally friendly, and creates nutrient-rich compost that can be used to enhance soil for lawns and gardens.   The compost giveaway will take place Saturday, March 2, 2024, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Wichita Falls Landfill on Wiley Road.  The compost will be loaded by city employees for residents. There is a limit of one pickup truck or 4x8 trailer load per person.   To pick up the compost, residents must provide a City of Wichita Falls water bill showing the $3.00 recycling program charge. By State Law, all loads must be covered to ensure no blowing debris on roadways. City employees are required to see the participants cover material before loading the compost. No dump trucks, commercial vehicles, or oversized trailers will be loaded.  Commercial operation compost purchases can contact the Wichita Falls Landfill at 940-631-8274.   Landfill Address: 10984 Wiley Road Wichita Falls, Texas 76307   Directions to the landfill:  • Take Seymour Highway Southwest toward Seymour on Highway 258.  • At the Kamay “Y,” proceed West on Highway 258 toward Kamay.  • Travel approximately one mile to Wiley Road and turn right (North). • Remain on Wiley Road for two miles. The entrance to the landfill is located on the left. For questions or more information, please contact the Sanitation Department at 761-7977.  "

In addition, the annual plant swap, organized by the Wichita Falls Backyard Gardeners is coming up on April 6, 10 AM - noon. It will be at the Park Place Christian Church. Bring cuttings, seedlings, plants you have too many off, or other gardening items to swap. All of the guidelines are on the group's Facebook page. If you need a table, you need to let them know in advance.

Some Days I Hate People

This is W. Rathgeber Road, as you turn off Kemp Blvd. It always looks like this. 99% of this is glass bottles that could be put in the city glass recycling (although it is recycled into sand, but that works). I was birding, so only stopped for a photo. I wonder if I clean this up, how long it will last? 

If anyone would like to lend a hand, email green.wichitafalls@gmail.com (put TRASH in the subject, so I don't delete) in the next day or two. I plan to tackle this project.