Moth Week

Vine Sphinx moth

 

 I almost let the week go by without recognizing Moth Week. Moths don't get the press that butterflies do, probably because they aren't as active during the day and many of them are fairly nondescript. Obviously, that's not the case with the vine sphinx moth the to left. I did find this one during the day, so the colors are easy to see.

Black Witch moth

The black witch moth on the right is a migrant. I took this picture at night, so the markings aren't as clear, but it is also a dark moth. It is a lot larger than it appears in this photo. Think just a little smaller than my hand.

Moths are important pollinators. Moths prefer light-colored, fragrant, and long tubular flowers, especially those that open at night. Some examples are honeysuckle, morning glory, bee balm, milkweed, columbine, asters, clovers, phlox, thistles, yucca, and vetches. Some food plant pollinated by moths as well as bees include redcurrants, strawberries, and stone fruit. 

Moths are a prime food source for bats.

Most people know that the monarch butterfly migrates, but many other butterflies and moths do as well. I mentioned the witch moth above migrates through here, but so do other moths. Not a lot is known about moth migration, but here is a short piece on the subject. Although the study was done on moths in Europe, the information is applicable here.

I hope you'll take some time to learn more about these fascinating insects.

Making Your Own

Kimball Museum (a "like to do")

When I retired a few months back, I thought, "I'm going to have all this time to do more of the things I like to do!" One of my biggest concerns was turning into a couch potato like I see many retirees do.

I hate to admit it. The past few months, I have been a sloth. At first, I was constantly stressing over the thinking I needed to be doing something because I was always busy before retiring. Not to say I didn't have things I could do--it was the absence of things I HAD to do. Then I went through a phase where I didn't feel like doing anything. Even things I liked to do. And then, finally, I got bored. I have finally started getting back to myself. I think I am over whatever was going on in my head. 

Getting back to the true point of this post....I have always made most food from scratch. When the kids were small, it was mainly because (1) it was healthier for them, and (2) it's usually cheaper. And for most of my life, pinching pennies was the norm. But, I admit, working full-time and going to school at the same time sometimes made me really want to use the prepackaged stuff.

I have tried to find premade meals I like. Mostly because I am cooking for one most of the time. I have tried dozens of frozen and packaged things in recent months. For the most part, I haven't liked any of them, although a few are somewhat edible. If you are desperate. And then you look at the label--salt and sugar. Very little nutrition and a lot of calories.

I have been craving minestrone soup for days and finally decided to make it. Yes, I could have gone to the store and bought a can. After all, a can of Campbell's minestrone soup is only $1.79 at United Supermarkets (and even less expensive at some other stores). That $1.79 gets you 2.5, 1/2 cup servings. Does anyone actually eat a 1/2 cup of soup? If I go by the label, there is about 1.25 cups of soup in the can, which is still pretty stingy for a meal.  Looking at the label, that 1/2 cup serving has 28% of the recommended daily amount of sodium. If I eat the whole can (which I would), I am nearly to 75% of my recommended sodium intake for the day. So we can say $1.79 for a meal, which is cheap.

I find most canned soups are edible, but not anything I truly want to eat. They usually have a metallic aftertaste and not much else. I admit I haven't tried the minestrone. But let's consider cost alone. I was lazy, so I did use a couple of ready made ingredients--one Swanson's chicken stock and a can of generic kidney beans. All of the other ingredients were things I had on hand--some tomatoes from the garden, veggies (corn, celery, onions, carrots, zucchini, potatoes, spinach and broccoli--unfortunately, I didn't have any cabbage), some barley, pasta, and spices (oregano, garlic, pepper, basil, rosemary, and parsley--no need to add any salt). So, the only things I paid any significant money for was the broth and the beans (both of which could be done cheaper with a bigger time investment.) And, of course you add water. Together, less than $5. Although a lot of veggies are listed, the amount of each one is small--anywhere from a tablespoon to 1/2 cup each. Since I had the tomatoes already, maybe $2 for all the veggies and that is an overestimate in my opinion.

It did take me about 30 minutes to cook the soup, but I have had six bowls of soup over the past few days. Any my bowls tend to be in the 2 cup range. The soup was thick and hearty. Although I estimate the pot of soup cost me $7, let's use $10. That would be $1/cup. The Campbell's soup was $1.43/cup. It also had less nutrition and more sodium.

Yes, it cost me about 45 min total to chop up veggies and cook the soup versus probably 5 min for Campbell's, but I also didn't have to cook several meals, so I think it probably evens out in the end.

We all need to make choices about our time, budget, and health. I encourage you to learn to cook from scratch and do it as you can. I think you'll find it worthwhile.

Native Plant Society Meeting

The next meeting of the Wichita River Chapter Native Plant Society will be tomorrow, Thursday, July 24, at 6:00 PM, at the Forum on Speedway. The subject is "How to Create a Pollinator-Friendly Garden...Without Completely Renovating Your Yard!" The meeting is open to the public.

Sip 'n Science

 Have you attended a Sip 'n Science event at River Bend Nature Center yet? If not, you might want to attend the one coming up on Friday. This is an over-21 adults only educational program with beer, wine, and food. For those of us who don't drink, water is also available. 

I have attended several of these programs, and they are always interesting.

If you're a member of River Bend (and you should be), the cost is $20. $25 for everyone else.

Like to Be Outside?

Do you like to walk and perhaps learn about nearby places  you haven't been to? If so, the Rolling Plains Chapter Texas Master Naturalist is sponsoring monthly hikes for the public throughout their 10-county area.

So far, the chapter has sponsored hikes in Wichita, Archer, Clay, Foard, and Wilbarger counties. Next month will be Hardeman County at Copper Breaks State Park on August 2. Copper Breaks is a pretty park that tends to be overlooked because of its location near Quanah.

The hike is free, although participants will need to pay the park entrance fee (13 and up $3; children under 13, free). The hike is scheduled for 4 hours, beginning at 8 AM. Generally, the hikes aren't difficult and the pace is slow, allowing everyone the opportunity to look at and learn more about the flora and fauna seen. Several Texas Master Naturalist members will be available to answer questions about what participants see. Depending upon the temperature, it is possible participants may see some Texas horned lizards during the hike.

Since it will be the height of the summer, hats, sunscreen, bug spray, and water are highly recommended.

The town is named after Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief, and those interested in history will find a couple of small local museums of interest after the hike.

Sign up through Eventbrite. There is no cost, but it helps to know how many plan to attend. Here's the ticketing link.

If you are interested in the upcoming hikes, more information is on the group Facebook Page as well as on Eventbrite.

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.