Muck About

Please Don't Feed the Raccoons!

(Click to enlarge images.)

I know they’ve been around; the sneaky little devils love to hang out around my home.  I imagine they throw wild parties, eating fresh caught fish, frogs and the occasional exotic snail.  They wash their hands and food using my provisions, then loot and pillage with wild abandon.

Now I have undeniable evidence of one of their hangouts.  My white porch beams gave them away; however, their little paw prints gave away the need for me to go up and clean where the dirt has collected. The turkeys, actually raccoons have been a problem in my garden for years.  Although having a dog seemed to help discourage them; or so I thought.  The evidence is clear the masked bandits are back.

I went on a lovely garden tour in Hansville, Washington last weekend.  We had been experiencing record-breaking temperatures in the region, which made us make the decision to tour near the beach instead of another tour in Olympia.  Fortunately, every home we toured was on the water with wonderful breezes that made the day perfect!  All the gardens were lovely and we enjoyed them all.  However, when one homeowner went out to feed the family of raccoons, I was dismayed.  I am sure the woman means well; however, feeding raccoons is a dreadful idea. 

First, it does not help the raccoon to feed it.  Supplying food is harmful because the number of raccoons in an area increases and when they become over crowded, they are prone to diseases and parasites.  Feeding them makes them less fearful of human and more aggressive which can be dangerous to children and pets.    It increases the amount of damage done to other people’s homes and property, including your own.  In addition, when you stop feeding them they become very aggressive.  When this happens, there is nothing cute about them.  They are wild animals, so treat them respectfully but don’t encourage them with food.  Most people learn the hard way and sometimes at great cost.

So please, if you feed raccoons, stop.

Native Bees and the Color Blue

Here is an interesting find in Oregon . OSU entomologist, Sujaya Rao, quite by accident found that our native bees are attracted to blue. The day after jars were set out with different colored lids—red, yellow, blue and green—to trap Asian lady beetles, she found the blue lidded jars were full of bumblebees. The area was devoid of flowers.

After contacting Bill Stephen, a world expert on native and solitary bees, Rao and Stephen experimented with different colored lids. They found that no matter what part of the state they were in, our native bees consistently went for the blue. Now there are new experiments using blue flags in crop fields to see if the blue will bring in more native pollinators. This is important work, considering the recent problems with declining numbers of honeybees.

Read more in this interesting article, The Other Bees, by Carol Savonen.

Faces in the Garden

 

Insects are an integral part of the garden, the good, the bad and the bugly. I learned many years ago, that the best way to keep pests from becoming a major problem in my garden is to strike a balance by including them all. It’s a fascinating miniature world.

Pollinators come in many forms. Many I believe are beautiful when you look at their markings; some are goofy looking in a cartoon character sort-of-way.  Here are a couple I captured digitally.

Two of my favorite images are of this green lacewing, a predator of insects with a voracious appetite. It was found crawling all over a lilium flower. One of the most beautiful insects this side of butterflies, in my opinion and another good reason not to use pesticides. Encourage these beauties to take up residence in your garden.

 

Another predator we all know and love is the ladybug with an appetite for aphids. This angle makes the beetle look like it’s wearing a Darth Vader like helmet and a super hero  red cape.  They are super heroes in the garden.