Tag: wild profile

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the stink bugs

By Davide Bonora/Shutterstock

Stink bugs. Can’t live with ’em, can’t keep ’em from squeezing into your cottage and stinking up the joint. Well, you can. It just might take a little work.

Why are there so many stink bugs?

Fall is stink bug season. At least, that’s when you’re likely to notice them. As the temperatures drop, stink bugs—North America has more than 250 different species—start to move indoors…sometimes right into your cottage. “Lots of insects overwinter in the adult stage, which means that when the weather starts to get colder, they have to find places to spend the cold weather,” says Bob Anderson, an entomologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Great for the stink bug. Not so great for you.

Do stink bugs bite? Are stink bugs harmful?

In general, true stink bugs don’t bite or sting. The most they’ll do is land on your pant leg and freak you out. The invasive brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys, pictured), native to Asia, is harmful in the sense that it can destroy entire fruit and vegetable crops, along with a wide variety of plants. (If you think you spot one—look for the two distinctive white bands on the bug’s last two antenna segments—most provinces would like you to report the bug, and have online reporting forms like this one from the B.C. government. To learn more about this invasive, and how to ID it, visit the Invasive Species Centre.

What do stink bugs smell like?

Stink bugs stink either when crushed, or when threatened. They release a strong-smelling substance from their abdomens. Most people liken it to cilantro, but others describe it as freshly cut grass, dirty socks, cat pee, Jolly Rangers, rubber, cinnamon…In short, stink bugs smell like anything.

What attracts stink bugs? How do I repel stink bugs?

In spring, stink bugs are drawn to your property because of native plants or fruit trees. But they’re really only a nuisance when they come inside. Like plenty of other insects, they’re attracted to light, and they’ll find tiny openings to use as doorways into your cottage. There’s unfortunately no sure-fire way to repel them. Your best defense is the same defense that you’d use against any pest insect: inspecting the exterior of the cottage for any cracks and crevices, and sealing them up with caulk. Look around windows and doors, around siding and utility pipes, behind chimneys, and underneath the wood fascia. Look pretty much everywhere. (This will help keep your cottage free from other critters, too.)

As for chemical methods, an all-purpose, exterior spray—the sort that pest control companies use for cluster flies, “would likely do the job,” says Glen Robertson of Robertson’s Wildlife and Pest Control in Coldwater, Ont. The problem? You’d need to get this done early in the fall, before you start to notice them indoors, and a spray could also harm non-target insects. Which means you could end up killing beneficial bugs that you actually want around.

How do I get rid of stink bugs?

“We usually just tell people to vacuum them up,” says Robertson. (Get rid of the vacuum bag right away to avoid any stench.) Happily, the bugs won’t damage your cottage, breed and reproduce, eat your food, or do much of anything while they’re there. If they survive the winter, they’ll leave in the spring.

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the cecropia moth

By Cathy Keifer/Shutterstock

As May heats up, the huge, dramatic-looking cecropia moth—Canada’s largest moth—appears on the scene. It emerges from its massive cocoon in late spring or early summer. Cecropias stick around only long enough to find a mate and breed, leaving behind hundreds of leaf-munching offspring.

How big is the cecropia moth?

This moth is part of the giant silk moth family; they get their name from the huge, elaborate cocoons that they spin. Big cocoons produce big moths: cecropias have a wingspan up to 18 cm—that’s about the size of a plate. (A monarch butterfly’s wingspan, for comparison, is only 9 or 10 cm.) The moths are nocturnal, and have only vestigial mouths. They don’t eat. Their main job is to find a mate and get down to, ahem, business. Males do the pursuing. Newly-emerged cecropia moth females produce a pheromone from their abdomens. Males, using their feathered antennae, can detect one drop of the natural chemical from a kilometre away.

Cecropia moth females vs males 

Female cecropias weigh almost twice as much as males. That’s because they’re laden with up to 300 unfertilized eggs. That’s a lot of babies! Once they’ve made a love connection, male and female moths hook up for almost a full 24 hours. Then, males leave to find more potential partners. The female lays her now-fertilized eggs in batches, often on maple, birch, or cherry trees. Jobs complete, life is short for these bugs. Both parents die within a week or two.

What do the caterpillars look like? 

A female cecropia moth lays more than a hundred eggs, but many caterpillars don’t survive long enough to become adults. When they hatch, they’re tiny and black. They go through several successive molts, changing from yellow to green. Eventually, when a caterpillar is about five inches long, and fattened up from two straight months of eating, it begins to spin its cocoon. It takes a full day, and nearly a mile of silk. Home complete, a cecropia moth caterpillar seals itself into the cocoon for the winter. Nighty, night! See you next year.

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the pronghorn antelope

By NaturesMomentsuk/Shutterstock

Here are a few things that you should know about the pronghorn antelope. One: it’s the second-fastest land animal on earth. Two: thanks to very bulbous eyes set far back on its head, it has better vision than any other ungulate—a pronghorn’s field of vision covers 300 degrees. Three: it’s not actually an antelope. Wait, what?

Pronghorn antelope vs. antelope 

The species’ scientific name (Antolocapra americana) means “American antelope goat.” But it’s not closely related to either of those animals—it’s not part of the antelope family at all. A pronghorn’s closest living relatives appear to be the giraffe and the okapi (a species that looks like a cross between a deer and a zebra, native to the Democratic Republic of Congo). True antelopes live mostly in Africa, with smaller pockets in Asia and portions of the Middle East. In Canada, pronghorn populations are largely restricted to parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

How fast can a pronghorn run? 

This non-antelope can sprint as fast as 92 km/h—only the cheetah is faster. Why are these skinny, deer-like animals so speedy? They’re built for it, with long legs and can take big strides, plus large hearts and lungs in relation to their size. Some experts believe pronghorns evolved to be so fast because they once lived in grassland habitats alongside now-extinct cheetah-like predators. This could also be the reason they developed such great eyesight. A pronghorn can spot a predator from up to six kilometres away. That’s a real advantage to survival in a flat, plains environment. Oddly, for an animal that’s so leggy, pronghorn antelopes aren’t good jumpers. Unlike deer, they’re more likely to crawl under an obstacle—a fence, for example–rather than attempt to leap over it.

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the Blanding’s turtle

By Ryan M. Bolton/Shutterstock

If you can spy a Blanding’s turtle, you’ll be able to identify it as such. This guy’s bright yellow, extra-long neck (and chin) distinguishes it from other northern turtles. And check out that shell. It looks like an army helmet. Most Ontario turtles have wider, flatter shells. Blanding’s turtles live a lot of life underwater. They stroll along the bottom of shallow, weedy, marshy areas; thanks to that long neck, they can poke their faces into spots other water-dwellers can’t reach. To get at crayfish and snails, a Blanding’s reaches underneath driftwood and between rocks. Gotcha!

When can you spot a Blanding’s turtle?

The best time to see one of these at-risk reptiles is May. For about a month, when the sun is shining and the air temperature is 15°C and up, they bask. Who wouldn’t? They’ll float at the water’s surface or suntan on logs as they try to boost their metabolism. If spooked, a Blanding’s will immediately plop into the water, where, with only the head poking out, one can look more like a venomous yellow-bellied sea snake. (Which is not found in Canada. Do. Not. Worry.)

When do they breed? 

Although Blanding’s turtles breed any time during summer—like other turtle species—romance is really in the air soon after hibernation. A male turtle will spend more than an hour wooing a potential lady friend. (That’s a long time in the turtle-verse.) He’ll caress her head with his chin, and nibble her neck. It’s true love! Except not really; most Blanding’s turtles are promiscuous, and usually more than one papa is responsible for fertilizing the eggs. Once pregnant, a mother heads onto land to lay her clutch, after digging a hole with her back legs. It takes an entire day—nearly until midnight. Before returning to the water, she might stop to forage for berries, leaves, and worms. She just built her nursery and gave birth. She’s owed.

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the chestnut-sided warbler

By Agami Photo Agency/Shutterstock

The chestnut-sided warbler is an easy warbler to identify—despite the fact that North America is home to more than 50 species of the bird. At least, this guy is easy to ID if you know what to spot. In the spring and summer, when they’ve returned home to their cottage-country haunts after the winter in warmer parts of the world, both breeding males and females have a flashy chestnut stripe on their flanks. Chestnut-sided! Isn’t it helpful when a bird’s name just makes sense?

What does the chestnut-sided warbler sound like? 

If you can’t recognize this bird by its looks, you might recognize it by its calls. Beginning in May, males start belting out their love song from open, sunny spots. It sounds like “Pleased, pleased, pleased to meet-cha!” They’ll sing up to 4,000 times per day. Holy dedication—can you imagine doing anything 4,000 times per day? Once they’ve attracted the attention of a female chestnut-sided warbler, they’ll sing a different tune (literally): a territorial chant meant to tell other males to stay away from their home and their future wife.

Is the chestnut-sided warbler rare? 

Although this warbler’s numbers probably have declined in recent years—the same is true for many birds—chestnut-sided warblers are actually more common than they were in the 19th century. Because they prefer open areas, they actually benefitted from human practices such as logging. In some cases, their territories now nearly overlap with the yellow warbler (the two species are closely related). Yellow warblers look different, but their love songs are similar to a chestnut-sided warbler’s: “Sweet, sweet, I’m so sweet.” Family ties and all that.

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the red-bellied snake

By Mike Wilhelm/Shutterstock

Snakes don’t usually get the label of “cute”—but maybe that’s because nobody remembers the red-bellied snake. Look at that little face! C’mon. This guy’s not so bad.

Are red-bellied snakes venomous?

Like almost all of Canada’s snakes, red-bellies are not venomous. They are also unlikely to attempt to bite you, even if you picked one up. They tend to be timid when handled. They’re very skinny—more like long worms—and sometimes only as long as eight inches. Even turtles and blue jays eat them. The most a red-bellied snake will do to you is curl its upper lips back in a snarl, or attempt to roll over and scare you away with its red stomach. (Because red is scary?) As with all snakes, this one might try its best to intimidate you with fakery. But…when a snake is as small as a red-belly, its efforts kind of fall short. Well, you gave it the old college try, little buddy.

Where does the red-bellied snake live? 

In Canada, you can find the red-bellied snake from southeastern Saskatchewan east as far as Nova Scotia—although they seem to be absent around Lake Superior. If you can find them. With their dark backs and small size, they blend in with dead pine needles and other leaf litter. Plus, they tend to only emerge from rock crevices and under logs at night, to hunt for their dinners of slugs, earthworms, and beetle larvae.

Is this snake endangered?

Red-bellies mostly breed in April, after hibernating over the winter. But a mother doesn’t give birth—to a litter of up to 14 live, baby snakes—until August or September. The snakelets shed one layer of skin within an hour; after two years, they’re mature and able to reproduce. But it’s hard to monitor this snake’s longevity and numbers, in part because of their nocturnal, super-secretive nature. Currently, they’re not assessed under COSEWIC or SARA; under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species—it catalogues the extinction risk of the world’s animal and plant species—they’re considered “of Least Concern.” So that’s a better outlook if you compare it to the future of plenty of other snakes.

 

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the tiger swallowtail butterfly

By Maria T Hoffman/Shutterstock

Nothing brings spring cheer like the sight of tiger swallowtail butterfly flitting about and fluttering its wings as it drinks nectar from its favourite plants. The tiger swallowtail isn’t quite as recognizable as the monarch or the luna moth, but it’s certainly eye-catching with its black-and-yellow markings. There are actually several North American species of these tiger-striped insects; the eastern tiger swallowtail is the most widespread.

Do male and female butterflies look different from each other? 

Everyone knows that the males and females of plenty of bird species have different plumage, and different body sizes, in some cases. Male and female butterflies have differences too. In some species, males have a thinner abdomen, for example, or differently-shaped forewings. But, in the southern reaches of their range, eastern tiger swallowtail females are, in many cases, nearly pitch black. Why? It’s likely an evolutionary adaptation. In areas of North America where the tiger swallowtail occupies the same habitat as the all-black pipevine swallowtail, this form of mimicry helps the lady tigers. Pipevine swallowtails taste nasty to bird predators, so a black outfit tricks birds into also avoiding any tiger swallowtails.

What does the tiger swallowtail eat? 

Along with nectar—which the butterfly identifies and samples using taste buds on its feet—butterflies drink the water from mud puddles. (This is why you might notice groups of them hanging around wet roadsides in the spring.) Males are especially fond of the salt they can suck up from the muddy side of the road. They need sodium, along with amino acids that they get from animal droppings and carcasses, to build up nutrients in their sperm capsules in time for mating. (The tiger swallowtail only produces one generation of offspring per year, so it has to count.)

What does a tiger swallowtail caterpillar look like? 

Tiger swallowtail babies aren’t pretty: they’re tiny and look like black-and-white bird droppings. As they get older, the caterpillars turn green, with yellow or orange black-dotted spots positioned behind their heads. This is another mimicry strategy. The spots look like eyes, which makes the caterpillar appear a little like a fat green snake. (At least to a predator.) But the caterpillars also have a defence strategy if an ant, spider, or parasitic wasp attacks. A tiny fork-shaped appendage springs out from behind the caterpillar’s head, and produces a gross smell to deter the potential predator. It must work—who would eat something attached to a stinky fork?

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the double-crested cormorant

By Elliotte Rusty Harold/Shutterstock

The double-crested cormorant gets a bad rap. But give this big, prehistoric-looking bird some props: the species’ numbers have exploded since the 1970s, after they suffered at the hands of DDT. Just like eagles, cormorants would eat fish contaminated by the pesticide (and produced eggs with too-thin shells as a result). In 1950, there were only 900 breeding pairs in the Great Lakes. By 2000, that number had jumped to 115,000.

What do cormorants eat?

Some anglers aren’t huge fans of this bird, which, fair enough: it does spend much of its time catching fish. Flocks of cormorants will fly dozens of kilometres from their home base to forage. They soar in tight formations then dive below the surface of the water to catch more than 250 species of fish, including small fare such as minnows and yellow perch, plus invasive species including round goby and rainbow smelt. For the record, anglers, most research shows that sport fish only make up a small percentage of a cormorant’s diet.

Cormorants are excellent swimmers—at least, they are when they’re going after food. This bird has a cool fishing technique: it chases after fish underwater, propelling itself with its webbed feet. (Other bird species that swim underwater, like the Cassin’s auklet, use their wings like fins to “fly” as they pursue prey.) Cormorants have hook-tipped beaks for a reason. They use the hook to snag their dinner. Sometimes they catch crayfish. When they do, they repeatedly bash the crustacean against the surface of the lake until its legs fall off, then flip it into the air to catch and swallow it head-first. Show off.

Why do cormorants ‘pose’?

When a cormorant isn’t fishing, it’s just hanging out. This bird spends at least half of its day resting (hey, sounds like a cottager!). Ever spot one standing on a bare, windy rock or branch—or on your dock—with its wings outstretched? It’s trying to dry out. Cormorants have less preen oil (the stuff that helps ducks shed water) than other birds, so their feathers are soaked after a morning of fishing. Experts believe this difference is what actually helps cormorants hunt underwater more effectively.

 

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the water strider

By Brian Lasenby/Shutterstock

The water strider may be creepy-looking—why are your legs so long and spindly, bug?—but it’s also very cool. This bug walks across water. It achieves this miracle feat by perfectly distributing its weight across all six, widespread legs. The tips of each leg are covered in many minute, waterproof hairs. This forms a sort of thin film, just enough to support the bug’s weight—unless something heavier pierces the water’s surface.

Do water striders bite?

That’s everyone’s first question when they see the bugs. We get it: they’re not exactly cute. But the answer is no. At least, they don’t bite people. They are, however, excellent at snatching up prey, such as spiders and other, smaller insects. Resting on the lake, a water strider is almost invisible when it’s motionless, but if it senses a small disturbance at the surface of the water, it can rush forward and grab its clueless prey. It holds the bug with its front legs and uses stabby mouthparts to pierce the creature’s body. Then it sucks out the delicious fluids inside. If you’re grossed out, you should also keep in mind that a water strider helps control the pesky mosquito population; it eats mossie larvae.

Can water striders fly?

Some species can. Their wing length depends on their habitat. Species that spend more time in rough waters have shorter wings, since waves and turbulence would damage longer ones. Other species, such as those that live in temporary ponds—ponds that could disappear later in the summer, for example—have a winged stage, so that they can fly away before the water is gone. That said, you’re not likely to notice water striders flying around. More likely, you’ll spot them congregated in groups on calm waters. They arrive on the cottage scene as soon as the ice melts in spring, and hang around to mate in early summer. By October, the second generation of the season usually finds shelter under rocks near the water, and hibernates for the winter.

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the Western meadowlark

By Matt Knoth/Shutterstock

A sure sign of spring is a Western meadowlark perched on a post and singing its lungs out. Well, not really, because bird lungs are small, rigid, and very different than mammal lungs. But you get it. As soon as the snow melts, male meadowlarks return to their spring and summer homes in the prairies and B.C. after having spent the winter in the southern U.S. and parts of Mexico.

When do the female birds return north?

Female meadowlarks don’t show up on the breeding scene for at least another two weeks. They have the same unmistakable plumage as their male counterparts: a bright yellow breast and throat with a black V-shaped marking—a little like a cravat—around the neck. But a male meadowlark starts singing as soon as he gets home. He needs time to establish a breeding territory before the ladies arrive.

What does the meadowlark sound like?

Each male bird has a playbook of up to 12 slightly different flute-like melodies. Sometimes, two males will try to out-sing each other by matching their tunes. Their voices are audible from about 400 metres away (not bad for a bird the same size as a robin). A female will pick the best singer, and the two hook up within minutes, then mate multiple times over the next couple of weeks as she builds a nest. When you know, you know, right?

Meadowlarks usually nest twice in one season—one male pairs with two females. Even though it’s the lady bird that builds the nursery, a simple, grass-lined bowl, sometimes covered by a waterproof “dome,” Dad helps with childcare. Once the brood of five or six hatches, he’ll periodically bring food and stick around to chase away intruders. Careful, though, if you intrude on a meadowlark nest. Back away! The birds aren’t bold enough to attempt to scare away a human interloper, and they might abandon the babies.