Editor’s note: we just learned that both workshops are already full. We’re glad there’s so much interest in rain gardens, and we’ll let you know about future opportunities. By Betty Struckhoff Here’s an opportunity to learn more about native landscaping from one of the most knowledgeable people in our area. On…
Years ago, Kathy Bildner taught herself how to identify monarch butterfly eggs on her milkweed plants. Each spring through fall, in order to save them from hungry birds, spiders, parasites, etc. she brings the eggs indoors to go through their life cycle. When they become butterflies, she releases them in her…
By Betty Struckhoff Watching kids find little critters in pond water, some of them using a microscope, all under the helpful eyes of a docent made me think I could have been at Shaw Nature Reserve. But I was in the middle of London, one of the biggest, most densely…
By Kathy Bildner Over the last month we have been watching as she sat on the nest, hatched out two babies and raised them. The last one left this weekend. Click any image for a larger version.
If you have some Aristolochia macrophylla in your yard, I’m hoping you might want to share some tendrils with the pipevine swallowtail caterpillars that are rapidly depleting my plants. Actually, I am rapidly depleting my pipevine plants to feed about 45 caterpillars. They were rescued as tiny orange eggs or…
What: Pollinator Habitat Conservation Workshop When: Saturday, August 2, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Where: The Nature Institute, Godfrey, Illinois (Google map) Cost: The workshop is free, but registration is required Pollinators are responsible for every 3rd bite of food we eat. Birds, bats, butterflies and other insects – even…
By Mitch Leachman The St. Louis Audubon Society’s Bring Conservation Home program was created in 2012. It gives individual landowners in the St. Louis region specific advice on how to create bird- and pollinator-friendly habitat in their own yards. A number of the program’s volunteer Habitat Advisors are Wild Ones members,…
By Scott Barnes At the June yard tour, Dave Tylka talked about a caterpillar that ate all the leaves on his Indigo plant last year. I had the same problem, and was surprised to learn I wasn’t alone. The caterpillar belongs to the Broom Moth. I looked them up and learned…
By Kathy Bildner This female Monarch was very busy jumping from unopened flower to flower. I thought she was looking for nectar but was not succeeding so moved on quickly. Looking closer, I saw the eggs. I have never seen them put the eggs on a flower. Usually it is…
According to a recent press release from Mayor Francis Slay’s office, the City of St. Louis, as part of a national campaign to save the threatened monarch butterfly, is spearheading an initiative to help grow the monarch population. How? Plant milkweed. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed, and the caterpillars…
