Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Conserving the Jewels of the Night

As I’ve written before, fireflies are in peril. Reference my post entitled Fireflies are Glowing. The Xerces Society sent out an announcement this past week that they were mounting a new firefly conservation campaign: Conserving the Jewels of the Night.

A boreal firefly at night with its abdomen lit up. Photo courtesy of Beneficial Bugs

“Fireflies are some of our most celebrated insects. Not only are they important components of natural ecosystems, but also they have immense cultural, biological, and economic value. Despite their significance, firefly populations appear to be in decline….This concern gains greater significance in light of numerous diversity and abundance studies that have emerged in recent years documenting severe population declines in both better-studied insect groups and overall insect biomass. ” (Xerces)

Conserving the Jewels of the Night

Xerces has developed a wonderful guideline for protecting fireflies in the USA and Canada. It is available on-line in pdf format and it is entitled Conserving the Jewels of the Night. On page 26 it starts talking about “Creating, Restoring, and Protecting High Quality Habitat.”

A boreal firefly resting during the day on the bark of a tree. Photo courtesy of Beneficial Bugs
A boreal firefly resting during the day on the bark of a tree. Photo courtesy of Beneficial Bugs

As we’ve discussed about wildlife many times before, “In general, all fireflies require four basic things: food, shelter, moisture, and protection from pesticides*. Individual species will have more specific habitat or food requirements, but by keeping these requirements in mind, you can easily provide for fireflies in your yard, park, or natural area. In particular, most fireflies need:

  • abundant larval food sources, including soft-bodied invertebrates such as snails, slugs, and earthworms;
  • safe places to overwinter, including trees, leaf litter, and underground burrows;
  • clean sources of water or moisture so larvae and their prey do not desiccate;
  • protection from pesticides—especially insecticides;
  • undisturbed ground for burrowing larvae and flightless adult females;
  • native vegetation of varying heights (so that adults have places to perch or take shelter); and
  • dark nights, for dusk- and night-active species that use bioluminescent light signals to communicate and mate.

Some species also need:

  • food sources for species that feed as adults, including tree sap, flower nectar, and other fireflies (e.g., Photuris females often eat other species of fireflies, such as those in the Photinus genus), and
  • healthy populations of ant associates for larval and adult female Pleotomodes and Prolutacea species that live in ant nests.” (Conserving the Jewels of the Night)

These are the things we Wild Ones and other native landscaping enthusiasts talk about almost every day, because these things are important for maintaining a healthy ecosystem – a healthy habitat – especially the part about native vegetation. So let’s keep talking and we’ll help The Xerces Society with its new firefly conservation campaign: Conserving the Jewels of the Night.

*The conservation section of the Hunter Education class materials also includes space.

I found a new Dance of the Fireflies video. It’s the music from Tangled by Walt Disney Pictures.

   Send article as PDF   

Turtlehead (Chelone spp)

Years ago in the rain garden area of my prairie, I had native White Turtlehead (Chelone gabra) and Pink Turtlehead (Chelone oblique).* Over the years, as they’ve expanded their locations and moved closer to one another, the White Turtlehead seems to be changing. It has adopted a distinct white and pink variegated look. Even its leaves are changing.

Turtlehead (Chelone spp)

Turtlehead likes moist soil and partial or dappled sunlight, so it is perfect for rain gardens. It can also be grown successfully in shade gardens.

The leaves are opposite on the stem and droop slightly. They are typically rather long (about  6 inches). They are hairless and have a dark green upper surface color and a pale green lower surface. Each upright stem terminates in a spike of compact clusters of snapdragon-type flowers which are tubular in shape and have two-lipped petals, which give the blooms the appearance of a turtle’s head with an open mouth. Hence its common name. Each flower has a sparse pale yellow beard inside the lower lip.

Here in the Midwest, typically native turtlehead can be found in white and pink. Some of the white variety can have pink tinges. In the more Southern states, a red variety can be found. But here in yours truly’s yard, the White Turtlehead seems to have more than pink tinges. I haven’t seen it as a pure white species for a number of years. See the contrast below.

*Although the White Turtlehead was known to me to be native, because it came from a plant rescue in a remnant prairie area, the heritage of the Pink Turtlehead is unknown. It was a gift from a friend before the time either of us understood what made up a true native.

   Send article as PDF   

Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

I found this wonderful surprise in my prairie this week. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw two spikes of Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) blossoms standing there in between the Woodland Sunflowers and the Spotted Jewelweed. Everything is such a mess all around the area, but there was this surprise. I was amazed! Great Blue Lobelia was one of the earliest natives I planted in my wet mesic prairie, but I haven’t seen it in awhile. The reward from Mother Nature for sustaining all the damage to our landscape was this surprise.

Great Blue Lobelia

Great Blue Lobelia is native to the Eastern and North Central USA and north into Canada. It likes wet ground, so you’ll find it growing along streams, rivers and lakes, as well as swamps, marshes, ditches and low-lying wooded areas.

It’s stalks of bright blue flowers are showy and are often found in clumps. The flowers themselves consists of a tube like blossom with upper and lower lips. Two lips on top and three lips on the bottom with an accentuating white stripe. They bloom late July or August and continue through September or early October.

It’s leaves are alternate and they are a chubby lance-shaped, light green. They can be up to six inches long and are typically irregularly toothed, which makes them fairly distinctive as they climb up the stalk.  It gets it’s name siphilitica because it was used to treat venereal disease syphilis. The roots, stems and leaves are toxic, so large quantities can be hazardous to one’s health.

   Send article as PDF   

The Weather and Purple Loosestrife Beetles

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) photo by Eliziabeth Czarapata courtesy of WDNR.

Reference Wisconsin Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) Biocontrol. The message below is from Wisconsin Wetland Invasive Plant Program Coordinator Brock Woods. It is intended for all who are rearing beetles this year, and have not yet released them.

If you are not rearing this year, please consider this as a reminder to check any past release sites soon for progress.

The Weather and PL Plants

The weather this year as been very difficult. Average temps early on brought beetles out, but the cool, cloudy conditions slowed Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) (PL) plant growth, especially in the North. Thus, your PL plants may not have been ideal size when you added your propagation stock beetles. This is especially the case if you also did not dig your roots as early as possible and/or if you got your plants where you had been putting produced beetles in past years. Plants dug late do not get the warmth and full sun typical of more upland growing sites, and plants continually fed on by adequate beetle populations will not usually grow fast or taller than about three feet. Another issue may be too few stems in any caged pot (5-6 is ideal for 6 foot stems).

Hungry Beetle Larvae

The result of all this may be your larvae consuming your PL plants’ foliage (turning the leaves brown, similar to desiccation) so fast the plants are not able to supply enough food for the larvae to complete their life cycle and become new reproductive adults. Thus, doing nothing now will greatly limit the number of new reproducing adults you will have on your release sites next spring. This will slow or even limit growth for large enough populations to control your local loosestrife!

Releasing the Beetles

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) photo by Elizabeth Czarapata courtesy of WDNR.

Remember — the ideal release timing criteria includes either seeing the first new adult beetles (tan, not dark brown) in your cage(s), or as described above, seeing very quick window-paning of all your plant leaves (loss of green foliage due to heavy larval leaf mining), or both.  Only a few new adults suggests most insects are still pupating in the pot’s soil. But they will be out soon, so it’s best to put the pots out –sans net cages. Then leave the pots for a few weeks, so all pupae can emerge in the wetland. If only a few adult beetles have emerged, it is not a good idea to just cut and move the plant tops since this will likely leaves most insects behind.

If your PL plant leaves are turning fast it means little additional food for either larvae or new adults, and they will start to die without it. Immediate action is required, especially when very hot. The best solution  is to take the pots out to PL infested wetlands ASAP, and intertwine their tops with field plant tops so the larvae or new adults (that don’t fly for a day or two after pupation) can crawl onto the new stems to feed. Touching field and potted plant tops is crucial if most beetles are still larvae in order to give them food to mature.

If transporting pots is not possible for a time, putting fresh PL cuttings into a cage will help, but cannot be done for long. As a last resort, if there is still some food and new adults are emerging and putting pots out is not possible, the cage tops can be opened to allow flying adults to escape. They will try to find more PL, but most will perish if a long distance flight is necessary.

Success

While early release is not ideal, rest assured you will get new beetles this early, and will allow a careful release. If you get them safely past the early stages of mating, egg laying, eggs and early larval development, your release will be successful. A few beetles will fall to predators without continued protection, but most will likely survive. And you can still put them wherever you need them most.

Reporting

As a reminder, please report your release locations soon after finishing. Use the mail-in form or go into SWIMS and report your releases directly.

Call us if you have questions (608-225-5858 best for Brock for now). Thank you for all your efforts!

Brock Woods
Wisconsin Purple Loosestrife Biocontrol & Wetland Invasive Plant Programs
608-266-2554

Brock Woods
Wisconsin Wetland Invasive Plant Program Coordinator
608-266-2554 (FAX: 608-267-2800)

Jeanne Scherer
(Transitioning to) PL Biocontrol Program Coordinator!
608-266-0061

Also see a PowerPoint presentation by Brock Woods at Taming a “Beautiful Killer:” Wisconsin’s Purple Loosestrife (PL) Biological Control (BC) Program.

   Send article as PDF