by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member Ilse’s Gebhard’s essays are available in a digital book, Without a Net: Adventures with Butterflies and Moths, published by KAWO. Some years are banner years for red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) butterflies. Labeled an “irruptive” species, they are cold intolerant and overwinter in the far South and Southwest to re-colonize the northern regions to […] Continue reading "Banner Years for Red Admiral Butterflies"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member Not to be outdone by my friend who had found comma and question mark butterfly larvae on stinging nettle, I started to look on the underside of nettle leaves. Ouch! I hate to admit it but I often forgot to wear gardening gloves or take StingEze along on these searches. […] Continue reading "Stinging Nettle Hosts Question Mark Twins"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member Two of Michigan’s common and closely related anglewing butterflies are the comma (also known as hop merchant) and the slightly larger question mark. They are called anglewings because of their ragged wing borders. Their similar orange color and black spot pattern makes them hard to distinguish, unless you are lucky […] Continue reading "The Punctuation Mark Butterflies"
Not All Are Lucky by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member About twenty-five years ago the word got out—Ilse likes creepy, crawly caterpillars and whatever they turn into. Consequently, I have been on the receiving end of some wonderful gifts of nature from friends who love and want to protect our natural world. Egg, larval, and pupal […] Continue reading "Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member If you suffer from “Flower Deprivation Disorder” like I do between the time the leaves fall and the new ones burst forth from their buds in spring, consider planting these two shrubs/small trees: spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). You can cut winter short by two months with witch-hazel […] Continue reading "Framing Winter with Spicebush and Witch-hazel"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member I called the caterpillar “Bunny” because it reminded me of those fuzzy kids’ slippers with rabbit ears. Bunny was hanging by a strand of silk from the sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) in our front yard and it clearly needed a good home, namely a jar with fresh sycamore leaves. Bunny was […] Continue reading "The Sycamore Tussock Moth: Not Very Lucky"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member While the Eastern tent (Malacosoma americanum) caterpillars spin their webs in spring, the fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) caterpillars spin their messy webs in leaves and branches of their host trees in late summer or fall. By then the webs of the tent caterpillar have broken down and disappeared, battered by […] Continue reading "Caterpillars That Spin Webs in Trees and Shrubs in Fall"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member One of the fascinating aspects of raising caterpillars is to observe their “lifestyle.” For example, the monarch caterpillar lives in the fast lane. It eats ravenously day and night for about two weeks, completing its caterpillar stage in that time and its overall metamorphosis from the day the egg is […] Continue reading "Large Tolype Is a Slow Grower among Moths"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member At our former home, over a period of several years, we lost most of our milkweed to a plant disease called Milkweed Yellows. It killed all of the Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) and most of the Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). The disease is caused by […] Continue reading "My Magic Swamps"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member The closest thing to a “wilderness experience” in Southwest Michigan probably is canoeing some of our rivers and creeks. The floodplain forests along their banks provide valuable habitat for native fauna and flora. These streams are not as exciting as the white-water rivers of the West nor as spectacularly scenic […] Continue reading "Canoeing Southwest Michigan’s Waterways"