Hello Everyone

They say that gardening is a relaxing pursuit that lifts the spirit. After watching some of the staff work and toil at renovating our bird garden I’m not so sure it’s relaxing. But relaxing or not, it lifts the spirit to see all the great work they’ve been doing. The garden had become overgrown and some non-native species had invaded, so it was high time for a makeover. It might look a little bare right now with most of the plants removed, but with the bird feeders moved, the fence fixed and new paths added; we are just about ready for the replanting stage. And their work hasn’t deterred the birds one little bit. Just the other day a beautiful Indigo Bunting was seen checking out the new digs.

Rondeau Bird Garden

Indigo Bunting

Not only has this weekend brought in August, it has also heralded in our month of guest speakers. We kicked if off with a fabulous program done by WEEP (Wildlife Education and Environmental Program). Based out of the University of Guelph, WEEP helps to rehabilitate birds of prey. Birds that cannot be released back into the wild become part of their educational program and tour Ontario allowing people to see this fantastic birds up close and personal. Highlights included a Great Horned Owl named Einstein who liked to call at men with beards. She imprinted on a man who had a beard and now thinks she is a bearded man and calls to others of her ‘species’. Also present was Socrates the Turkey Vulture who had an unfortunate run in with a car. Although he broke a wing and couldn’t fly, he and was able to survive on road kill for a few days until he was found. Unfortunately, he lost the wing, but still enjoys the high life of touring around Ontario on one of the presenter’s arms.

Einstein the Owl

Socrates the Turkey Vulture

But don’t despair if you missed this great program because we’ve jam-packed the rest of the summer with guest speakers. Allison Lickley (musician), Joe Crowley (herpetile atlas of Ontario), Ryan Bolton (turtle researcher) and Andrew Cirtwill (musician) will be joining us over the next 31 days. If that isn’t enough for you, we are also hoping to get Dave Beadle to come back this year and “wow” us with the secret lives of moths. Keep an eye on our upcoming schedule to make sure you don’t miss these awesome events.

Since we just covered special guests that everyone wants to see (I hope), I figured I’d cover the other kind of guests – the one you’d prefer to stay away. And what better example of an annoying guest than the wasps that circles your picnic table. They are a few different types that bother us, but the most famous are probably the Bald-faced Hornets and the Yellowjackets.

Bald-faced Hornet


Yellowjacket

These species of wasps are colonial and build big nests either above or below ground. This in itself is a pretty impressive feat as the nest is built from scratch each year. The only wasps to survive the winter are the pregnant queen. When it warms up enough for her to come out of hibernation she starts looking around for suitable materials to start a new nest. Once she finds some wood she likes she’ll tear it off in strips, chew it up, mix it with her saliva and then spit it back out in the form of paper. She uses that first bit of paper to create a row of cells and she’ll lay a single egg into each one. In about 4-5 weeks those eggs will become worker females who will take over the jobs of building and enlarging the nest, collecting food and caring for the larva. The queen is relegated to an egg laying machine. By the end of the summer, there will be up to 400 wasps in a single nest. As the summer winds down two special types of eggs are laid, unfertilized eggs which will hatch into males and larger fertilized eggs that will hatch into future queens.

Bald-faced Hornet nest

Their unwanted guest status comes not when they are out foraging for food for the larva, but when they are out to feed themselves. The larva feed on animal food like caterpillars and flies that they paralyze with their stinger. In the spring and early summer, the adults feed on the same food, but as the summer progresses they feed more and more on nectar and sweet liquids like your can of pop which can lead to those unpleasant interactions we’d prefer to avoid. This switch in diet tends to correspond with the maturing of the males and new queens. Once this happens, the social structure of the nest starts to break down and the worker wasps spend more and more time away from the nest foraging on their own. This is why the wasps seem more numerous as summer draws to a close.

For anyone who has been stung, you’ll know that wasp stings are one of the most painful feelings that come from nature. The reason they feel like your arm is being melted by magma is because wasp venom has a three step process. Step 1, the enzymes break down the cell membranes and let the cell contents leak into your bloodstream. When the cell in question is a nerve cell it tells your brain what is happening by using pain as a communication device. Step 2, a second part of the venom slows down your blood flow which in turn makes the pain last longer. Step 3, a third part of the venom breaks through connective tissue between cells allowing the first part to reach more cells and cause more pain. The whole purpose of this three punch knockout is to convince you (aka nest predators) to leave their larva/babies alone. And surprise, surprise it is a spectacularly effective deterrent for most animals like raccoons, skunks and bears.

Wasp stinger with venom droplet

Although it is easy to panic and swat at the wasps when they invade our picnics, we are better off (and far less likely to get stung) if we just gently brush them away and then cover any food that they show interest in.


Venomously Yours,
Kip


P.S. This has nothing to do with the wasp, but as I was doing the research I just learned that you can train honey bees to sniff out explosive! How cool is that?!