This website is primarily about my photography, web design and graphics but being a photographer I think there is this natural love of nature that we feel compelled to document. When I finally saw a monarch (now on the endangered species list) flutter around my milkweed plants I was ecstatic!
I live in a very arid environment with well water that can even kill morning glory. Yes, the gardeners at the garden club looked at me like I had an alien disease when I said that and moved away from me. These city water drinkers had no concept of what a California well water can be like! Nevertheless I want to do what I can to help these little beauties so even though this is a design blog I will document what I find out on this post as I learn.
I used to see monarch butterflies every Summer as a kid but at some point I realized I wasn’t seeing them anymore. I actually didn’t see many butterflies at all in this desert landscape but I made sure never to chop down a milkweed knowing it’s the only plant the migrating butterflies can lay their eggs on to survive.
The other bugs!
Tarantula Hawk
The monarch is not the only insect that loves the milkweed. This glossy blue/black fella I see a lot more often! According to Wikipedia the tarantula hawk “has been awarded second place on the Schmidt sting pain index, beaten only by the South American bullet ant). The pain from a bullet ant sting lasts up to 24 hours, whereas that of a wasp usually only aggravates the unlucky victim for five minutes.” I sure don’t want to find out if that’s true! But he seems gets a little high on the nectar and flies around clumsy after feasting for as while, even so, it actually helps the monarch by aiding in the plants pollination.
The wasp below I believe is a male because the antenna are straight instead of curled. As I approached him the wasps circled around my body at least 4 times before settling back on the milkweed as if to say I checked you out and you are not a threat.
Apparently not a threat to a monarch but pretty yucky to read about what happens to the poor tarantula that gets near one!
Milkweed bug
Here is the explosion I am dealing with. From what I read it’s not a problem if you don’t have very many but that is not my situation. Too much for pesticide or the dish soap technique. I am toying with the idea of just vacuuming them up. Anybody got any other environmentally friendly ideas?
