For Mother Nature’s sake (and ours), lay off the pesticides
DEAR JOAN >> It happened again.
The young men come to your door promising to rid the neighborhood of “pests.” Apparently some of the area cuties are terrified of bees, wasps, ants and other insects. The poison is spread and death results.
Last week, my backyard garden was humming with assorted bees crawling in and out of the various blossoms. Since Saturday, not one: no carpenter bees, no honey bees, no wasps, not one pollinator.
No pollinators, no tomatoes and most other vegetables. I write about this every summer and get no help with it. DEAR MARY >> I’m right there with you, or perhaps I should say “write there.” I’ve often written about the concerns of using too many pesticides and the dangers that come with them. Nature is a balancing act. If you tip the scales too far in one direction, you pay a price on the other side. And it’s not just your yard.
Pesticides, even the ones that the exterminator might tell you are the safest, often end up in our creeks, rivers and, eventually, the bay, where they kill fish and the creatures that fish feed on.
The poisons used don’t stop at your fence line. They can drift in the wind and spread with the sprinkler runoff, killing insects throughout the neighborhood. They also don’t discriminate, killing the socalled bad bugs as well as the so-called good bugs.
Insects play vital roles in nature and in backyards, so please, think before picking up a can of pesticide. Use the least lethal means possible to control damaging insects and let the others, especially the vital pollinators, live unmolested.
DEAR JOAN >> There was a dead fox on Stanley Boulevard, near the creek, last night. I couldn’t tell if it was female because of the condition of the remains, but I’m worried about there being a den of kits wondering what happened, in case it was their mom.
Would most kits be grown enough to fend for themselves by now or should I start searching the creek for a den? DEAR LORI >> It’s probably a bit early for kits to be on their own. Vixens usually give birth in the early spring and by late summer, the kits are more independent and better able to make it on their own. As it’s still early summer, I’d go out looking for them.
It doesn’t mean you’ll need to rescue them. If they appear to be doing OK, then just keep an eye on them. If they look like they’re struggling, then contact the wildlife rescue group nearest you.
DEAR JOAN >> This morning, sitting on my front porch, I spent a full 25 minutes watching a squirrel darting from place to place, digging in the grass below a big pine tree. Two crows were keeping 4 to 5 feet on either side of the squirrel, moving as he did.
I think they were stalking him to mug him for whatever treasures he found. Is it my imagination or do crows do that? DEAR BONNIE >> It’s hard to know what’s in the mind of a crow, or any animal, but crows do enjoy tormenting other animals just for the fun of it. Their ultimate goal might have been to steal the squirrel’s treasures, but they also could have been making sure the squirrel didn’t bother any of their crow treasures.