Monarchs and Wooly Bear Caterpillars ...

This weekend, we gave our honeybees a second treatment of Apiguard (a thymol miticide) for Varroa destructor.  I don't think we have a big problem with mites and populations in our hives are good.  It seems that hive beetle problem is down also ... we will be taking several strong hives with good honey levels into the winter.

I also walked on annual rye and hairy vetch on our corn fields where there might be erosion problems in the Spring ... around a 2:1 ratio rye to vetch by weight.  I ran our of seed and will finish next week.

I collected seed from mountain mint (hoary mountain mint - Pycnanthemum incanum), maypop and common milkweed.  I am drying them now and will harvest the seed later.

On walks this week, there were many Monarch butterflies heading generally south.  It did not frost here this weekend and it is looking like a great week ahead for weather.  Our second crop buckwheat will have a chance to bloom.  Most wildflowers are about finished but iron weed, some wing stem, blue mistflower, thistle and some asters are still blooming.  Below is a monarch sharing nectar reluctantly with a bumble bee.  Also below, Maypop pods on a fence.

I saw a totally black wooly bear caterpillar this weekend.  A cold winter ahead?  This caterpillar is the larva form of the Isabella Tiger Moth ... a favorite food source is milkweed.  Wooly bears freeze in the winter ... below is from wikipedia ...


"The moth Pyrrharctia isabella is known by different common names at its two main life stages. The adult is the Isabella Tiger Moth and the larva is called the Banded Woolly Bear. The larvae of many species of Arctiid moths are called "woolly bears" because of their long, thick, furlike setae.
The insect can be found in many cold regions, including the Arctic. The banded Woolly Bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form, when it literally freezes solid. First its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, then its blood, followed by the rest of the body. It survives being frozen by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues. In the spring it thaws out and emerges to pupate. Once it emerges from its pupa as a moth it has only days to find a mate before it dies."   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrharctia_isabella


Tomorrow we return to school.  Genetics will go over their last test, Selected Topics will be finish preparation for their solar system modeling lab on Tuesday and Computer Programming will start a unit on graphics and animation.  Back to work!