On spiders and stink bugs
Early in the summer, as I began researching stink bugs, a dominant issue in gardens this year, I kept coming across mention of their seeking shelter inside houses. I did see one on the back wall of my home last month, but having done battle with the smelly creatures festooning my raspberries, dropping dozens of them into soapy water, I was repulsed by the thought of stink bugs in the house.
To eliminate a breeding ground for this troublesome insect, I cut down to the ground last year’s canes of my everbearing (two-crop) raspberries as their berry production was winding down last month. I’m hoping for at least reduced populations of the pest in this month’s second raspberry crop, on the new canes.
The bugs release their foul odour when disturbed. As I was spending time last month dealing with them in the raspberries, I began to sense their (real or imagined) presence everywhere. But in the house? Surely not.
Collapsing into my beloved zero gravity chair for a few relaxing moments from work one day last month, I sensed that unmistakable, rank odour. As I sniffed my way around the family room, on a narrow segment of wall between the glass doors and the wood stove’s brickwork backing, I saw a stink bug being seriously disturbed — as in being sucked dry by a spider with a tiny body and filament-like legs. The nasty smell diminished with the dehydration process.
I rarely disturb spiders, in the garden or in the house. They are powerful allies in keeping all sorts of pests controlled. They kill mosquitoes. Fleshy, reddish woodlouse spiders eat sowbugs and pillbugs (woodbugs).
Spiders are an important part of a garden’s healthy ecosystem. Every spring I watch, fascinated, as baby spiders hatch out of cocoon-like egg sacs in the garden. In the house, only if I find a spider I’m not prepared to live with do I trap it carefully with a glass jar and piece of stiff paper and release it outdoors.
Bugs, birds and bunnies
As the hot, dry weather continued, I thought about sources of water for the garden’s insect pollinators, birds and other wildlife and began creating simple watering stations.
I set out several plant trays, scrubbed clean and filled with water and perching rocks for insects.
By the back wall tap, I placed a broad, clean plant tray on the ground, one side raised slightly by lawn edging material. Filling it with water leaves a dry part for safe insect perching, though I notice they also light on the thin tray rim for drinking. Situated by the tap, the tray is easy to keep clean and filled with fresh water.
Almost every time I round the house corner on my way into the back garden, a young bunny scurries off across the lawn to hunker down under nearby bushes. Birds often fly away from the same plant tray as I appear around the house corner.
The young rabbit hangs out on the back lawn, munching mainly on the grasses, clover, and assorted other greenery there. A larger rabbit follows a similar routine on the front lawn.
They are welcome to feeding on lawn areas; however, I’ve become somewhat less supportive of bunnies after finding a gorgeous grouping of Pink Blush lavatera plants chomped down in a front yard bed. Clever bunny bit through the sturdy stems of the bushy, 40-cm plants, causing them to topple over and present Bunny with a perfectly accessible dinner.
Backyard bunny demolished a young bush bean planting and munched a group of new lettuce transplants down to miserable little nubs.
Subsequent plantings have been caged with sections of chicken wire. I knew there would one day be a use for those rolls of wire stashed in a corner of the garden shed.
GARDEN EVENT
Dahlia show. The Victoria Dahlia Society is hosting its 77th annual Dahlia Show on Saturday, Aug. 19, 1 to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 20, 12 to 4 p.m. in the Prospect Lake Community Hall, 5358 Sparton Rd. In Saanich. There will be a large display of award winning dahlias. The public is invited to make lists of desired varieties in anticipation of the Spring Tuber Sale in April. Freshly cut flowers will be available for purchase. victoriadahliasociety.org.
