Female reproductive structure on a common liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha). I'm hoping the area has a male because I'd very much like to see the yellow sporangia form. The end product looks very much like a mayapple. #liverworts #plants #botany #macrophotography
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Colin Purrington
@colinpurrington@flipping.rocks
hometown 4.5.18+hometown-1.2.1Macro photography, biology, vegetable gardening, travel, and cooking. Trying to learn German and French. Swarthmore, PA, USA. #searchable
1424 Followers
157 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 07, 2022
Egg cartons make good phone stands.
Small (~1.25mm) wasp that I've been finding in large numbers on yarrow growing in my yard. I'll probably never be sure, but my guess is that it's Aprostocetus anodaphus (Eulophidae), an endoparasite of Ozirhincus millefolii (Cecidomyiidae), which I've found on the same inflorescences in equally large numbers. As far as I know it has never been reported in North America. Please go out and check for them if you have yarrow and a macro lens. #wasps #hymenoptera #yarrow #achillea #flies #parasite #nature #insects #macrophotography
In case anyone needs to know, if you jostle an inflorescence of yarrow over a piece of white paper, very small (1 mm) wasps fall out. Most tend to hop around instead of flying away. Extremely hard to photograph, disappearing and reappearing like miniature Nightcrawlers from the X-Men universe. Am going to chill some plants to slow them down, so stay tuned if you're interested. You're interested, right?? #wasps #yarrow #achillea #insects #hymenoptera
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In case anyone wants to know what mosquito buckets are: https://colinpurrington.com/2024/08/bti-honeypot-traps/
Brick fans, is the spiral pattern here evidence that several different types of clay were rolled together prior to shaping? I'm not positive of age but nearby residence was built in 1834. Rosedown Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana. #bricks #clay #paving #masonry #beneficiation #louisiana #plantation
Stilt roots of maize are really creepy when they are reaching out for soil. #maize #zea #roots #corn #botany #garden #gardening #allotment
Top reasons to NOT buy a bug zapper.
- Kills a minuscule number of mosquitoes
- Fries pounds of innocent insects per week (and thus starves local birds)
- Confuses lightning bugs (probably)
- Wastes electricity
- Generates light pollution
- Generates sound pollution
- Creates germ risk when insects explode (if near table w/ food)
- Can catch fire and burn your house down
When I have small insects that move too quickly for photographs, I like to dump them onto a white platform that sits on ice, to slow them down a bit. If you zoom and squint you can some wasps that I discovered loitering on my yarrow plants. I'm still editing the close-ups but will share soon. A eulophid, I think. #macro #macrophotography #photography #wasps #insects #wasps
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Here's a photograph (not mine) of a Polistes diminula colony living inside an ornamental butterfly house. It's from Baker and Potter's excellent article titled, "Invasive paper wasp turns urban pollinator gardens into ecological traps for monarch butterfly larvae." #monarchs #butterflies #wasps https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66621-6
If you spray your yard with garlic to repel mosquitoes you might be inadvertently inhibiting the reproduction of other insects. I.e., garlic-based whole-yard sprays are not as "eco-friendly" as pesticide companies claim. That's my take-away from this lab study showing effects on mosquitoes, fruit flies, and wasps. #mosquitoes #garlic #insects #pesticides https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092867426003387
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If a bat that weighs 7 g eats half its body mass in insects every night (typical), I think that works out to 1400 mosquitoes needed based on a 2.5 mg mosquito. So more than 2 mosquitoes every minute if hunting for 10 hours. [Please check my math.] Doable, perhaps, in a room packed with thousands of mosquitoes but in the real world that bat would starve to death. Because it takes more energy to find and hunt down a tiny fly than it gets from the fly. Small bats DO eat mosquitoes but never enough to be important in control. My 2 cents.
Baking egg shells, as one does. For most of my life I added these to holes dug for tomatoes (because Mom), but I've since learned that that has no effect at all because the calcium carbonate doesn't really dissociate in real time unless you dose it with acids. Same reason I've stopped adding them to the compost. I'm going to grind them up and offer to local birds (I don't have chickens anymore). #CalciumCarbonate #eggs #eggshells #birds #calcium #calcite #chemistry #compost #tomatoes
Here's another scam I'm trying to get removed from the market: the BiteShield Mosquito Trap. It's filled with yeast and sugar and is supposed to draw in and trap mosquitoes. Currently for sale in the USA, the UK, and Canada. Owner information is hidden behind a Wyoming LLC but I'm pretty sure it's the same scammer who runs Tougher Than Tom, a company based in Austin, Texas. #mosquitoes
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The University of Wisconsin Department of Entomology has a nice primer on why so many people think bats (and purple martins) control mosquitoes. #bats #mosquitoes https://mosquitosite.russell.wisc.edu/preventing-mosquito-bites/bats-and-birds/
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@alexhaist@wandering.shop Mosquitoes are on my bucket list
Friends, I managed to come up with a full ten (10) reasons why you shouldn't buy bug zappers. At the top of the list, of course, is that they barely kill any mosquitoes. But they also create noise pollution and can burn your house down, among other problems. #mosquitoes #insects #nature https://colinpurrington.com/2026/06/10-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-buy-a-bug-zapper/
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@mjibrower@social.vivaldi.net Potter wasps (Eumeninae) are definitely fans of insect hotels that have holes or tubes. They are solitary, beautiful, and not at all aggressive. I love them. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28355049
Sharing my solution to squash vine borers (Eichlinia cucurbitae), the larvae of which burrow into the roots and eventually kill the plant: inject Thuricide Bt into stem wherever you see frass accumulating. This is easier to do if you train your plant vertically so that lower parts are visible. I also regularly police for eggs. #garden #gardening #squash #zucchini #vegetables #allotment #insects #lepidoptera #moths
We need more articles in nature and conservation magazines about the evils of bug zappers. Americans still think they work and seem to be OK with the billions of innocent insects that are killed each year. Moth people, I'm looking at you. #BugZappers #moths #lepidoptera #insects #mothing #entomology
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@aosmith16@hachyderm.io Butterfly houses are supposed to provide hiding spots for overwintering adults. I.e., they land near the slits, fold their wings, then slide in. There are of course no photographs of a butterfly actually doing this so the ads are always illustrations or AI constructs. Total scam that targets nature lovers.
Made another mosquito-killing box fan to set up near chairs on my front porch. As mosquitoes approach they get flattened against the netting, which I spray with permethrin, a contact insecticide. #mosquitoes #permethrin #fan
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@grammasaurus@mastodon.social I'm not sure anyone has catalogued and ranked predators of adult mosquitoes but I'd put spiders at the top of my list. Especially jumping spiders (Salticidae).
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@Florapis@toot.wales I've seen videos of slugs powering over eggshells so I think that's just another garden myth that will never, ever die (and which I also used to believe).
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@alexhaist@wandering.shop Would be nice to have a t-shirt that explained it. Maybe somebody with drawing skills could make a bucket with key features, to replace annotated photo.
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@MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social Oh, absolutely. All Polistes species love a good butterfly house.
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And as far as I know, nobody has ever photographed a bat catching a mosquito in the wild.
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@lionelb@expressional.social @triploidtree@mastodon.ie Most species of mosquitoes will avoid ovipositing in vile, septic gloop so if you can tolerate the smell I agree this is the way to go.
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@saarmuller@mastodon.social Ah, yes — perfect. I'm usually just listening, and needed a stand to keep the phone from soaking in various kitchen spills. Thank you!
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@Furthering@convo.casa I'd love to have more, too. Been eyeing plans that use quieter computer fans. Good luck with allergies. https://fuller.li/posts/building-a-corsi-rosenthal-box/
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@wplalonde@lgbtqia.space With Hesperomyces infection!
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@alexhaist@wandering.shop And the illustration should look like an engraving from a 17th century scientific publication.
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@alexhaist@wandering.shop I wonder whether my sister will do it …
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@etp@indieweb.social Totally agree. And same for bats. But per the Harvard study from 1960, bats gain weight simply from eating mosquitoes (8 per minute, I recall, or something like that). I think it's hard for us to imagine surviving on what appears to be so little. And in fact, simply writing this is making me hungry.
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@grammasaurus@mastodon.social Jumping spiders could probably snag one in flight (mosquitoes are pretty slow) but I'm assuming they are primarily going after insects resting on foliage and tree trunks. Mosquitoes spend most of their day just waiting for conditions to be right, and that's when they are really susceptible to the hordes of spiders roaming about.
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@mycrowgirl@flipping.rocks Do you know by chance whether firefly DNA ends up in fecal samples? I've always wondered whether they learn to avoid them.
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@deirdrebeth@mas.to Yes, the author was definitely trying to make people happy about bats showing up in unexpected places. I don't think opossums eat mosquitoes.
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@Joshuakevins12@mastodon.social In the United States people tend to use "corn" and "maize" interchangeably to refer to the species Zea mays. But I gather some people prefer to use "maize" for the plant and "corn" for the fruit. And still others reserve "maize" for industrial, non-food crops bound for ethanol and bioplastics. Anyway, Americans' use of "corn" has clearly evolved away from the time when it meant any kind of grain, but that more general meaning is still preferred by many (most?) countries, I think. E.g., Vollkornbrot (in Germany) is whole-grain bread, not cornbread. Any linguists able to add to this or correct me?
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@Furthering@convo.casa This paper likely doesn't have what you're looking for but perhaps citing papers would. I know from a course I took during graduate school that there is a robust field of historical as well as prehistorical palynology. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-03686-2
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@etp@indieweb.social UPDATE: Just found a paper titled, "Biological control of mosquitoes by insectivorous flycatcher birds" ... but I can't locate the text (for free, that is). "The birds are highly motivated, efficient and cost effective pest controller." https://indianjournals.com/article/jer-37-4-014
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@Furthering@convo.casa Is this the kind of filter you have? Highly recommend if not. Just fan, filters, tape.
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@etp@indieweb.social I wasn't able to find any primary literature documenting that flycatchers eat mosquitoes. Plenty of websites asserting they do. That could be based on observations or perhaps inferred from the genus name (Empidonx: “gnat or mosquito master”). Descriptions say they are really good at picking insects off of foliage and that's certainly where you'd find mosquitoes for most of the day. Sorry I can't be more definitive either way.
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@deirdrebeth@mas.to Opossums don't eat ticks except when they are trapped in a cage with only ticks to eat. https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks
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@skykiss@sfba.social 🍿 This is so great.
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@grammasaurus@mastodon.social You gonna make one??