Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Insects

Merlin’s Hollow, Busy Bee World Under The Microscope

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 20:23:38 +0000

I almost forgot that I had all these nice pictures of bugs I took at the Merlin’s Hollow English garden visit at the beginning of this month. Not sure if I said that before but Merlin’s Hollow garden is always full of surprises and this year I entered another dimension – the macro world.

A Fly, Merlin's Hollow English Garden

I remember those days when all the birds I saw around me always look the same, but not until I got birding book, camera and photo lens. Now I can say the same about the insects. At some point they all used to look the same especially bees and flies. Well it isn’t the case anymore and I shall put that blame on my macro lens.

So here I am standing and bending and taking photos but I couldn’t help to listen to the conversation, okay I was kind of eavesdropping, but I was there and wasn’t hiding – may be it does not count. The conversation was between a visiting lady and David Tomlinson.

A Snail, Merlin's Hollow English Garden

I am not sure who it was, may be she was talking about her son. She was little disappointed that, let say it was her son she was talking about, after graduating from university wants to be a farmer. Okay at that point I did not have any particular subject to photograph in front of me so I turned around and said: ‘Trust me after graduating from university we all want to be farmers‘.

‘Why, did you go to university?‘ – she asked. ‘Yes, many years ago and why – because it is very stressful, and it does not get any better because some of the jobs become very demanding‘. And then Mr. Tomlinson added ‘or go to university to get a job to support your farm‘. ‘Exactly‘ – I nodded.

A Bee, Merlin's Hollow English Garden

Speaking of farming let me bring to your attention my latest finding about this open source ecology project. You can watch the video here and find out more about the open source ecology project started by Marchin Jakubowski. However, this is the closest example of putting your degree into a good use – farming.

A Lady Bug? Merlin's Hollow English Garden

About 10,000 bird species – not sure if there is that one person in the world who was able to see them all. The last bird book I read the author had record of over 3,000 bird species. Now imagine insects, there are millions and millions of them and I am sure millions of them not identified yet.

Red Ant, Merlin's Hollow English Garden

So when I was shooting bug photo Mr. Tomlinson asked me what I was pointing at. So I showed him and he said he would love to identify all the insects in his garden. ‘But there are so many of them, just searching for name can be a full time job‘. Okay I should have known better. He pointed out that ‘if you are looking at the fly you would go to the fly section and so you are looking at the smaller population of insects‘.

Yes he is right, starting with the sub-categories will get you to ID the insect faster, but I will hold off on the identification idea of the bugs for now – just too many, too many to handle for now.

Another Fly, Merlin's Hollow English Garden

It was time to go. On my way out I was still taking last photos and at the same time I yelled to my husband – ‘this should be bug garden as well, there are so many of them here‘. A lady on the other side of the flower bed got excited and called back at me – ‘this is called a bug garden?‘. ‘No no this is English garden‘ – I replied. ‘Oh okay‘ – she replied bowing her head and I smiled back.

May be next time I will keep quite otherwise I will start a rumor that never existed.

What Now? Tar Spots On Maple Trees, These Are Fun-guys Only

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:03:57 +0000

I have seen those dark spots in the summer on the Red Maple, and they are nearly invisible on the dark leaves – only if you look closer. However, in the fall they are too visible so I couldn’t resists to find out what it was. A contrast of black spot on yellow leaves does not make a pretty maple tree.

Tar Spots, Red Maple Tree

I am sure that by now everyone heard about the Asian Long-Horned Beetle, the Emerald Ash Borer and Yellow Headed Spruce Sawfly infestations. The latest and greatest is the borer and the sawfly. Borer is an invasive insect that kills all different species of healthy ash trees. The sawfly feeds only on the spruce trees. I guess we are missing a natural predator for those insects.

The classic scenario I experienced on my backyard was the infestation of ladybugs. This was few years ago and once in the while I still find one or two of those nasty ladybugs in my house. Since the ladybug population decreased over few years I do find more aphids in my garden. Releasing ladybugs, a predator to aphids, is one of few natural methods to control garden aphid infestations.

Then this one I will never know. About three or four years ago we were driving on Hwy 404 to work. It was just before Hwy 7, for about five minutes of driving we saw dark funnel clouds on top of many trees, no not tornadoes. It wasn’t like only one or two trees, it was hundreds of trees. What kind of bug it was I have no idea.

May be someone will after reading this post.

Tar Spots, Red Maple Tree

So what is going on with Red Maple trees on my street?

I was able to narrow down my search to the tar spots. Black spot, also called tar spot, on maple leaves are caused by fungi in the genus Rhytisma (whatever it is? my Latin isn’t that good anyway). Leaves usually become infected in the late spring or late summer and may fall off prematurely. These tar spot are not usually detrimental to the maple trees.

In our case here, it is already November and the leaves are falling due to natural fall cycle. Some are still hanging to the tree even with these spots.

Tar Spots, Red Maple Tree

And the treatment is? The fungus winters-over on leaves that have dropped to the ground. The leaves need to be raked up in the fall otherwise the spores will reappear in the spring on the old leaves and spread to any nearby tree. Well, we definitely have the spread on all trees, but everyone been raking them and composting. Hopefully it will go away.

Treating your maple tree is usually not effective. You cannot just treat one tree, you have to treat them all in the neighborhood, and for now raking is the solution.

Merlin’s Hollow, Best Of The Last Visit

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:50:19 +0000

It was another great visit accompanied by great weather conditions, sadly it was last one for the season, to the Merlin’s Hollow, an English garden created by the Tomlinson’s here in Aurora.