Turn out the lights y’all, talk to your neighbors about their exterior lighting, call your electric companies and ask them to put diffusers on those bright led street lamps, and talk to your electeds. The night and its creatures deserve their time of day. Climate change is exacerbating everything, but we can try to make it more liveable for the night dwellers.
A bigger issue is how people maintain their yards.
Lawns are the ecological equivalent of a parking lot. Lawns are terrible for the local species, as are all of the non-native species used in modern landscaping. Once you learn what is actually native and what is not, you’ll be completely shocked at how few native species we cultivate.
Another really huge issue is everyone religiously scrubbing their yard of fallen leaves. Leaves need to stay on the ground. They are essentially compost for trees, and tons and tons of bugs lay eggs in fallen leaves, including fireflies.
I quit mowing my lawn and let some native plants grow up in place of grass and stopped eradicating the fallen leaves, and that summer my yard was absolutely lit the fuck up with fireflies.
All of this is currently reversible. We just have to stop buying into stupid capitalist yard maintenance traditions and start working with the native species. It’s honestly much less work than trying to make all of these Chinese species that are in everyone’s yards work.
Yeah, I have a native prairie instead of a lawn, even though it is not that big. My city likes to cite native yards, especially in the fall and winter.
I love my yard and the pollinators and vertebrates love it too! Butterflies, bees, birds, bats, fireflies, snakes etc etc. It is good to see them thrive in this little space.
Look into soft landings under your trees, native plants and grasses. If space is limited feel free to target your desired species with their host plants, such as milk weed for monarchs. Don’t be afraid to let your fence rows and ditches grow, low traffic areas are great for growing native plants.
Also leave portions of your yard undisturbed year round. Leave those leaves in your garden and spray them down with the hose every now and then if they get dry. Also run all those “mosquito control” companies out of town, because they’re killing all the insects on all the properties around wherever they spray
Also run all those “mosquito control” companies out of town, because they’re killing all the insects on all the properties around wherever they spray
Had a guy knock on my door a few months ago. They were “doing work in the neighborhood” (of course) and offering to treat the yard for carpenter ants. I declined. “It sure would be a shame if your neighbors all got treated and you ended up with an infestation.” Buddy, if all you got is movie mob threats, your career in “sales” is going to go about as well as the last dozen things you tried and failed at.
I had one of those guys come by about 2 months ago, but for windows/siding/roof/solar/gutters. I didn’t decline, figured I’d hear the kid out, but he set me up for an appointment the following afternoon.
Second guy was younger than me (I’m 30), and kept using quotes like “I’ve been doing this a long time,” and “In my professional opinion, I really think XYZ.” I also got a lecture on “needs versus wants” because I wasn’t willing to pay $600+/month for the next 17 years but I had the audacity to own a TV. 🙄 He even took a picture of some “carpenter bees” that were nesting above one of my gutters to try and upsell how seriously this work needed to be done.
He did not like the fact I went outside, checked the spot, and came back to inform him that those were, in fact, wasps, not carpenter bees. And he realized the conversation was over when he finally (about 2.5 hours in) asked me what I do for work, and I told him I’m a general contractor and already knew everything he was telling me, I’m just broke af. 🤷♀️
Turn out the lights y’all, talk to your neighbors about their exterior lighting, call your electric companies and ask them to put diffusers on those bright led street lamps, and talk to your electeds. The night and its creatures deserve their time of day. Climate change is exacerbating everything, but we can try to make it more liveable for the night dwellers.
A bigger issue is how people maintain their yards. Lawns are the ecological equivalent of a parking lot. Lawns are terrible for the local species, as are all of the non-native species used in modern landscaping. Once you learn what is actually native and what is not, you’ll be completely shocked at how few native species we cultivate.
Another really huge issue is everyone religiously scrubbing their yard of fallen leaves. Leaves need to stay on the ground. They are essentially compost for trees, and tons and tons of bugs lay eggs in fallen leaves, including fireflies.
I quit mowing my lawn and let some native plants grow up in place of grass and stopped eradicating the fallen leaves, and that summer my yard was absolutely lit the fuck up with fireflies.
All of this is currently reversible. We just have to stop buying into stupid capitalist yard maintenance traditions and start working with the native species. It’s honestly much less work than trying to make all of these Chinese species that are in everyone’s yards work.
Yeah, I have a native prairie instead of a lawn, even though it is not that big. My city likes to cite native yards, especially in the fall and winter.
I love my yard and the pollinators and vertebrates love it too! Butterflies, bees, birds, bats, fireflies, snakes etc etc. It is good to see them thrive in this little space.
Fucking nailed it neighbor, well said.
Look into soft landings under your trees, native plants and grasses. If space is limited feel free to target your desired species with their host plants, such as milk weed for monarchs. Don’t be afraid to let your fence rows and ditches grow, low traffic areas are great for growing native plants.
Also leave portions of your yard undisturbed year round. Leave those leaves in your garden and spray them down with the hose every now and then if they get dry. Also run all those “mosquito control” companies out of town, because they’re killing all the insects on all the properties around wherever they spray
Please share how to run the pesticide and herbicide places out of town. Would love some good options.
Had a guy knock on my door a few months ago. They were “doing work in the neighborhood” (of course) and offering to treat the yard for carpenter ants. I declined. “It sure would be a shame if your neighbors all got treated and you ended up with an infestation.” Buddy, if all you got is movie mob threats, your career in “sales” is going to go about as well as the last dozen things you tried and failed at.
I had one of those guys come by about 2 months ago, but for windows/siding/roof/solar/gutters. I didn’t decline, figured I’d hear the kid out, but he set me up for an appointment the following afternoon.
Second guy was younger than me (I’m 30), and kept using quotes like “I’ve been doing this a long time,” and “In my professional opinion, I really think XYZ.” I also got a lecture on “needs versus wants” because I wasn’t willing to pay $600+/month for the next 17 years but I had the audacity to own a TV. 🙄 He even took a picture of some “carpenter bees” that were nesting above one of my gutters to try and upsell how seriously this work needed to be done.
He did not like the fact I went outside, checked the spot, and came back to inform him that those were, in fact, wasps, not carpenter bees. And he realized the conversation was over when he finally (about 2.5 hours in) asked me what I do for work, and I told him I’m a general contractor and already knew everything he was telling me, I’m just broke af. 🤷♀️
10/10, well done!