Antlions!

 

This time of year here in the Central Valley is usually dry and dusty. If you look around building foundations, fence posts, or anywhere the dust tends to pile up, you may see a strange thing. You will find upside-down cones in the dirt. You probably have them around where you live too if you look closely. They look like this.

The cone is actually a trap made by the larva of an antlion. They are often called “doodlebugs” because of the way they spin and wiggle. The walls of the pit are very steep and lined with loose sand and dust particles. When an unsuspecting ant falls in one, it finds it very hard to crawl out. The doodlebug throws sand at the ant to knock it further down towards the bottom. If the ant falls to the bottom of the pit, the larva grabs it with its sharp mandibles (jaws) and pulls it underground. Its mandibles are hollow like a straw so it sucks all the juices out of the ant and throws the dry part out of the pit. Them to waits patiently for another ant or small insect to wander by. They eat, and eat, and eat! Here’s a video of a doodlebug in action.

When it gets large enough, it will for a pupa and rest for a few days. Soon it will emerge as an adult ant lion. The adults look a lot like damselflies. You don’t usually see them flying around during the day. They are pretty shy. The y don’t eat ants like the doodlebugs but instead prefer to sip nectar from flowers. They only live a few weeks in their adult form.

If you look around carefully, you might find some. They are fun to watch and really can’t hurt us. We’re just way to big to get trapped like an ant!

Well that’s all for this week.

Love, Papaw.

Dragons in the Sky

 

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects in nature. They can fly in any direction, up down, sideways, backwards, you name it. They have incredible eyes. They can see all around them, even backwards. This is good, because they have to see everything while they are flying. They hunt for insects like mosquitoes and flies while all the while watching for predators like birds ore even bigger dragonflies.

Dragonflies have 4 wings witch can be clear or have colored markings. They are divided into little cell areas that scientists use to help identify all the different kinds. Each species of dragonfly is unique. They are cold blooded so they need to warm up in the sun every morning before they can get started. You can often find them sunning on a fencepost or wire so that they can dry off from the morning dew and warm their flight muscles. Once they are airborne they will fly over grassy fields and meadows looking for unsuspecting insects. One single dragonfly can catch and devour over 100 insects in a single day. The have a cool way of catching them. They make a “basket” with their legs and scoop them up right out of the air!

Dragonflies start their lives in the water. The female lays eggs on plants just under the surface of the water. When they hatch, the larva (called a nymph) starts searching for small water dwellers to eat. They have a jaw that shoots out like some kind of alien! They eat and eat until they are full grown. Then they crawl out of the water on the stem of a plant. Their skin splits down the back and the adult dragonfly pulls itself out. When its wings are expanded and fully dried, they take their place in the skies as fierce hunters like their parents.

A cousin of the dragonfly is the damselfly. You can tell them apart because the dragonfly rests with its wings laid flat. A damselfly rests with its wing folded back. They are also much thinner. You can tell the difference in the larva also. They have feathery gills that they wave around in the water.

Dragonflies can’t really hurt you. If you see one, watch it carefully.  They are really amazing.

Here is a neat video about dragonflies.

 

Hope you liked our dragonfly talk!

Love Papaw.

Earthworms!

 

When I was growing up, nighttime excursions in the back yard after a good rain were a fun time. My dad and I loved to fish for largemouth bass, and nothing gets the attention of a hungry fish like a nice, fat night crawler. We would go out with a pail and a flashlight. We noticed that night crawlers were very sensitive to light. Although they do not have eyes like we have, they can “sense” light and dark, especially on their ends. If you turned the light right on them, they would pull back into the ground before you could get close. They are also sensitive to vibrations so we would have to walk very slowly and quietly. When you grabbed one, they would feel slimy. The slime is called mucus. They use it to protect their skin. Since they breathe through their skin, if it dries out, they will die. They also have short, bristly hairs (kind of like you daddy’s whiskers if he forgets to shave) that help them pull into their burrows and keep them from being pulled out easily.

The head end is darker brown that the rest of the worm. That’s where you can find its hearts. He has 5 of them! Worms like to eat organic matter (things like dead leaves on the ground) that they find in the dirt. They spit the dirt back out at the surface. They look like little piles of round, wet, dirtballs. Many people like to put these in their garden because they contain nutrients for plants. Earthworms help aerate the soil and help turn leaves and other debris into usable nutrients for plants. We call animals that do that decomposers. In the fall they leave little pouches with eggs in the soil. Soon they hatch out and begin to burrow in the ground in their own tunnels’

There are many different earthworms around the world. Some are very small like red worms. One variety from South Africa can be 21 feet long! Australia also has huge earth worms that can grow to 9 feet. Some here in the Central Valley can flop around like little break dancers. We call these “snake worms”.

Here’s a video about giant earth worm. Wow they’re huge!

Well I hope you liked our talk about earthworms!

Love Papaw.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world. If you put hummingbird on one side of a balance scale and a nickel (sometimes even a penny!) on the other side, the coin would be heavier. Even though they are small they can do some incredible things. Their wings can beat over 80 times a second! This allows the humming bird to fly forward, backward, hover in place, or even fly up-side-down.

Humming birds feed on nectar from flowers and very small insects. Because their heart can beat over 1000 times a minute (yours is probably 70-100) it has to eat almost constantly. It needs to consume its own body weight in food every day. That’s a lot of food! They have a long beak and a very long tongue so that they can get the nectar in trumpet–shaped flowers that other bird can’t reach. At night, since it can’t eat, they go into a deep sleep called torpor where their heartbeat goes down to around 50 beats per minute.

There are over 300 kinds of hummingbirds in the world. The smallest is the size of a bee. Some may stay local all winter if your area doesn’t get to cold, but many fly all the way to Central and South America during our winter. This is called migration. They all have brightly colored feathers that can be iridescent (they show different colors as the light changes). Some males have long tails that they use to get the female’s attention. My favorite here in California is the Ruby Throated Hummingbird. They come to our yard often. One time one even took a drink from the garden hose while I was watering the flowers. He was so close!

It’s easy to set up a hummingbird feeder so that you can get to see them every day. They make them all different colors and sizes. You can buy nectar to put in the feeder or even make your own. There are lots of good recipes online. Just be sure you clean the feeder often so your bird friends don’t get sick.

Here’s a video about setting up a hummingbird feeder.

If you would like to know some more about hummingbirds, here is another fun video.

Well that’s all for now. Hope you liked the hummingbirds!

Love Papaw.

Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day…

The Ruins of the Colosseum

This week my grandson ask if I would talk about Rome. So here we go. Legend says that ancient Rome was founded around 735 BC by two twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. As the story goes, they were abandoned and raised by a mother wolf. Later Romulus killed his brother and became the first king of Rome. We do know Rome was founded in 735 BC and that Romulus was the first king, but the rest, well, who knows. By 117 AD the Rome Empire covered all the lands around the Mediterranean and most of Europe. Rome was ruling over Israel & Jerusalem when Jesus was alive.

The Romans gave invented and built many things. They made wonderful roads decreed to “last 1000 years”. They made very strong concrete for sea walls and harbors that had the ability to get stronger with age as it sat in the ocean. They build the Colosseum that could hold over 60,000 people. They built huge temples like the Parthenon. They had aqueducts that could carry water throughout the city. The Romans had a huge army that was almost invincible. The soldiers could mark almost 25 miles in one day! The Romans had one of the first republics. We used many ideas from their government to help form ours.

Many Romans wore robes or togas, a kind of long cloth mad of wool that was wrapped around the body. Most togas were white, but the ruler, Caesar, wore one that was purple. He was the only one who could wear all purple. It was extremely expensive. The purple dye came from a special kind of snail. You had to use a lot of them for just one robe! Most Romans spoke Latin, a language only used in science today, but many knew Spanish and Greek.

The Romans gave us many other things. There are many web sites that can tell you about Roman culture, its history, and even how to make your own toga. Well that’s all for now!

Love Papaw.

10 facts about the ancient Romans

Rome for Kids

Red Pandas

 Several years ago we got to visit the Boise Zoo with some of our grandchildren. We weren’t sure what we would get to see, because it was chilly and actually dropping a few flurries, but we decided to venture out anyway. In one enclose we got to see Red Pandas.

Red Pandas are normally found in southwestern China. It is not really a true panda but more closely related to raccoons, weasels, and skunks. They live in the coniferous forests close to water. They do eat bamboo leaves like the great panda, so that’s where it gets the name. They also like fruits, blossoms, and the occasional egg.

They have reddish fur on top and black fur underneath. They have white ears, with white cheeks, and a white face. They have a reddish tail with a black tip and little black rings. They are not really big. They
are only 2-3 feet long with their tail. They love to climb trees but they are a little shy. They can run quickly on the ground by trotting or bounding. They sleep in trees during the day and wander around at evening and during the night.

Red pandas make lots of noises. They can make growls, barks, squeals, hoots, bleats, grunts and twitters. This helps them communicate with pandas and other animals.

Red pandas can have 1-4 cubs and are very good parents. The mother makes a den in a tree or hollow log for them to live in for their first few months. Red pandas can live for 14 years.

Red pandas are endangered because the forests where they live because of poachers and people cutting down lots of trees.

Here is a video for you.

I hoped you liked finding out about red pandas!

Love Papaw.

Sloths

 

Next time you are at the zoo, make sure you go visit the sloths. Sloths are the slowest mammals on Earth. They live in the tropical rain forests of South America. They spend all their time in the trees. They only come down to go to the bathroom or to find a different tree.

There are two kinds of sloths, the two-toed sloth, and the three-toed sloth. I like the three-toed sloth the best. If you remember the sloth from the movie Zootopia, the one in the DMV, he was a three-toed sloth. Sloths are herbivores.  They like to eat leaves, stems, fruits and even the bark of trees and other plants. Their stomach is always full and sometimes the food takes a month to digest. I guess they do everything slow. Sloths are good swimmers so if they fall out of a tree and into a river, they can still get back to shore.

Sloths spend a lot of time sleeping or just hanging around in the trees. In fact they are so slow that they have a whole ecosystem living in their fur. There is a kind of moth that live there and nowhere else.  They have special bacteria and fungus that can act like antibiotics! I guess they don’t take baths very often. Here are some fun facts from (https://slothconservation.org/10-incredible-facts-about-the-sloth/).

1. There used to be sloths the size of elephants!

2. Sloths are three times stronger than us!

3. They poop once a week, and a third of their body weight in one go

4. Sloths are blind in bright daylight

5. They are 3x faster in water than on land

6. It takes sloths 30 days to digest a leaf

7. If it gets to cold, they can starve to death on a full stomach

8. Sloths can fall 100 feet without injury

9. They could cure cancer and help with bacterial resistance

10. Sloth lifespan: No one knows how long they live for  (one in a zoo lived for over 50 years!)

11. Sloths have a colony of hundreds of bugs living in their fur!

Here’s a short video about sloths.

I hope you liked our sloth talk!

Love Papaw.