Rebugging our Community

by Katelyn Rinicker | Nov 22, 2024

Insect populations have dropped drastically over the last few decades. Bugs are the building blocks of our environment and provide many benefits such as beautiful flowers, food sources, soil aeration, and more. We can help these little creatures flourish by rebugging our community. I could spout science facts all day long about how insect populations have dwindled, you have likely already noticed.

When I was younger, we would visit my grandparents who lived 2 hours away. We would have to stop at least once to clean our windshield. Now I can drive over 6 hours to visit my parents and never have to clean my windshield. Or maybe, you have noticed that there aren’t as many Monarch butterflies as you used to see. We used to take walks and have a hard time not stepping on grasshoppers and we used to see fireflies every night. Now there seems to be a fraction of insects around as there used to be. According to Hallmann et al, insect biomass has declined by 74% – 83%. Many insects are beneficial and are not considered pests. They decompose plants, animals, and fecal matter. They aerate our soil, provide a food source for other animals, and pollinate our plants.

Why are they declining?

This is a tricky question as their decline is not caused by just one thing. They are dying a death by a thousand cuts. Habitat fragmentation and degradation, pollution, pesticide use (especially Neonictonoids), loss of native plants, light pollution, climate change, and many other reasons. Some species of insects need specific food sources or plants to lay their eggs on. Iowa has lost over 99% of its native landscapes, meaning it has become increasingly difficult for insects to find their host plants and habitats.

Insect Decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a Thousand cuts by Wagner et al assesses the metadata surrounding insect decline.

What can we do to help?

While this decline is very alarming, we can all help “rebug” our world.

If you have a minute:

Don’t kill the bugs that have found their way into your home; instead, relocate them outside. If you don’t want to touch them, you can safely handle them with a piece of paper and a cup.
Reduce pesticide use, or better yet, stop using it altogether – pesticides harm all insects, not just the small percentage that are considered pests

Or use alternative methods such as putting food in containers so it is not available to insects
Or put soapy water, cinnamon, lemon juice, or mint around the holes that they seem to be coming in at
If you MUST kill them, use boiling water or cornstarch instead of chemicals
Be untidy in your garden! Insects use weeds, old plant stems, wood, and leaves
Reduce outdoor lighting – you can do this by incorporating motion sensors. Insects and a variety of other animals use the stars as navigation. Constant outdoor lighting disrupts and confuses their natural systems.
Keep lawn grass longer – this provides shelter and a food source

If you have more time:

Plant native gardens – this provides food sources and habitat, it also helps to connect habitats as insects can only travel so far before needing a break and a snack
You can do this in containers, your yard, window boxes, or anywhere there is a little bit of space!

Plant host plants – such as milkweed for monarch butterflies
Grow your own produce – the flowers are great sources of nutrients for insects
Compost – an open compost pile provides warmth, habitat, and food for invertebrates

You can also use compost systems to build up soil health!

If you have a lot of time:

Advocate for policies that promote re-wilding the state. This helps protect and create more natural areas. Write to your local, state, and federal governments to explain the importance of policies protecting insects and wildlife.
Talk to your boss and landlords about creating native gardens
Join community groups that support insects!

“The loss of even a small percent of insects might also be disproportionately consequential. They sit at the base of the food web; if they go down, so will many birds, bats, spiders, and other predators.”
– Ed Young

Birds from Erv

by Dan Haug | Jul 11, 2024

photo montage of Erv Klaas and a whooping crane

Erwin “Erv” Klaas died on Saturday July 6. His passing is a great loss for Prairie Rivers of Iowa. He served on the board since its founding in 2001, started an endowment for the organization in honor of his wife Janet, and was a reliable presence at our events.

I received the news of his death on Sunday while visiting the International Crane Foundation with my family. We were watching a whooping crane, and my mother immediately recalled a birding trip that Erv had led to Nebraska’s Platte River many years back, perhaps as a contribution for our church’s silent auction. Among the awe-inspiring flocks of thousands of grey-feathered sandhill cranes, Erv had his binoculars trained on a single white-feathered whooping crane and was trying to help the rest of the group spot it. Mom said it was like a page out of “Where’s Waldo!” It’s a fun image to recall a one-of-kind ornithologist who loved sharing his passion for nature with other people.

Let’s think of Erv whenever we raise our binoculars! Here are five other birds (plus one plant and two insects) that remind me of his life and legacy.

Horned lark. Photo by Kenneth Cole Schneider.

Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris)

Shortly after I was hired, Erv took me for a driving tour of the Ioway Creek watershed. As an assistant commissioner for the Story County Soil & Water Conservation District (and a representative for the group on the Watershed Management Authority), he was well-aware of how some farming practices could degrade soil, water, and wildlife habitat, while other farming practices could preserve them. He pointed out examples of both on our drive. At one point, he told me to pull over so he could take out his binoculars and get a better look at a flock of non-descript birds hopping and fluttering about on the open fields. Up close, they’re adorable! Horned larks are gregarious birds that form large, mixed-species flocks, which could describe Erv too!

Drawing of a passenger pigeon hunt. (Public domain)

Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)

Erv believed that care for the land and its creatures is an ethical imperative. Toward that end, he organized a regular event where residents of Ames and the surrounding area would gather to read passages from Sand County Almanac and other essays by Aldo Leopold. One that I find especially moving is “On a Monument to the Pigeon,” first delivered in 1947, which includes poetic lines like this:

There will always be pigeons in books and in museums, but these are effigies and images, dead to all hardships and to all delights. Book-pigeons cannot dive out of a cloud to make the deer run for cover, or clap their wings in thunderous applause of mast-laden woods. Book-pigeons cannot breakfast on new-mown wheat in Minnesota, and dine on blueberries in Canada. They know no urge of seasons; they feel no kiss of sun, no lash of wind and weather. They live forever by not living at all.

Trumpeter swan, spotted on Ioway Creek watershed tour with Erv (2017-09-15)

Trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator)

The trumpeter swan could have gone the way of the passenger pigeon (there were only 69 birds remaining in the continental US in the 1930s) but the population has made an impressive recovery (63,000 by 2015). Erv is part of that conservation success story: in 1971 he joined the US Fish and Wildlife Service and conducted research on the effects of DDT on birds that helped lead to a national ban in 1973. It’s been a great joy to see large flocks of trumpeter swans on the lake at Ada Hayden Heritage Park, another of Erv’s signature projects. They also like CREP wetlands constructed to improve water quality; that’s where we spotted this one!

Vallisneria americana - by Fredlyfish4 via Wikimedia commons

Tape grass (Vallisneria americana)

This aquatic plant is an important food source for waterfowl and nursery for fish. It has an amazing pollination strategy, with boat-like male flowers and corkscrew-stemmed female flowers! Anne Kimber (my stepmother) studied this plant for her PhD and remembers Erv’s kindness when she ran into difficulties with the field work. I have similar memories. After some setbacks with a data analysis project, I received a phone call from Erv offering encouragement. He told me that I was a scientist in practice if not in credentials, that my work was important, and encouraged me to seek out collaborators and look for ways to bring it to completion. I took his advice.

Eastern pondhawk dragonfly, by Erv Klaas

Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis)

This is one of many photos that Erv took of adult dragonflies and damselflies at Ada Hayden Heritage Park, continuing his dedication to science in retirement as a volunteer. The aquatic juveniles showed up in his nets when he surveyed benthic macroinvertebrates for the IOWATER program. He monitored water quality monthly at two sites on Ioway Creek from 2002 to 2015, at one point finding unusual bacteria results that were traced back to a cracked sanitary sewer. The IOWATER program is ended, but Prairie Rivers of Iowa continues to support volunteer water monitoring in Story County and is building tools and relationships to help groups across the state learn more from the data they are collecting.

Greater yellowlegs, by VJAnderson (CC-By SA).

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)

I saw one of these unmistakable shorebirds while paddling on the Skunk River below Ames. It was on its spring migration from the Gulf Coast to the Hudson Bay. They are pretty common now, but could be in trouble as the planet warms. Erv was deeply concerned about the impact of climate change on wildlife, water and people here in Iowa and around the world, and founded the Ames Climate Action Team to nudge the City government toward more aggressive action. It’s a great example of “think globally, act locally.”

A monarch obstacle course, with osprey overhead

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) & Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

While families were tagging monarch butterflies and doing hands-on educational activities at Ada Hayden Heritage Park, I spotted this osprey soaring overhead. The “Monarch Magic” event in 2023 exemplifies what Prairie Rivers of Iowa does best: initiating conversations and building partnerships to do things together that no one organization would have attempted on their own, and educating the public to deepen our connections to the places where we live. Our new pollinator specialist (Katelyn Rinicker) is already working on planning the next one. It’s one way Erv’s legacy lives on, even among people who never met him.

Which Insects are “Home for Christmas”?

by Jessica Butters | Nov 22, 2022

Insects are conspicuous by their absence during Iowa’s winter months. Absent are the beauty of butterflies, and we would be shocked to hear a bee buzzing around our snowy apartment balcony on Christmas Eve. So where did they all go? Did they perish from freezing temperatures? Have they all migrated south with the eastern monarch butterflies?

Here in Iowa, we have many insects that use truly astonishing techniques to stay here throughout the winter, braving the cold with the rest of us. From smart hiding places and suspended animation to making their own antifreeze, Iowa’s insects have developed some pretty wild adaptations to weather the winter!

Note: Iowa has many insects that undergo “suspended animation”, technically called diapause, to survive winter. Diapause is an insect form of hibernation where the insect pauses development; it stops maturing and halts all activity. It remains in its’ current life stage (which could be egg, larva, nymph, pupa, or adult) until conditions become favorable again and they can continue growing or start mating/laying eggs.

Wooly bear caterpillars: These fuzzy little guys will mature to become the Isabella tiger moth. They stare winter down by allowing themselves to freeze, but on their own terms! They seek shelter under logs and leaf layers. Once safe, they go into diapause and slow down the freezing process by creating glycerol, a natural alcohol and one of the many insect forms of “antifreeze”. They slowly allow their entire bodies to freeze except the insides of their cells.

Black swallowtail butterflies: These beauties stay cozy in their chrysalis while the snowflakes fall, entering diapause at the pupal stage. Their chrysalis mimics a dead leaf to keep them safe from predators, so be careful when cleaning up your lawn – especially if you grew dill, parsley, or other plants related to carrots in your garden! If you must move leaves, try not to chop/mow them to ensure you can enjoy the swallowtails next summer!

Dragonflies: Dragonflies brave the winter in a few different ways depending on the species. Some overwinter as eggs laid in logs near ponds, and others actually migrate. But one of the coolest ways some overwinter is as underwater nymphs (an immature stage of a dragonfly)! The dragonfly nymphs stay underwater beneath insulating ice layers, where they are voracious predators true to their namesake (even eating small fish!). They eat and grow throughout the winter until they can emerge as adults in the summer.

Flower flies: Also known as syrphid flies or hover flies, flower flies are a family of flies (called “Syrphidae”) that are fantastic garden helpers: when young they eat aphids, and as adults they pollinate. Here in Iowa, they’re commonly referred to as “sweat bees” due to their black and yellow stripes and the fact that they sometimes land on sweaty humans (sweat contains good nutrients for them). However, these flies only mimic bees, and cannot sting or bite (their mouth basically consists of a tiny mop). They survive the cold much like other insects; they find shelter in leaf layers and other plant material, enter diapause and overwinter as a larva, pupa, or adult depending on the species. Flower flies are no pansies!

Bumble bee queens: Bumble bee hives only live for one year, unlike honey bees. Near the end of the hive’s life, new queens and male bees (“drones”) hatch and leave the hive to mate. When hive activity finally ends, the drones die while the newly-mated queens search for a warm winter home alone. Their new homes could be in leaf layers, warm compost piles, or just a few inches underground in a sheltered place! While winter winds howl, the entire fate of next year’s bumble bee hives rests on these young queens surviving the winter all alone. When it warms again, if all goes well, they will wake from diapause and emerge to start their very own hives to begin the cycle again.

How Can You Help?

As you can see from these few examples, surviving winter is key to us enjoying pollinators and other insects next year. So many insects rely on the shelter of leaves, logs, and other materials to block the cold wind and insulate them from freezing temperatures. Therefore, one of the best ways to help pollinators this winter, and to ensure there are pollinators this summer, is to find a place in your yard or balcony where you can let leaf litter and plant material accumulate. Think of it as a Cozy Corner that may harbor young bumble bee queens, sleeping swallowtails, and fuzzy wooly bear caterpillars. Give insects the gift of cozy this holiday season!

See below for more information on how to build your very own Cozy Corner:

Create a “Cozy Corner”
You can create a “cozy corner”, or brush pile, for pollinators throughout the fall and winter by choosing a location to leave leaf litter undisturbed. You can add twigs, branches, and other brush to the pile as you clean up the other areas you want clear of brush. You can also leave potted plants on your balcony or patio and push them together to create a small shelter; I’ve found moths sheltering in my flowerpots in mid-fall, and I’ve noticed more bird visitors! Add layers of brush to your cozy corner to provide the best shelter possible. Click here to read the full article from which this paragraph was based on.

How-To Guides to Create Your Very Own Cozy Corner:

Bird Brush piles: The Audubon Society’s Website

General Wildlife Brush pile: Article by the Wisconsin DNR

The Great Mussel Rescue of 2022

by Dan Haug | Oct 28, 2022

Updated 2022-11-14 with final count: 53 mussels rescued, 13 of them threatened species!

Three fun facts about freshwater mussels

Mussels keep streams clean. A mature freshwater mussel can filter 10 gallons of water a day, gobbling up algae and other microscopic organisms in the water. As this video shows, mussels can clean up muddy water, but too much silt in the water can bury them alive or clog their gills.
Mussels can hitch-hike long distances. Some mussel mamas have a special lure to flag down passing fish so that the baby mussels (glochidia) can hitch a ride as a parasite on the fish’s gills!
Mussels are in trouble. The United States is a hotspot for freshwater mussel biodiversity but many species were nearly wiped out by over-harvest for the button industry, dams and habitat loss, and too much silt in the water. For more about freshwater mussels, watch this PBS video.

Two state-threatened species of mussels have been found in Ioway Creek–the cylindrical papershell (Anodontoides ferussacianus) and the creek heelsplitter (Lasmigona compressa). An erosion control and stream restoration project is planned at Brookside Park in Ames, so the Department of Natural Resources required that they be relocated before construction begins. Mussel expert Brett Ostby of Daguna Consulting was hired to lead the effort, but finding all the mussels hiding in a patch of streambed is slow work, and there was a kilometer of stream to cover. We needed volunteers…

Volunteers collecting mussels in Ioway Creek

I had been planning volunteer events to monitor water in Ioway Creek and its tributaries and to pick up trash in West Indian Creek, but low water levels forced us to cancel. Low water levels make it easier to find mussels, so Prairie Rivers of Iowa and our partners at the Outdoor Alliance of Story County switched gears and recruited 12 volunteers to help. Five of the volunteers were students at Ames High School, where I’d been talking with earth science classes about runoff and water quality. Teachers Collin Reichert and Kean Roberts were kind enough to lend us some chest waders — essential gear if you’re planning to spend an hour or more in 45-degree water!

Since mussels can be buried in sand, we had to feel around or dislodge them with rakes. The three guys from Daguna Consulting used wet suits and snorkels to tackle some of the deeper pools. Volunteers helped when they were able over a three-day period. It’s slow, tedious work, leaving no stone unturned, but I can hardly complain about spending time in nature on a beautiful day. Ioway Creek has plenty of wildlife to see if you look long enough. I saw birds including a kingfisher, reptiles including a softshell turtle and northern water snake, and invertebrates including a hellgrammite, crayfish, and fingernail clams. For some of the students, being in the creek and seeing these critters was a new experience.

Mussels were fewer and farther between than we expected. We relocated 53 mussels (representing 5 species) to a stretch upstream of the park, where they seem to be more abundant.

8 Cylindrical papershell (Anodontoides ferussacianus)
5 Creek Heelsplitter (Lasmigona compressa)
1 Fragile Papershell (Leptodea fragilis)
37 Lilliput (Toxolasma parvum)
2 Pocketbook (Lampsilis caridum)

Compare that to the results of a DNR mussel survey this year in the Iowa River near Coralville (which found 28 species, and was catching an average of 22 mussels every hour) and it’s clear that the ecosystem in Ioway Creek is out of balance. Hopefully, this project will improve in-stream habitat so the populations grows. Our thorough search ensures that few will be lost during construction.

PRI Iowa Water Quality Specialist Awarded as a New Voice in Water Quality

by Mike Kellner | Aug 31, 2022

The Conservation Learning Group, a think tank based at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has announced the 2022 winners of its New Voices in Water Quality Awards. Prairie Rivers of Iowa Water Quality Specialist Dan Haug is one of 15 Iowans being awarded. Haug was recognized for his excellence in youth and/or community water education.

In a recent Conservation Learning Group release, its director Jacqueline Comito said, “Each of these individuals was nominated by peers and recognized for their efforts, achievements and passion for improving and restoring water quality.”

Hear about Dan’s early experiences and present work leading up to this award.
5-minute video

The Outdoor Alliance of Story County (OASC) has worked with Prairie Rivers of Iowa, and particularly Haug, on a number of projects. In their nomination letter, the board cited Haug for his expertise at analysis and reporting, his role as an outstanding communicator and his leadership during water quality monitoring and creek cleanup events. “We recall a cold April morning when Dan trained volunteers on identifying macroinvertebrates from Ioway Creek. His enthusiasm was infectious, and the volunteers had fun collecting and examining the samples despite the very cold water,” the OASC further states in the letter.

Volunteers searching for macroinvertebrates.

Haug teaching water quality testing.

Iowa State University (retired) Teaching Assistant Professor of Agronomy Laura Merrick said of Haug, “Dan has been my closest collaborator starting in 2017 on a variety of citizen-science and community-based water quality monitoring and watershed-centered coalition-building initiatives. He has grown to serve in a central guidance role to transform the nature of community collaboration for monitoring and sustainable improvement of our regional water quality in surface rivers and streams and to promote youth and community water education.”

Among Haug’s many accomplishments, starting in the spring of 2020 he was instrumental in assembling in Story County a 24-member planning team that developed a 10-year water monitoring plan with Haug as its primary author. He then subsequently authored its first annual report.

“As nice as it is to be recognized by the Conservation Learning Group as part of this dedicated group of water professionals, it was even more gratifying to know that nine friends and colleagues in seven different organizations sent nomination letters on my behalf. It really speaks to the level of collaboration we have around water monitoring and watershed projects,” Haug modestly relates.

According to Prairie Rivers of Iowa Director Penny Brown Huber, “Trying to solve critical water quality problems takes dedicated people to understand what is happening. Dan is a key link to helping the public build their understanding so change can happen to improve water quality.”

To meet all the New Voices in Water Quality Award winners visit newvoicesinwater.org.

Water quality Education at City of Ames Open House

Water quality demonstration at water plant open house.

Haug helping with Ioway Creek cleanup.

Watershed education at Ames Eco Fair.

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