fall - Prairie Rivers of Iowa

Autumn’s Spooky Species: How to Appreciate Misunderstood Wildlife this Season

by Jessica Butters | Oct 3, 2022

These Halloween icons are in reality quite charming, and provide us with valuable services!

The crisp October air brings the excitement of changing leaves and a changing season. While making yards and gardens cozy for wildlife braving the winter is a common discussion this time of year, we are focusing on what kinds of important wildlife you may notice this month! With Halloween around the corner, now is the perfect time to better understand some of the spooky (or maybe not-so-spooky-after-all) animals that you may see in autumn!

Owls

Soon leaves will fall to the ground, making it easier to spot this inquisitive bird of prey. The barred owl in particular hoots in a pattern that sounds like they’re asking “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?”. I think we all wish the answer to that question was “someone else”. While this call at night may sound spooky, barred owls have some endearing qualities. This species mates for life, and lets its young stay near home longer than other species – up to six months! You can look for barred owls in Ames in mature tree stands near a water source. To help all owls, try to stop putting out rodent poison; owls eat rodents, and can consequently become sick from the poison. Healthy owls in your area may mean natural rodent control for you! Additionally, some owls utilize nesting boxes; you can contact Wild Birds Unlimited here in Ames to learn more!

Bats

Could we truly celebrate Halloween properly this month without bats? From décor to Dracula, this fuzzy animal’s image will be seen everywhere this month. However, the animals themselves will be seen less and less. Bats remaining in Iowa during winter are now looking for cozy spots for hibernation, especially as the amount of insects declines this month. Bats are great at gobbling down mosquitos and other pesky insects (the bat pictured here can eat 600 insects in an hour!), and their babies are called “pups”! These animals are much more helpful and cute than they are spooky.

To help bats, consider building a bat box for fun! If a bat gets in your home, remember that they will not fly into you; they are expert navigators and will avoid you while they try to fly up and away. Calmly open a door or window for it to fly back outside and stand still at a distance until it leaves. If it can’t find the exit, call the Iowa Wildlife Center (515-233-1379) or other wildlife societies to have experts remove the bat in a humane way.

Spiders

Many people try their best to be open-minded towards insects, but most find spiders hard to appreciate (spiders are not technically “insects” – they’re “arachnids”). During late summer and early fall, you may see spiders more often, but don’t panic. They are not “coming in” to escape cool temperatures. Most spiders you see indoors are specifically adapted to survive indoors, where there is little food and water. Outdoor spiders are not well-adapted to live inside our homes, and are not trying to sneak in; their food is outside, and that’s where they’ll stay! If they accidentally wander in, they will not survive more than a few days, and won’t reproduce. What you are probably seeing are indoor spiders that have been inside this whole time, not bothering you at all.

This time of year is beautiful in Iowa, and it’s the perfect time to find ways to appreciate the beauty of living things that continue to serve our needs, despite our fear of them. Happy Fall!

Household Tip: To truly understand any animal/insect you see in or around your house, look up information from science-based sources, such as university extension websites, rather than pest-control companies. Pest-control websites are likely to present alarming information, possibly to encourage use of their services. A majority of the time, whatever you are seeing is not only common, but harmless as well.

Links in Text:

Leave The Leaves! Xerces Society blogpost, by Justin Wheeler:

https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves

Wild Birds Unlimited, Ames (515-956-3145) Website:

https://ames.wbu.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=local&utm_campaign=localmaps&utm_content=279

Woodworking for Wildlife, Iowa State University, link to PDF file on how to build a bat box:

https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/wildlife/woodworking-wildlife

A Mother’s Love: The Race to Provide

by Jessica Butters | Aug 28, 2022

A speck of sunlight warmed the face of a mother, causing her to wake and stand up. She took a few steps toward the sunlight, letting it warm her cold legs in her tunnel. Looking back at the wall of her nursery, she knew she had limited time to finish her work. Behind that wall was a row of rooms, one for each of her eggs. Each nursery room was provisioned with pollen and walled off from the others, providing a safe place to hatch, overwinter, and hopefully emerge next year. Her antennae started twitching excitedly. She tried beating her wings; they buzzed. She was warm and ready for another day’s work.

She cautiously peeped over the lip of her nest entrance. She was a metallic green sweat bee, and just last week she watched as a parasitic bee invaded one of her neighbors’ nests, ending the hope of a future generation from that mother. To keep all her efforts from being in vain, she had to leave and enter her nest in complete secrecy. She scanned the area around her, checking for someone perched on the tops of rocks or hidden in the shaded spaces between grass stems. So far so clear. She stepped out of her nest, allowing the sun to warm her entire body. Looking around once more, and seeing no sign of threat, she zipped off to start her chores.

Gathering pollen was her favorite chore. She had already started a new nursery cell; all there was left to do was to lay an egg and provide a provision of food. Using the sun as a compass, she navigated to a large patch of gold that she had seen yesterday. The yellow rays of one unoccupied flower caught her eye, and she flew into its center, landing on a blanket of brown bristles topped with yellow tufts of pollen. The buzzing of other insects at neighboring flowers reverberated in the air around her, and caused the flower to tremble even more in the breeze. The air was slowly growing cooler each day. It was taking her longer and longer to warm up enough to fly in the mornings. The frantic buzzing of other insects confirmed a sense of fear she didn’t quite understand. She sensed that she must hurry.

Thinking of her young ones back at the nest, she worked as quickly as possible, picking up pollen and snatching a mouthful for herself every now and then. As she moved across the flower, she let her body brush against as much pollen as possible. She paused periodically to comb this pollen from her abdomen, head, and feet to tuck it onto her back legs where she had thicker, hooked hair that was much better at holding pollen in place. The sun shone on, warming her even more. Through the race to gather and provide for her family, it was nice to be out in the sun and surrounded by velvety gold rays. The bristled brown underneath felt good on her feet and belly. Once she was through gathering here, she remembered a bright purple area that had looked promising.

After a while, the little sweat bee had as much pollen as she could carry. Pushing off the sunflower, she flew back toward her nest, only pausing once for a breath on a stand of purple flowers. Back on the ground, she felt around with her antennae until she found her own nest entrance. She peered inside her dark nest. All was quiet, just how she left it. She glanced behind her. No one had seen her; her family was safe.

As she pulled pollen off her legs and rolled it into a loaf, she had a sense that this may be the last nest she would finish. She felt much more tired compared to a few weeks ago. She was particularly proud of this nest: it was in a well-hidden location, its walls were smooth, and she had a good mix of pollen from different flowers within each loaf she had made for her children. Although she would never get to meet them, she was glad they would have all the nutrition they would need to start a successful life. She hoped they would find the yellow and purple flower patches. She grew more tired. Maybe one more pollen collecting trip before she turned in for the day.