7 April 2021

We missed a celebration when it snowed on 1 April so I’ve moved a very important annual event to right now. Today is Spray Your Clothes Day.

Pennsylvania is a hot spot for Lyme disease, a debilitating illness caused by a parasite transmitted by black-legged ticks. Many of us are spending more time outdoors than usual because COVID-19 has made indoor gatherings unsafe. If you’ve taken up gardening, hiking, birding, etc., you’ll want to spray your outdoor clothes with permethrin to repel black-legged ticks.

Black-legged ticks lurk in Japanese barberry, leaf litter, bush honeysuckle, weeds and tall grass, especially in moist environments. When you work with leaf litter in the garden, or brush past weeds nodding over the trail, or step off the path to let someone pass, a black-legged tick may latch on for a ride. If it sucks your blood for 24 hours you could get Lyme disease.

To avoid fumes and protect kids and pets, spray your clothes outdoors on a windless day. I sprayed mine last month so I’m good to go. If you haven’t done so yet, consider this your annual reminder. Learn more at Today Is Spray Your Clothes Day.

p.s. Don’t assume you’re safe if you only go to Pittsburgh’s large city parks. A 2015-2016 study found there are black-legged ticks in the city parks and 20-50% of them are carrying Lyme disease. This is typical in Pennsylvania.

(photo by Kate St. John)

St. Patrick’s Day, 17 March 2021

Today we celebrate someone who banished snakes from an island.

Legend has it that St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, chased all the snakes into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast.

The island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, is plagued by brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis) accidentally introduced after World War II. In 70 years the snake population exploded to 2 million, more than 100 snakes per hectare, or more 110 snakes per football field. It’s the highest concentration of snakes anywhere in the world.

Brown tree snakes have caused the extinction of most of Guam’s native wildlife, thousands of power outages, widespread loss of domestic birds and pets, and considerable emotional trauma to residents and visitors. Guam’s plant life has diminished, too, because the snakes have eaten the pollinators.

People working to eradicate Guam’s brown tree snakes have learned a lot about the animal. For instance, the snake dies when it eats acetaminophen so they’ve air-dropped acetaminophen-laced mice to tempt the snakes.

A study this year showed that fat slippery poles do not protect nest boxes so that method will have to change. The snakes make themselves into lassos to climb up! Click on the picture below or its caption to see a video of the snake in motion.

Everyone hopes that eradication efforts succeed and that Guam will celebrate No Snakes Day some time in the future. They could certainly use the help of St. Patrick and the luck of the Irish.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons an a screenshot from the lasso video; click on the captions to see the originals)

17 February 2021

In 2018 in the Peruvian Amazon Phil Torres of The Jungle Diaries filmed colorful butterflies fluttering around turtles at the edge of the Tambopata River. He explains what the butterflies were doing:

A reminder that we live in a world where turtles have tears and butterflies drink them for the salt.
Rainforest ecology is complex, but sometimes the simplicity of a bizarre interaction is just about perfect. pic.twitter.com/Ni2E2F5CFo

— Phil Torres (@phil_torres) March 30, 2019

Learn more about this phenomenon in Phil Torres’ video: Butterflies drinking Turtle Tears!?

One commenter wrote: “So if I cry, will butterflies come to me?”

(screenshot from Phil Torres Jungle Diaries video)

29 January 2021

Did you know that jumping spiders sing and dance?

Well, only the males do. They have to put on a show to distract the ladies. Otherwise their chosen mates will eat them!

Watch how this works in the PBS video below featuring Habronattus clypeatus jumping spiders native from the southern Rocky Mountains to the northern Sierra Madre Occidental and Sonoran Desert.

So does the male Phidippus mystaceus (at top) sing and dance? This paper on jumping spider sex indicates that courtship dances are common among all jumping spiders, so I think it’s safe to assume he dances, too.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

p.s. For those of you who quest for particular birds or bugs, you’ll enjoy the story that accompanies the Phidippus mystaceus photo. Click here and scroll down to read how, after 3 years of searching, Thomas Shahan finally found him. It begins: “It’s quite difficult for me to put into words just how long I have been wanting to find an adult male of this species!”

If you have ever approached a tiny spider that jumped suddenly far and fast you’ve probably seen a jumping spider (Salticidae), one of 6000 species on Earth.

Jumping spiders are harmless to humans and can be identified by the position of their eyes. They have four pairs(!) with the largest front and center. As for jumping, they use their back legs.

Jumping spiders’ well-developed internal hydraulic system extends their limbs by altering the pressure of their body fluid (hemolymph) within them. This enables the spiders to jump without having large muscular legs like a grasshopper. Most jumping spiders can jump several times the length of their bodies.

— Wikipedia: Jumping Spider

When not jumping I’ve seen them move in a jerky fashion.

Phidippus mystaceus jumping spider momentarily distracted by a passing velvet mite.#salticidae #trombidiidae #arachnida pic.twitter.com/8BQjgQls7E

— Thomas Shahan (@ThomasShahan) January 17, 2021

Like a furry robot.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

11 December 2020

One thing we don’t see in Pittsburgh are the antics of lizards. Only two lizard species occur in southwestern Pennsylvania but are rarely found, so when I saw Russ McSpadden’s tweet of two zebra-tailed lizards in the Sonoran Desert I was fascinated.

Their territorial sparring looks like cartoon dinosaurs.

Two adorable male zebra-tailed lizards engage in territorial street fighting deep in the Sonoran Desert.

?Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument pic.twitter.com/X16Z86QdOf

— Russ McSpadden (@PeccaryNotPig) December 4, 2020

So who are these guys?

Zebra-tailed lizards (Callisaurus draconoides) are 2.5 to 4 inches long, not including their tails, and are endemic to the open desert of the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.

During the breeding season, May to August, males are particularly colorful with iridescent blue and sometimes orange on their bellies. Each male defends a territory and works to attract multiple females. The more females he has the greater his social status and the more aggressively he defends his territory. Hence the threatening dance.

You can’t see much of the zebra tail in the video but these lizards use it as a social signal and predator deterrent. According to Wikipedia, “When threatened zebra-tailed lizards run quickly with their toes curled up and tails raised over their backs, exposing the stripes” as shown in the photo below.

The dominant lizard in the video must be shouting at the other guy, “Leave now! Run away! Show me your tail!”

(*) The two lizard species that occur in southwestern PA are the northern fence lizard and five-lined skink. I’ve never seen a five-line skink and have only seen a fence lizard once — in Virginia Beach.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals. embedded tweet from Russ McSpadden @PeccaryNotPig)