Spooky Bugs
“You know,” he said, “all spiders make their living biting. Most of their toxins don’t do more harm than a mosquito. Spiders have no interest in biting you. I handle them all the time, and they’re just not that aggressive.” (Although I wasn’t worried about getting bitten by the spider that was living in my kitchen window, I did decide to move her outside, in the name of marital harmony, once I realized that she was getting ready to lay eggs.)
He had some surprising information about the crickets in my yard, too. “You know, there was no cricket noise around here years ago,” he said. “In the last decade or so, gardens have really gotten to be full of crickets. But they’re an introduced species sold in pet stores. You know, the black ones? They like to live under boards and around people’s homes.” Although they’re not native, they’re not much of a problem, he tells me. “We have native crickets too, but you won’t see them around humans much. It’s these introduced crickets that like to hang around and chirp at sunset. That’s all right — it’s a nice sound.” He also suggests keeping an eye out for banded woollybears, Pyrrharctia isabella, the fuzzy black and orange caterpillars that turn into orange moths. “They say you can tell what kind of winter we’re going to have by looking at how wide the orange band is around their bodies,” Pete said. “I don’t know about that, but they’re interesting to watch, anyway.”
Pete will be talking about his friends in the insect world at the Humboldt Botanical Garden Foundation’s annual symposium on Nov. 10. The theme this year is “Living With Creatures, Great and Small, in Your Garden,” and he’ll share the day with Ellin Beltz, amphibian aficionado and author of the book Frogs: Inside Their Remarkable World (Firefly Books, 2005). You’ll also get to hear HSU professor Richard Golightly discuss bears and mountain lions.
Quite a cast of characters. It all happens at the Humboldt Area Foundation’s Conference Center on 373 Indianola Road in Bayside at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10. Master gardeners can get five hours of continuing education credit. Roy’s Club will cater the lunch. The fee is $25 for HBGF members, $30 for non-members and $15 for students. Call 442-5139 to reserve a space.
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STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
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Organic Gardening Seminar
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