Six Legged Society

Pesticides kill bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. Pesticides do not choose to kill select insects, like mosquitos but instead kills them all. Seeking a safer and less expensive alternative? Try mosquito dunks or make your own dunk with a 5 gallon bucket, water, and grass clippings. For details Doug Tallamy’s Mosquito Dunk…a fun project with the kids, too!

Leaf litter is critical winter habitats for butterflies, luna moths, fireflies, and other pollinators. Don’t destroy the spring pollinators with removal and blowers. They also provide essential habitat. Stems of flowers that are hollow offer our solitary native bees a safe winter nest while the seed heads provide needed food during cold winters. Cut back in spring. b. Check out this great resource from the National Wildlife Federation.

Artificial light attracts moths where they get stuck in the light circle. Lights also drown out fireflies’ signals. Did you know that a baby chickadee requires a minimum of 6000 (and can consume up to 9000) caterpillars to survive to adulthood? Their food supply has diminished and hence their population decline. Night lights are one big reason. Turning off lights (or using motion sensors) helps insects and survive. And it lowers your electric bill! Really inspired? Talk to businesses and municipalities about reducing night lights

Our Native (local eco-type)flowers, shrubs and trees provide the best food sources for local pollinators. Choose varieties that bloom across seasons to provide year-round support. Need some super pollinator plants? The Oak tree is the MOST IMPORTANT tree in our landscape. Need yellow?? add Goldenrod. How about late fall food? Try native asters and Joe Pyeweed. All summer easy growers try Little Bluestem grasses, Agastache, Baptisia and Mountain Mint. Want to plant and forget? Shrubs are the workhorses here…Clethera (smells beautiful), Oak Leaf Hydrangea, and Viburnums Check which plants are native to your NH zipcode here.

Consider planting keystone native species – view this chart from the National Wildlife Federation for Northern Forests keystone plants.

If nothing else, plant an oak tree. Oaks support more life-forms than any other North American tree genus. Learn more from this National Park Service resource.

Lawns provide no benefit to the natural world and need care which often includes chemicals as well as your precious time. There are alternatives. Clover can be added which adds nitrogen to soil and provides bee food. Sedges can replace turf. Plant native shrubs and enlarge garden beds leaving less turf. On the remaining lawn set mower blades high to save insects. Don’t use grub treatments (they also kill birds along with pollinators and have been proven ineffective in eliminating grubs) Don’t spray pesticides or herbicides. They spell death for pollinators and they aren’t healthy for you, the kids or the dog either.

Educate your friends and neighbors about the insect crisis. Share the ‘windshield effect’ story. You can help. Have any fly fishermen in your circle?? The neonicotinoids are devastating the mayflies- the trout food source. The New Hampshire lakes are suffering, too. If you love the New Hampshire natural beauty, we urge you to help preserve it by educating, informing, and urgently ask for support of NH Rep. John MacDonald’s bipartisan bills #1086 and #1431 Support the bipartisan legislation.