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[Bunjov AT aol.com]

Sage - SUCH interesting stuff! Thank you!
 
No, you're not the only one up at this time of day/night.
 
Unfortunately, I don't think any of my grandchildren would be able to tell  
the difference between a honeybee and a yellowjacket. (The yellowjackets will 
 
eat the cat food, so don't leave it outside). Lesson learned early on.
 
We humans have developed such an over-blown idea of our own  self-importance.
Instead of learning to live 'with', we have instead have developed multiple  
methods of living 'against'.
To our detriment.
 
I noticed before that someone had posted that...mistletoe berries are not  
really red (the ongoing pokeweed thread). But - if you are unfortunate  
enough 
to have to actually go shopping for  holiday decorations, the faux  mistletoe 
in all the stores has red berries on it. What are our children going  to grow 
up thinking? Not much. They'll all be starting to do their own shopping  
soon, 
and won't give a thought to the "Made in China" label. Sad.
 
I've probably said before...I'm not just hemispheric, I'm a regionalist.  For 
example, the borders between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico should not be  
defined by anything but the migrational trails of the animals, and the  
timberline, etc., and the varying micro-climates and ecosystems.
 
It's unfortunate that our lives - or most of our lives, anyway - have  become 
defined by $$$.
 
I can look in my wallet right now and nothing in there would mean as much  to 
me as the fact that I have a whole stack of firewood right outside the  door.
 
Sandy
Mid-Mojave
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 10/18/2008 2:47:42 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
eureka AT hctc.net writes:

Unfortunately the gall would be seen by many as something 
making  their tree less than perfect (such an American 
obsession), and chemicals  would be brought in to eliminate 
the wasp. But we know wasps are such  great pollinators and 
these undoubtedly have some vital roll in your  diverse 
ecosystem. Isn't it wonderful when every new discovery  
rekindles one's sense of wonder?

Our oaks are heavily "infested"  (as they like to say 
locally) with ball moss and there are companies that  will 
come and spray your trees with something akin to baking 
soda to  kill it off. I don't think it is particularly 
attractive for the trees,  but the plant itself is quite 
interesting and I know Tillandsia sp. are  used 
medicinally, Although people think it is a parasite it is 
really  epiphitic in the bromeliad family and exists 
entirely from what it can  collect from the air. It also 
grows profusely on the electric lines here  (proof that it 
is not parasitic).

It seems to me there has been an  increase in the last two 
decades of ball moss in the hill country. I know  that 
lichens are an indicator of clean air (kind of a miner's 
canary)  but I often wonder what the ball moss 
proliferation is indicating. It  seems to me it would say 
the air is supplying more nutrients  now?

Also, in the case of the galls on your trees, which you 
have  not noticed before, I wonder what this is indicating?

Here I have  already learned to "read" some insect 
activity. For instance, when the  cutleaf ants get active 
we are going to have a rainy season and some  flooding. I 
think I already mentioned on the list once that during the  
two 500 year floods I've been through large slugs came 
into my  kitchen. One was a two slug flood and the other 
was a three slug flood. I  am sure the next time it is 
raining and I see slugs in the kitchen I'm in  for a bad 
one. How can these slugs know what even our meteorologists  
with the best equipment cannot? How nice to have them to 
warn me  should I find myself without electricity in the 
future.

As you can  see you are not the only one with insomnia.

--Sage


On Fri,  17 Oct 2008 17:46:45 -0400
EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>  wrote:
> I'm like you, I want to know things.  I want to know  
>every plant, tree, 
> insect, gall, whatever, that is part of my  world here. 
> Even with the 
> internet and Google, I haven't  been able to find a 
>picture of my gall. 
> That is indicative of  some serious biodiversity.  I may 
>be looking at 
> some  indigenous localized wasp species or maybe there is 
>something 
>  unique about my soil that causes the tree to make a 
>different kind of  
> gall.  I cut it open, and inside I can see pulpy  
>striations like the 
> striations you see on a larger scale in  the apple oak 
>gall.
> Anyway, you never know when or how such  knowledge might 
>be useful.
> 
>  Bev
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