Relating to Critters

It is said that the three most important words in real estate are: location, location, location. Geography matters, and no more so than in my spouse's love or hate relationship with chipmunks. As people who read this blog know, we have been having our fair share of critter trials in our yard this year. It is now not limited to small critters, but big ones, like deer. While the wife rails against the critters and their damage in the yard, they become some of her best buddies when they are not in the yard. She well knows the damage caused by the critters, dug out plants, flower buds nipped, plants denuded of foliage.  Land Girl and her relationship with critters, is like love-hate relationship with the animals, with the love or the hate relationship simply explained by geography, or place.

If they are in our yard and doing damage, they are pests (a weed is simply a plant in the wrong desired location), while if they are not in our yard they are cute, and adorable. With a great deal of rain recently the deer have migrated into our yard from the nearby wetland area. They like eating the flowers, and some vegetables. We know they are deer since the succulent flower buds or young growth have been mowed off at near  my waist height, or below (depending on the plant). This just adds to the plant destruction. The deer have cut off anemone, lilies, Maltese cross and other plants, which will now not bloom. I wonder why they cannot eat weeds, or the foliage of volunteer trees popping up. I have to say they are lazy bending over when they only succulent foliage or flower buds are too good to pass up.

lily with flower buds and foliage mowed
off by deer

After complaining about the deer in our backyard, a day or two later we are heading on a camping trip and traveling on highway 8 west of Pembine, but east of Dunbar when she says be careful as there were deer ahead in the road. I too had seen the deer, which turned out to be a doe and fawn, oh so cute. The mother deer saw us and moved the fawn and herself off the road. Deer are way too prevalent. Going to southeast WI about six weeks ago, we must have counted over 12 dead deer lying at the edge of the road. I wonder how many dead deer will be on the roadside once fall arrives.

Anemone with flower and foliage mowed
off by deer

Once we got the campground and set up, and did some other chores, Land Girl noticed a chipmunk or two around the campsite. We have seen them there before. She then proceeded to lecture them to not eat our propane line like they had done a few years ago. After the propane line was replaced, we placed a copper netting over the line to help prevent those cute little critters from gnawing on the line. She had heard the gnawing on the propane line at night and I did not believer her. Not unlike the noises she said she hears in the fireplace. At another campground we heard and saw them jump up onto the camper's frame. They were not lovable at that time. Land Girl cannot sleep at those times, as she wonders what the critters are up to. 

During the few days we were at the campground, Land Girl developed quite a nice relationship with the small chipmunks. They would run over her feet, and once jumped up on to me, hitting my hip, but apparently wanting to land in my lap so I could pet it. I was rather startled at how bold it was. It occurred to me that the fur of the chipmunk, in some parts, was like the hair color of my wife's hair, and we all know redheads stick together. A hummingbird was even attracted to her hair at the campsite. Late it migrated to the red white gas cylinder on our camp stove. If my wife were a bird it would be a hummingbird, because neither know how to much relax, they are almost always on the move. 

Land Girl got to feeding the chipmunk, hunks of carrot, strawberry, and even melon. It appears it did not like the strawberry as much as the other food since it took a few times for it to decide to retrieve it and smuggle some away. I bet they would have liked some peanuts. 

Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan once wrote that space becomes place when we endow it with value. Well, my wife endows our home, a place, with dislike for the critters when they eat or dig up the flowers and vegetables, but has a different set of values when in the wild, like at the campground. In that sense, critters are like a dandelion, they produce a yellow flower, but are often detested in a suburban yard. It is all a matter of geography which plays a role in how we endow a space with value. 

Very Hungry Caterpillars

When we were camping at Mirror Lake State Park during the first week of June we came across an unusual occurrence. Caterpillars were everywhere. They were on the trees at the campsite, at the beach, on short hikes. They were all over. Also, all over were hunks of leaves which resulted from the very hungry caterpillars. This is a story some very hungry caterpillars. And, it is not the children's story by Eric Carle. 

The very hungry caterpillars I am talking about are now referred to as sponge moth caterpillars, and used to be known as gypsy moth caterpillars. One can guess why the name was changed. Sponge moths, then known as gypsy moths, first appeared in the state of Wisconsin in 1969. They can bare a trees vegetation, and from what I noticed they seemed to like oaks, but also were on other varieties as our campsite had few oaks. We were wondering why we kept seeing shards of leaves all over, even more prevalent than the caterpillars, and my wife made the connection.

Part of an eaten leaf on our chuck box

We were at the beach after a noon rainstorm, and a park worker was assessing condition of the picnic area and beach. My brother, using his phone, and AI, found the connection as gypsy moths, and I think that is the term that was used, not Sponge moths. We inquired of the park worker, and she said, yes they are gypsy moth caterpillars and we should kill them. My brother commented that it would take a high number of people to kill them there are so many. She noted that the prior week they had sprayed the park. 

Sponge moth caterpillar on a dish towel

The common spray for this caterpillar is a natural compound called Bacillus thuringiensis, commonly called Bt. It is found in the soil, and degrades within a week when exposed to sunlight. Now, I am not sure where all of these caterpillars were in the spray cycle, if they survived it, or were busy eating leaves coated with it that they would then perish. Essentially doing the task we were assigned by the park worker. 

They were so common, we found them crawling up the screen tent, between the tent window screens and the outer window (rain/wind) panel. I killed a few using my fingers, than thought the better of it, and resorted to placing them in the campfire, or smothering them with my shoe in the gravel/dirt surface of the campsite. A female sponge moth can lay one mass of eggs that can produce 1,000 offspring. We have a scientist to thank for the infestation, as the gypsy moth was introduced to North America by "Professor L. Trouvelot in a misguided attempt to breed a hardy silkworm." Some got out and destroyed vegetation in the area of his home in Massachusetts. You can read about him here. 

The caterpillars were so prevalent, they got on our utility and linen tubs, the car, camper, water jug, and pretty much everything. They left excrement on the car, and probably the camper. Washing the car the day after we got home, I found their excrement hard to clean off. A hose would not simply wash it off. I double and triple checked everything before heading home to assure we were not bringing home any stragglers, but I did find one after setting up the screen tent to let it dry. Scoundrels, they are.

I wrote this before going camping in northeast WI, and low and behold what did we discover for the first time at this campground, the very hungry Gypsy moth. As careful was we were to clean all our gear of the caterpillars, it is possible some dropped on the camper or car as we pulled out or even loaded. When I first saw one at the NE WI campground I wondered if it was a stow-away. They became too numerous, and while not as prevalent, or as large as those at Mirror Lake, they were still destroying tree canopies as I could tell by the leaf detritus on the ground and camper. Here again, we cleaned our gear before loading up. Yes, they are scoundrels, and it shows the damage and expense of introducing new species to the continent on which they were never before located. 

* When looking up a bit of information on Eric Carle's children's book, I was surprised to read that it had been affected by cancel culture's thought police, as it was banned in some libraries for not being sufficiently "inclusive and equitable. "  It is in good company, as other banned books included notable works such as the Harry Potter series and the Diary of Anne Frank.

Rolling Fives

For much of the first week of June, the wife and I were on our first camping trip of the season. It was a nice trip, regardless of all rain, but at least for a couple days the rain was either in evening/night, or night/morning. During rain events we are in the screen tent or the camper. We read, and play some games to pass the time. One game we often play is Yahtzee. Yahtzee involves rolling dice and choosing what you wish your role to count toward. My wife is a Yahtzee master.

The second Yahtzee game we played, my wife seemed to roll the same combination of numbers on the dice, which included two fives. She took her fives and a few other categories. She then started to complain when she once again shook two fives, and as she is shaking three other dice, having once set aside two fives, she shakes three fives giving her Yahtzee. It sure shut her complaining up quick.  I said "What were you going to say about always shaking fives?" I think the world's smallest violins played as she shook her Yahtzee of fives after having complained about getting only fives, and until that last shake, about to complain again.

 In Yahtzee you get three rolls of the dice, or die, to get a desired requisite combination. Showing that statistics is about as scientific as medicine, a search on the internet turned up varied probabilities of shaking Yahtzee on first, second and third try. It seems that most of the sources I quickly examined had the probability at .08% on one try, 1.23% on the second, and 3.43% on the third try. Since, they are all independent of one another, they are added up which yields a 4.64% probability of shaking Yahtzee in one turn. I have to think the odds are worse, because I cannot recall the last time I got a Yahtzee.

Even as she complained about shaking fives, she tends to master Yahtzee. Although, as this game showed, getting a Yahtzee does not guarantee a win. For, in the end, I won the game by an unlike Tom masterful performance on the top where I garnered more points than necessary to win the top and earn bonus points. It may have been the first time in years I won the top. Even though on the bottom I had two big 0's, to Yahtzee Girl's one 0, the bonus points were sufficient for me to earn a rare victory. My ability to win at Yahtzee is lower than the probability of throwing a Yahtzee. One should get a Yahtzee in every 21 or 22 turns, but if that was the case, one should earn a Yahtzee every two games. The Yahtzee card has thirteen categories, six on the top, and seven on the bottom (including Yahtzee). Meaning a person gets thirteen turns a game. If you take a zero on Yahtzee and then get a Yahtzee, you are out of luck you are stuck with a zero if on  later roll you rolled five of the same number. I suppose there is a rare instance where this happens. 

I always thought Yahtzee was a game of chance, but after this game, I realized there is some skill in deciding where on the score card to place your throw of the dice. During the game in which Yahtzee Girl got that Yahtzee with fives, I had a high throw of four of a kind, which I took on the top, rather than in the lower half of the score sheet under four-of-a-kind. On the top, you need three of each kind of die number, from one to six to "make" the top. Yet, an extra four helps, as it can, for example, make up for the loss of two two's (total four) if I only got one two to place on the twos. That critical decision, recommended by Yahtzee Girl, helped me make the top and thereby earn the 35 bonus points, for a rare probability of besting Yahtzee Girl in a game. 

Yahtzee is still primarily, I believe, a game of luck and chance, but those critical decisions as to where to place your score can make a difference. A survey of US residents by Statista in 2020 (I have to register to get additional information such as number of respondents) showed that 49% of those surveyed believe Yahtzee is a game of luck compared to 22% as a game of skill. The difference is divided among people that did not know, or thought it no applicable. 

Yahtzee Girl may have rolled five fives, but doing so failed to allow her to win yet another game of Yahtzee. Since, she beats me so often, I have to go with the 49% who think it is a game of luck. Who knows what will occur the next time we play, perhaps I will roll a series of fives for Yahtzee. 

Critter Trials, part 2

Our critter trials continue. I first posted about them a few weeks ago which you can read here. To date we have tried different methods. I placed a small piece of chicken wire over a pot with tuberous begonias to keep them from digging the bulbs out. Last year they kept digging the bulbs out which caused them to not perform well. For about a week they attacked a different pot, and it was always the same pot. Concerned with the continued damage to the plants in that pot, I took another piece of chicken wire and placed it around the pot. I was successful in keeping them away from that pot, but within two hours they had dug in a planter box on the front porch that so far this year they have not tackled. 

Chicken wire around pot critters 
continually had dug in

My wife asked on McFarland Community what people do. We have tried many of the methods pepper flakes, hot pepper spray, blood meal, and a few other sprays. This past Friday evening Land Girl concocted a mix of peppermint oil, Dawn dish soap and something else. to spray on the edge of the planter or pots. Other suggestions have been human hair and insert plastic forks into the dirt, with the tine side up. Although someone says they often dig up the forks. Friday night I also applied blood meal, kind of a double effect. Saturday morning all looked good with the blood meal and the peppermint spray applied the prior evening. A hour or two later on Saturday morning after the first check, the critters got to the planter box, or rectangle, again. We decided to try the fork method, so I found some plastic forks and put several in the planter. 

As of early evening Saturday, after placing the plastic forks everything looked good.  However, by Sunday the critters had been at it once again. I added more forks.  When we got back from our camping trip Thursday afternoon, I saw damage, but not as much as expected. They had not dug out any plants, but had destroyed some of the foliage and flowers on the impatiens plant in the planter box.

Growing flowers and forks,
in front porch planter

       

After my next hair cut, which may be tonight, I will put some of my hair into the planter box. With my thinning head of hair, I don't produce the hair like I used to. Critter trials seem to be an ongoing way of life in suburbia. My problems could be worse.