Nocturnal

August 04, 2026

I have mentioned how when I let the kids out back, Loki immediately begins snuffling around beneath the ramp we placed over the steps.  The ramp consists of an 8-foot by 4-foot (2.4 m by 1.2 m) sheet of 1 inch (2.5 cm) plywood with 2-inch (5 cm) retaining walls for sides.  While this may not meet American Disabilities Act standards, it served for my father-in-law’s electric wheelchair, and we still use it to help wheel things in and out of the house.  We have had several critters who have taken up residence under the ramp, from a Fowler’s Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) to an Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus).  Over the last weeks the trees on our property line are home to a North American opossum (Didelphis virginiana) that drives the kids crazy at night.  It sits above the squirrel feeder unafraid and stares down at them while they bark.  Last night something got into the window bird feeders and the kids went nuts.  I figured it was the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) that has become braver of late.  I opened the door and followed the kids out as they rushed to the feeder.  Loki was trying to crawl up the wall, so I shined my flashlight toward the eaves.  I noticed two new nocturnal invaders clinging to the side of our house.

When I went online, I found common animal nocturnal invaders include raccoons (Procyon lotor), opossums (Didelphis virginiana), and skunks (Mephitis mephitis), which search yards and homes for food after dark.  Raccoons are smart climbers that raid trash cans, chimneys, and attics.  Opossums are slow scavengers that look for pet food or shelter under decks.  Skunks are burrowing mammals that dig up lawns looking for grubs and insects.  At night, all three can be heard rummaging through the yard or even scratching or thumping in ceilings or walls.  The biggest problem is property damage as they topple trash cans, tear house insulation, or dig up the lawn for grubs.  They also give off unusual musky smells, especially skunks.  Nocturnal wildlife is adept at moving under cover of darkness and can be tough to track or manage.  All three should be avoided as they are carriers of rabies, an infectious viral disease that causes severe encephalitis in humans and other mammals.

I have been using the pool skimming pole to help the opossum off the fence to calm the kids.  This is easy enough and he falls outside the fence so there is no danger from the dogs.  Our new nocturnal invaders were different.  Two immature raccoons had scrambled up the brick wall and were now hanging below the house eaves.  There was no way I could get them down without them having to run about 30 feet (9 m) across the deck to safety.  I put the kids inside and fetched the skimmer.  The first one dropped easily and quickly scampered across the deck and under the fence, but the second one gave me a harder time.  When I finally got it down, he was frantic and misjudged the side of the pool and ended up in the water.  The water is down about 4 feet (1.2 m) from lack of rain.  I could see no way for the raccoon to get out on its own.  I did not want to fish a drowned animal out the next morning.  When I tried to catch him with the skimmer net, he started screaming and hissing.  I finally swiped him out and he took off to freedom.  He did not turn around to say thanks.   

THOUGHTS: I have retrieved several nocturnal invaders out of the pool/pond during our 8 years here.  Many were not as lucky as the raccoon and were found the next morning.  Raccoons are known to return until you clean up or put away the food they have located.  We had an adult rummaging in the bird seed on our screened porch in 2022 until I resolved the problem by putting the seed in sealed 5-gallon (20 L) buckets.  I wonder if the pair will try their luck again tonight.  Humans will also take huge risks to secure food.  The world needs to treat adequate food as a right and not a “for profit” luxury.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Farm School

August 03, 2026

After I blogged last week on my gardening not (yet) being at a “sustainable level”, I read a front-page article in today’s local newspaper on learning what it takes to farm.  The nine-month program (February through November) is designed to provide beginning specialty crop farmers foundational knowledge, hands-on experience, and the business training needed to launch or expand a farming operation which will serve local and regional markets.  Aspiring farmers interested in growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs can apply for a program offered by the Center for Arkansas Farms and Food (CAFF).  Heather Friedrich, director of the CAFF, said, “We need farmers at the very core of building our food system.  We can’t build on the other aspects of our food system if we don’t have farmers.”  This program is appropriately named the Farm School.

When I went online, I found the Farm School was created to help strengthen local food systems as Arkansas’ farming population ages.  The CAFF was developed to strengthen and expand our food and farming system by providing new opportunities to shape our current and future farmers, food entrepreneurs, and food system leaders.  The program is part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station through the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture (UADA), and is part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the (UADA).  According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the average age of Arkansas farmers is 57 and an estimated 70% of the nation’s farmland is expected to change ownership in the next two decades.  The program does not require formal farming experience, although applicants are encouraged to have worked or volunteered on a farm to better understand the demands of agricultural work.  Each cohort is limited to 15 students to allow for more individualized instruction.

The Farm School offers hands-on instruction on a teaching farm that includes intensive market gardens, tractor-scale production fields, greenhouses, high tunnels and perennial fruit plantings.  The curriculum combines classroom instruction with field experience, covering sustainable farming practices, commercial fruit and vegetable production, season-long crop planning, business management, marketing, legal risk management, and food safety.  Students also learn how to access agricultural resources and develop business and crop plans for their own future operations.  The classroom and field instruction is led by educators with commercial farming experience, with additional lessons from University of Arkansas scientists, local farmers and agricultural resource providers.  Students work in small groups to manage their own plots throughout the growing season, making decisions on crop selection, planting schedules, pest management, harvesting and labor needs.  As part of the program, students also operate a seasonal farm stand, selling produce they grow while gaining experience in customer service, merchandising, inventory management and cash handling.  Revenue from the stand helps fund scholarships for future Farm School students.

THOUGHTS: The 2026 Farm School class opened its farm stand July 16 at the Arkansas Union Mall on the University of Arkansas campus.  “It’s a really great opportunity for our aspiring farmers,” Friedrich said. “They get experience with the public, and it helps raise money for our incoming students who need financial assistance.”  Applicants must be at least 18 years old and reside in the US.  Because of the physical nature of farming, participants should expect regular lifting, bending, kneeling and working outdoors in varying weather conditions.  Applications are due September 30, and scholarships are available for qualifying students.  Additional information and applications are available at LearnToFarm. org.  If only I was only younger and had a larger field . . . Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Electroculture

July 31, 2026

This week I tore out the last of the plants in my raised beds.  The first to go were the remaining onions (Allium cepa) I had left in the ground.  I found it was a mistake to leave the mature bulbs in the ground as the sun and high temperatures (95F+/35C+) burned the tops of the bulbs that stuck out of the soil (another learning experience).  It became clear the cabbages (Brassica oleracea) were done forming into heads and were just soaking up water.  I joked with Melissa that I had raised “tiny cabbages”, my cutesy name for brussels sprouts (also Brassica oleracea).  They came out, and the small heads are waiting in the vegetable bin for me to do something with.  The volunteer cantaloupe (Cucumis melo) only produced two viable fruits and there were no new flowers, so out it came.  The last to go were the two cucumber plants.  They had produced well, including 14 pints of canned dill pickles and numerous pounds to donation.  Now I need to prepare the beds and get ready for my fall planting.  Thinking about what goes where always puts me on alert, so my interest was perked when I came across a Facebook reel touting the virtues of Electroculture Gardening.  

When I went online, I found electroculture gardening is an alternative practice involving placing copper wires, antennae, or magnetic coils into the soil to capture atmospheric and geomagnetic energy.  Proponents of the technique claim it accelerates growth, increases crop yields, and repels pests.  Mainstream science views these claims as lacking “robust” empirical proof.  The copper antennas are simple enough to make and are readily available for purchase.  They consist of copper wire wrapped tightly around an 11 inch (37.5cm) wooden or bamboo stake that is then pushed about 3 inches (7.5 cm) into the soil.  In the Northern Hemisphere you twist the wire in a clockwise spiral to supposedly match local magnetic forces.  You can also place open loops of copper wire (Lakhovsky-style coils) around the bases of individual plants.  This coil is a simple open-ended loop of wire with overlapping ends that do not touch, invented by Georges Lakhovsky, to act as a passive resonant circuit.  Controlled tests and academic agricultural reviews find no verified mechanisms or consistent data showing that passive copper wire acts as an effective power antenna or nutrient booster for soil, and suggest standard alternatives (organic compost, maintaining proper hydration, and rotating crops) work as well or better to improve harvest. 

I have tried several trendy methods to grow or increase the produce in my yard.  This includes raised beds using hügelkultur (built over logs), cloth grow bags, the three sisters (corn/ Zea mays, beans/ Phaseolus vulgaris, and squash/ genus Cucurbita) grown in mounds, 5-gallon (19 L) buckets, and containers.  I even have gone so far as to plant directly in the ground (ha ha).  All these methods have been successful at times, and at other times not.  I am constantly trying to increase yields to make our household more sustainable and less dependent on outside resources.  I have yet to be consistent.  

THOUGHTS: Electroculture gardening seems to be another attempt to improve crop yield.  Some have made a stark claim that the world only has a limited number of harvests left (100, 60, or even 30).  While the claims are overblown, soil erosion rates from across the world span five orders of magnitude.  Around 16% of the world’s soils are eroding quickly and have an estimated lifespan of less than 100 years.  Half of the soils are eroding slower with a lifespan greater than 1000 years while one-third have over 5000 years.  As with my garden, we need to protect our soils with agricultural practices like cover cropping, minimal to no tillage, and contour cultivation.  While it is feasible for me to test electroculture, extending the world’s soil will require a proven and cooperated effort across every country.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Triceratops Beetle

July 27, 2026

When I go out the back door it is always a mad scramble for the kids to race out into the yard.  Sometimes I will stop at the door and hold up my hand (command to sit).  Loki is usually reluctant but will slowly obey my command.  Zena often instead crouches down a bit and whines in protest but will then sit.  I did not require them to sit as I walked out to water the back garden today.  When I opened the door there was the immediate scramble as each tear through the door, through the sun porch, and out into the yard, hoping to catch a slow gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) on the bird feeders.  As I walked out after them, I noticed they had both run over a large black bug lying on its back.  It appeared to be in distress as its legs were flailing in an apparent attempt to right itself.  As I was watching the bug the kids noticed me looking and came back to investigate.  First Zena and then Loki came in through the door, and I had to shoo them away.  I was reluctant to pick the bug up as I did not know what it was, so I swept it into a dustpan and turned it back onto its feet.  After turning the bug over I recognized it as a triceratops beetle.

When I went online, I found the triceratops beetle (Phileurus truncatus) is a species of beetle of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles).  The beetle ranges across much of southern North America, up to the central south.  It is known for its three horns present on both sexes.  The name is a reference to the triceratops dinosaur (Ceratops horridus) that lived in the Late Cretaceous period (68 to 66 million years ago) on the island continent of Laramidia, now forming western North America.  Adult beetles range from 1.25 to 1.5 inches (32 to 38 mm).  Males have thicker, more blunt horns that curve more aggressively towards its body, while females have thinner, straighter, pointier horns.  The horns have a divot running down the center of their prothorax dividing both sides, with a very small bump just before the divot.  When they beetles are disturbed that produce sound (stridulations) by rapidly rubbing their hardened forewings against their abdomen.

The triceratops beetle is considered good for your yard and garden.  As grubs, these beetles live inside rotting tree trunks (oak preferred) and consume the wood.  After pupating into adults, they consume the grubs of other beetles.  Hopefully this one has been feasting on the squash bugs that invaded earlier.  I set the dustpan down and took a picture of the beetle.  I had planned to safely release the triceratops back into the garden (and out of my house), but when I turned back to look, it was nowhere to be found.  Our porch stores my bird and garden supplies, along with several hundred of Melissa’s succulents, and it apparently flew off and hid somewhere in the room.  We keep the outside door open most of the time for circulation and we do have the occasional house sparrow (Passer domesticus) or paper wasp (Polistes dominula) that attempt to make this area their home.  The triceratops might have done the same thing.   

THOUGHTS: Having a triceratops beetle on our sun porch is not a bad thing, but I hope she (smaller horns) finds her way back outside.  To my knowledge there are no beetle grubs living on the concrete floor.  The ancient Egyptians revered another scarab beetle (Scarabaeus sacer) as a powerful symbol of rebirth, the morning sun, and creation.  They connected the dung beetle’s habit of rolling a ball of dung across the sand to the sun moving across the sky.  When young beetles hatched from the buried dung, the Egyptians saw it as a sign of life coming from nothing.  When I visited the great pyramid at Giza there were several people selling terra cotta beetles with a bright blue glaze (faience).  One gave a free beetle to each of the three ladies I was traveling with.  After they walked off, he turned to me and said, “As you will.”  They were gone and “free” beetles cost me US$1 (EGP51.37 Pounds) each.  Another cultural lesson learned.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Extraterrestrial

July 23, 2026

Toward the back of Tuesday’s local newspaper was a USA Today article about a meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey house two years ago.  This became today’s news when researchers published their findings about the meteorite in the journal Science Advances on July 15th.  Peter Jenniskens, the lead author and a meteor astronomer from the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, said, “A forensic study of the fragments revealed that they contained preserved bits from near the surface of a primitive asteroid where it experienced concentrated salty fluids – a process not previously known from this type of proto planet world.”  The study looked at the meteorite, which weighed more than two pounds when it shot through the roof of a house in Hillsborough, New Jersey, 48 miles southwest of New York.  Mike Zolensky, the papers’ coauthor and a meteoriticist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and his colleague, JangMi Han, found small, salt-rich fragments of the meteor, suggesting it originated from an area near the asteroid’s surface where water evaporated and caused salt to concentrate in the area.  The discovery is not definite proof of extraterrestrial life, but it could bring researchers closer to finding how life originated on Earth.

When I went online, I found extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth.  No extraterrestrial life has yet been detected.  Such life might range from simple forms such as microbes to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more, or far less, advanced than humans.  The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy and speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe.  The science of extraterrestrial life is known as astrobiology.  Speculation about inhabited worlds beyond Earth dates to antiquity.  Early Christian writers discussed ideas from thinkers like Democritus and Epicurus about countless worlds in the vast universe and pre-modern writers typically assumed extraterrestrial “worlds” were inhabited by living beings.  Descartes wrote that there was no means to prove the stars were not inhabited by “intelligent creatures”, but their existence was a matter of speculation. 

While the researchers never found any form of extraterrestrial life on the meteorite, they did say the highly concentrated salt brines found can “create molecules crucial to life on Earth,” and this could provide researchers with new insight into how asteroid chemistry shaped life on Earth.  A meteorite is a rock that survives entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and hits the ground.  This rock was traveling at 32,000 mph (51499 kph) when it entered Earth’s atmosphere on July 16, 2024.  The owner of the home where the meteorite crashed said he collected pieces of it while wearing disposable gloves and using aluminum foil to place fragments of the meteorite into glass jars.  The owner said, “I was at home at the time, heard a loud crash and found a hole in the ceiling of the master bedroom.  I smelled a strong sulfur-like odor and saw many black fragments along with debris and black dust that covered my bed, carpet and surrounding areas.”

THOUGHTS: The man deciding it was a good idea to pick up the pieces of meteorite obviously never saw the 1958 extraterrestrial movie The Blob, starring Steve McQueen in his first leading role. The film concerns a carnivorous amoeboid alien that crashes to Earth from outer space inside a meteorite.  The extraterrestrial envelops living beings to grow larger.  It is finally stopped by freezing it with CO2 fire extinguishers.  Perhaps the homeowner kept a fire extinguisher next to him while he picked up the pieces.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Pearl Crescent

July 20, 2026

As June moved into July my tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) began to produce, and I was able to take over 50 pounds (22.7 kg) to two local food banks.  I also canned 7 quarts (6.6 L) of the Romas into pasta sauce and turned 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of the sweet 100’s cherry tomatoes into a jar of sun-dried tomatoes.  I had never made sun-dried tomatoes before and was surprised how easy they were to make.  I cut off the ends and halved each fruit, then coated them with olive oil and Italian seasoning. I placed the halves skin-side down in our air fryer for 40 minutes at 250F (121C).  The recipe suggested I add another 40 minutes at 180F (82C) to get the chewiness found in store brands.  The lowest setting on my air fryer is 250/121, so I hedged and put them back for another 30 minutes.  I put them in a clean (airtight) jelly jar and into the refrigerator.  This should last several months.  This last week the heat of summer finally found us and while my tomatoes have slowed down, my jalapenos have begun to take off.  When I went out yesterday morning to water and check for ripe fruit, I noticed a new butterfly resting on the tomato leaves.  This was a pearl crescent butterfly.        

When I went online, I found the pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos) is a species North American butterfly.  It is found in all parts of the US except the west coast, and throughout Mexico and parts of southern Canada. The species reside in open areas such as pastures, road edges, vacant lots, fields, and open pine woods.  Color patterns can be quite variable.  Males usually have black antenna knobs.  The upper side is orange with black borders, while the rear (postmedian) and submarginal areas are crossed by fine black marks.  The underside of the hindwing has a dark marginal patch containing a light-colored crescent.  The wingspan is from 0.8 to 1.3 inches (21 to 34 mm).  Adults find nectar from a wide variety of flowers including dogbane, swamp milkweed, shepherd’s needle, asters, and winter cress.  Males patrol open areas for females, and the eggs are laid in small batches on the underside of host plant leaves of aster species (family Asteraceae).  Caterpillars eat the leaves and are gregarious when young. Hibernation is by third-stage caterpillars.  The species has several broods from April to November in the north, and throughout the year in the deep south and Mexico. 

Hybridization between the pearl crescent and other species of the genus Phyciodes have been studied in the past.  These studies were done to see whether variation through hybridization could arise and create a new species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) as a result.  The pearl crescent has a large distribution (Mexico to Canada), and around the US/Canada boarder three other species of Phyciodes (P. batesii, P. cocyta, and P. pulchella) are present.  While all these Lepidoptera share the same genus their genomes are distinct, causing the variation in phenotype.  In Wingert et al.’s study on Phyciodes differences, they found that the genome sequence was different because of the low levels of gene flow and hybridization.  Even though these species are capable of hybridization, it shows how these butterflies have been able to maintain their separate genomes and not overly hybridize.  In other words, these different species are similar but tend to keep to their own kind when mating.

THOUGHTS: While the pearl crescent does not appear to cross breed with “cousins”, several mammal species do, both naturally and in captivity.  There are zonkeys – zebras (subgenus Hippotigris) + donkeys (Equus asinus), camas – camel (genus Camelus) + llama (Lama glama), pizzlies – polar bears (Ursus maritimus) + grizzlies (Ursus arctos horribilis) and others.  About half of all plant species on Earth arose through hybridization.  Even humans have hybridization early in our history, and many people carry a little Neanderthal DNA.  Humanity is different than most other animals as we choose what to differentiate us from each other, even though we are all the same.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Dimorphic

July 18, 2026

When I went out to load the kids in the Jeep for our walk, I noticed a spider clinging to the window.  It is summer in Arkansas, and I have noticed several spider species around our yard and garden.  Over the last two weeks we have had an orb-weaver (family, Araneidae) trying to spin her web in the gate that opens from the patio to the side yard.  I let the kids out for their final trip before bed around 10 pm each and the spider had nearly completed the web.  The kids run through the web guidelines on their way to the side yard and the industrious spider is forced to begin again.  The web has not been up the last two nights, but I do not know if this is due to the rain or frustration from having to rebuild.  The wolf (family Lycosidae) and trapdoor (infraorder, Mygalomorphae) spiders have not been plentiful, but seems to multiple in fall as they prepare to overwinter.  There have been several small Bold Jumping Spiders (Phidippus audax) crawling on the windows or patio furniture.  These are easily recognized by their black bodies and distinctive white dot on their abdomen.  The spider on my window was a jumper, but another species.  I narrowed this to a dimorphic jumper. 

When I went online, I found the dimorphic jumping spider (Maevia inclemens) is a relatively common and colorful jumping spider of North America.  The males have two forms, which is a very rare phenomenon in zoology, and each use different courting displays.  The “tufted” morph has a black body and pedipalps (“palps”), three black tufts across its “head”, and pale legs.  The “gray” morph has black and white stripes all over its body and legs, orange palps, and no tufts.  Each of the two forms accounts for 50% of the adult males, and they are equally successful in mating.  Like all jumping spiders, the dimorphic has excellent vision.  The main eyes, in the front-and-center position, are large, and are more acute than those of a cat (Felis catus) and about 10 times as acute as a dragonfly’s (infraorder, Anisoptera).  The remaining three pairs of eyes are along the sides of the head, and work as motion detectors.  The eyes are used for hunting, for avoiding threats and for finding mates.  The species is found in south-eastern Canada, and in the eastern US and is frequently seen on man-made structures like outbuildings or fences (or cars).

I was not surprised to see the dimorphic spider clinging to the glass.  I have seen spiders hanging on ceilings and crawling up walls, so a spider on glass was not out of the ordinary.  It did make me think again about how they are able to perform this feat.  The dimorphic, and many other insects, walk up glass windows using thousands of tiny hairs on their legs that lock onto invisible ridges on the glass.  These hairs create weak electrical forces between molecules, pulling the spider to the surface. And making them stick without any glue.  Each foot has microscopic hair called setae.  Each hair then splits into even smaller branches called setules.  These microscopic stetules get so close to the glass that they trigger a natural molecular pull (Van der Waals forces).  This force provides a strong grip that holds the spider’s weight.  Even though a single Van der Waals interaction is very weak, they collectively have massive structural and physical implications

THOUGHTS: Even though the Van der Waals force used by the dimorphic jumper is very weak, this interaction can have massive structural and physical implications.  Molecules with more electrons are more “polarizable,” and these attractions create higher boiling or melting points.  The billions of tiny, microscopic hairs on the dimorphic create the adhesion to climb surfaces.  Finally, they provide the foundational attraction that allows cell membranes to hold their shape and enables proteins and DNA to fold and interact correctly.  Funny what you can learn watching a spider walk up glass.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Flea Beetle

July 17, 2026

Several days ago, I mentioned my battle with insects in our garden and flower beds.  I have overcome the squash bugs (Anasa tristis) this year, but the vines rotted before I got much fruit.  I only found a few bugs on my squash, but I finally located squash vine borer moths (Melittia cucurbitae) on my sunflowers.  The vine borers lay their eggs on the underside of leaves and when the larva hatches, they bore into the vines and can cause them to rot.  That seems to be the clear case for my squash (genus, Cucurbita), but it did not account for the pitting I saw on the red amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) leaves in the bed.  I have been checking the plants daily for any moths and the underside of the leaves for eggs, capturing the moths (if possible) and scrapping the eggs off the leaves.  If the leaves have already been discolored, I am cutting them from the plant.  My close early morning inspections proved fruitful today as I spied another beetle on one of my sunflower leaves.  When I checked it was identified as a pigweed flea beetle.

When I went online, I found the pigweed flea beetle (Disonycha glabrata) is a species of striped flea beetle in the family Chrysomelidae.  This small, striped leaf beetle is known for skeletonizing plants in the Amaranth family (like it did mine).   Plants in the amaranth family may be called pigweeds because they were/are used to feed pigs.  The flea beetle is active in gardens and fields during the summer, chewing tiny round holes and laying eggs on the leaves.  The larvae spend their first 13.5 days in the soil before crawling out as adults.  The Pigweed Flea Beetle has a red and black head.  The red, shield-like part on an insect’s body (pronotum) has a black dot in the center, or may have three black dots, depending on the individual.  The black wing coverings (elytra) have four yellow lines on them, with the two on the left connecting at the bottom as do the two on the right.  Antennae are black, and legs are red and black.  Other members of the same genus have a similar appearance, but the width, color, and number of the lines on the elytra differ between them.

The pigweed flea beetle is active from late spring through autumn and is not considered a significant pest in a backyard garden.  That is unless you are trying to grow red amaranths.  It is best to use a multi-step approach to control and manage infestation.  Start by placing fine Floating Row Covers over young plants immediately after planting to block access.  Once plants are established, spray them with organic Spinosad or Neem Oil.  These sprays must be applied in the early morning or evening and directly contact the beetles to be effective.  While Neem Oil is considered organic, spraying in the evening eliminates possible contact with the pollinators who would also be harmed by the oils.  Flea beetles are highly attracted to plants like radishes or hemp and planting these near your valuable crops creates sacrificial targets that can be easily treated or vacuumed.  Flea beetles locate food by smell and interplanting strongly scented herbs like mint (Family, Lamiaceae), basil (Ocimum basilicum), or catnip (Nepeta cataria) can confuse the pests.  This would also make our neighborhood cats happy.  Tilling the soil in the fall and removing garden debris helps destroy overwintering adults and larvae hidden in the topsoil.

THOUGHTS: Finding the pigweed flea beetle solved another riddle from my garden.  Last year it was the pock marked squash leaves (squash beetle), and this year it was the rotted vines (squash vine borer) and skeletonized amaranth (flea beetle).  I have found knowing the cause does not resolve the problem.  You also need to take appropriate (and specific) action.  This is where listening to science and experts can be invaluable.  Otherwise, you risk wasting time and money, and sometimes your integrity.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

V2G

July 16, 2026

In the middle of the front section of my Sunday newspaper was a Reuters article about how during the summer school buses are sending power back to the grid.  With schools out the electric vehicle (EV) buses are parked in charging lots across the nation.  The World Resources Institute’s Electric School Bus Initiative says the US has about 6,700 electric school buses.  About 230 of those have the capacity to supply 8 megawatt-hours of power at any given time and 100’s more are expected to come online.  The energy stored in school buses and other electric vehicles is dwarfed by power plants, but efforts to use their batteries to return power to electrical systems show how EVs could fortify strained power grids.  The large batteries in EV school buses can exceed 200 kilowatt-hours.  They can charge when demand is low and send power back to the utility when they are idle, like in the summer when electricity demand surges.  Steve Letendre, senior adviser to the Vehicle Grid Integration Council, said, “School buses will be a critically important backbone of V2G capacity.”

When I went online, I found vehicle-to-grid (V2G) describes a system in which plug-in electric vehicles (PIEVs) sell demand response services to the electrical grid.  Such services are either back feeding electricity to the grid or reducing the rate of charge from the grid at different times of the day.  Demand services reduce demand peaks for grid supply and reduce the probability of disruption from load variations.  Plug-in electric vehicles include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).  They share the ability to store electricity in their on-board battery modules, which are typically used to propel the vehicle’s electric engine.  V2G allows some of this energy storage to be sent to the grid, turning the vehicle into a small-scale grid battery that is eligible for claiming feed-in tariffs.  A 2015 report found that vehicle owners could receive significant payments by charging their EVs at off-peak times when grid electricity is cheaper, storing it in their car battery, and selling it back to the grid at peak times when congestion prices are higher.

At least 31 utilities and 21 states are involved in V2G school bus projects, but the capacity from V2G electric school bus projects needs to grow exponentially to make a meaningful difference.  Electric buses do not emit tailpipe pollution, but critics of vehicle electrification and government and public investment in alternative energy projects argue they could tax the grid.  This has led many schools to begin to lean on solar energy for charging.  California leads the US in developing and adopting V2G school bus technology.  The largest project is at the Oakland Unified School District, where Pacific Gas & Electric and transit provider Zum operate a fleet of 74 buses estimated to generate 2.1 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually, and a separate Zum project with the San Francisco Unified School District is set to launch next month.  San Francisco is expected to surpass the Oakland project, with a starting fleet of 104 buses returning about 3 gigawatt-hours of energy annually during peak hours.  The fleet will more than double to 238 electric buses in 2027-2028.  In Connecticut, the Branford Public Schools district will have 46 V2G-capable electric buses in August. 

THOUGHTS: In September 2022, the BIDIRECTIONAL Act was introduced in the US Senate, to “create a program dedicated to deploying electric school buses with bidirectional vehicle-to-grid (V2G) flow capability”.  The bill died in committee.  One criticism is that cycling power into and out of a battery (“inverting” the DC power to AC) incurs energy loss, comparable with the 70 to 80% efficiency of large-scale pumped-storage hydroelectricity.  V2G requires a shift in thinking, and acknowledgment that fossil fuel combustion accounts for 75 to 80% of total greenhouse gas emissions globally.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.

Squash Vine Borer

July 14, 2026

For the last three years I have waged a battle with squash bugs (Anasa tristis).  While I found a few individuals on my squash (genus, Cucurbita) this year, they have not been abundant and when I do see one I remove and dispatch it.  Even so, every one of my squash plants died early.  The cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) are thriving, but they were planted late and after the squash were gone.  Squash bugs feed by piercing the leaves and stems to suck out plant sap, causing foliage to develop speckled yellow spots before turning brown and dying.  I was still finding my leaves riddled with holes, but what led to the squash demise was the vine above the roots disintegrated.  This seemed a different culprit than what I faced in the past.  I attributed this to the cool and wet weather we had this spring leading to vine rot.  I have similar leaf problems in the sunflower bed to the north and every one of the red amaranths (Amaranthus cruentus) are riddled with bite holes.  While watering yesterday I noticed what looked like small beetles on the leaves of several of the sunflowers (Helianthus annuus).  When I tried to remove them, they “jumped” to the other side of the leaf.  Then one of them flew off.  I was looking at a squash vine borer infestation.

When I went online, I found squash bugs and squash vine borers (the “moth” pest) are two distinct cucurbit (cucumbers, squash, melons, and pumpkins) pests.  Squash bugs are “true bugs” (flat, dark gray/brown, resembling stink bugs) that suck plant sap while squash vine borers are daytime-flying moths whose caterpillars burrow into stems and kill vines from the inside.  The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) is a daytime (diurnal) species of clear wing (sesiid) moth often mistaken for a bee or wasp because of its movements and the bright orange hind leg scales.  Females typically lay their eggs at the base of leaf stalks, and the caterpillars develop and feed inside the stalk, eventually killing the leaf.  They soon migrate to the main stem, and with enough feeding damage to the stem, the entire plant may die.  The moth is considered a pest as it attacks cultivated varieties of genus Cucurbita (squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and acorn squash).  The squash vine borer is native to North America, with some reports as far south as Brazil and Argentina.  It lives in most temperate North American states, except the Pacific coast.  Southern states have two broods a year (lucky for us).

Pesticides are ineffective to control squash vine borers once the larva gets inside the plant, and since the north bed is meant for pollinators, cannot be used as they would kill what I am trying to feed.  I have been trying to catch and dispatch anything I see, but they are fast.  An organic control is to inject BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) bacteria into the base of the stem using a syringe to kill the larvae.  The injection should be done after the first flowers start to show and again after a few weeks.  This method is quite manual and is only useful to small-scale or home gardeners (and too much work for me).  You can wrap the lower stem with nylon stockings or aluminum foil to prevent egg laying, which generally occurs within a couple of inches from the point where the stem emerges from the soil.  Some gardeners place a yellow bowl filled with water and a drop of liquid dish soap to attract and drown the adult pest.  This method provides feedback on the level of infestation and along with daily checking the plants for eggs is popular with organic gardeners.  Now I need a yellow bowl.

THOUGHTS: I try and be conscientious about organic farming on my vegetables, but the squash vine borer is testing my limits.  Perhaps it is a good thing that most pesticides are ineffective on the insects.  I realize I am feeding some insects even as I try to eliminate others.  The same is true as I grow weeds (wildflowers) even as I pull others from my beds.  Humans tend to make similar decisions with the people they cooperate with.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.