This 2 inch long cocoon was hanging from an Iris in my bog garden

Have you seen these around your house and garden?

These are the cocoons of the bagworm moths.  These odd little creatures are known for their cunning camouflage. Unlike most moths that spin a pure silken cocoon, bagworms are trash collectors, gathering dead leaves and sticks which they incorporate into a shell-like cover.  From the moment they hatch, they begin coating themselves in debris, providing a perfect camouflage from most predators.  

Throughout their larval and pupal stages, these bagworm (or caseworm) moths crawl around your garden in search of plant food.  Rarely a problem to the average Charleston gardener, they do very little damage to plants, preferring lichen and mosses to most living plant tissue.   In most cases, you won’t even notice their existence until they affix themselves permanently to the underside of your deck railing or wooden fence post.

There are 600 different species of bagworms in the Psychidae family of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)

This little guy actually chose to hang out along my nylon-coated string bean support lines. Ranging in size from 1/2 – 3 inches long, once you recognize bagworm cocoons, you will begin noticing them all over your yard.

Here are some interesting facts about bagworms that you probably never even knew you wanted to know:

• In our area they are rarely pests except to citrus trees. If seen, they can easily be controlled by removing them from the bark.
• In most cases, it is only the male who emerges from the cocoon and then just long enough to mate and die.
• Many female bagworm moths lack wings and remain in their cases where the males fertilize them. Some species even die with the eggs still inside of them; their bodies providing the first food source for their offspring.
• Like other caterpillars, bagworms are either generalists or specialists. In other words, some eat only 1 host plant while others graze on a variety of plants as well as the occasional microscopic insect like scale or psocids.
• In the Southeastern Unites States, June and July are peak season for spotting bagworms.
• North American bagworms come in three types: snail, evergreen and grass.  Snail bagworms look just like fuzzy round snails.  Grass bagworms appear as dried twiglets and evergreen bagworms look like tiny pinecones.

Roses that my father propagated

As Father’s Day approaches I’ve been thinking about all of the questions I wished I had asked my father while he was still with me.  Dad’s been gone for a while now and yet I still think about him affectionately every time I walk into my workshop for a tool, or try to change the oil in the lawnmower, or when I’m dripping with sweat trying to get the darned thing to start.

It’s funny what I associate with my father. When I intentionally think of him, I recall fond memories of him calling up to me to wake for school, eating cereal together in the wee hours of the morning before he left for work, always 40% Bran Flakes, or his predictable return home every night at 5:30 for dinner.  I can still see him in full routine, removing his work shoes at the door, setting his lunchbox down on the counter, kissing my mother, then sitting at the head of the table he built himself, ready for the family meal.

We’d spend at least an hour at the dinner table when I was a kid, eating and laughing, recounting our day or discussing current events. My father was a laborer, with an elementary school education and big, meaty hands that spent their days steering an 18-wheeler up and down the highway for a construction company.  He was a dyed-in-the-wool-democrat and a teamster, a self-taught man who questioned things in order to understand them better. He was also a fiscal and social conservative – something the media says no longer exists in the democratic party.

Oddly enough, despite these fond recollections, I think about Dad more in the unintentional moments of my day.  I see him in my own actions, when I plant in my garden or try to fix a leaky faucet, when I’m driving down the highway or taking something apart to teach myself how it works.  I imagine that I feel the same thrill he must have felt when I reap something I have sown or complete a repair that actually works!

Even more importantly, I think about who I am because of him and I try to live the lessons he taught me: to work hard and mind my own business, to always keep an extra $20.00 handy for emergencies and carry a hankerchief just in case, to show love by action and to always be accountable for those actions even when you’re wrong.

I used to think that I had to have degrees after my name and piles of tangible assets to prove my worth, but now that I have had all of that, I realize that my intangible assets are much more valuable and I am proud to be my father’s daughter.  To all of those girls out there who love their daddy, give him a hug for me….

And ask him to teach you how to change the oil in your lawnmower.

Painted Buntings - Female-left, Male-right

Today’s POTD comes from our Council President, Betty Gourdin, who spotted these beauties just outside the window of her study.  Husband Keith snapped the photo.

They are a nesting pair of Painted Buntings, male with his unmistakable red, yellow-green and blue plummage, female in a duller plummage that becomes electric yellow-green in bright light.

These finches are considered near-threatened,  i.e. on the watch list for protection, so seeing them at your feeders is always a special treat.  They love millet, milo and niger seeds and will also forage on the ground and around low shubbery for caterpillars, spiders and other small insects. 

Although shy birds around humans, males can be very aggressive towards other finches, wrens and chickadees, particularly during the summer nesting months.

If you see something this beautiful in your yard, send it my way and I’ll be happy to share.

Happy Day,

Trish

 - These devices keep bats, birds and squirrels from nesting in your chimney. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from simple wire to extravagantly ornate. l do the same thing: prevent critters from nesting where they are not wanted.

Under $100, these come in all shapes and sizes

Chimney caps

$25 - $50

Vent Guards

are simple devices that fit over roof plumbing and gas vents to prevent raccoons and squirrels from entering. They can be painted the same color as the roofing shingles to blend in. These products range in price from $20.00 to $50.00 but can save hundreds of dollars down the road.

Dryer Vent Screens – Most homeowners do not realize that dryer vents are like beacons to rodents.  They have everything a rodent could possibly want for nesting: warmth, lint and shelter.   These simple covers prevent them from entering in the first place.Hardware Cloth – If your home has an unsealed crawl space you probably have rodents living under it. If the foundation is brick then the vents should be covered with mesh or hardware cloth.  In cribbed crawlspaces, hardware cloth can be placed behind the wooden cribbing to prevent rodents.  Simple screen may keep out bugs but only hardware or copper mesh cloth can prevent raccoons, opossums and other rodents from getting in.

Landscape Control -  Sometimes the easiest solution is common sense landscaping.  Tree branches too close to the home allow animals to reach the roof more easily.  Pine straw pile-ups right at your door will invite snakes to nest there.  Shrubbery within 24 inches of the home not only invites critters to nest. It also provides a potential water trap that can cause mold, mildew and wood fungus to proliferate.

Sometimes good old fashioned folk remedies also help.  Moth balls are great for keeping snakes and cats away, if you can stand the smell. Covered Compost bins also prevent an unwanted invitations to scavengers.  Bringing your bird feeders in at night sometimes works as well.

Many wildlife nuisance control companies offer free or low-cost preventative inspections of the home to assess your risk.   By simply examining your home, you could prevent unnecessary intrusions.If you have other ideas, send them my way.

Two of the four fox kittens captured

After a weekend long struggle, we have found a home for the family of foxes.  All we need now is permission to transfer them to the St George sanctuary.  A meeting has been arranged for today with representatives from all sides to help negotiate a peaceful resolution. Your prayers and support are needed to make this happen. 

Trapper Robert Vanwormer refuses to put them down but may have to if we cannot help

No one wants to see these innocent wild creatures euthanized, including the family who originally hired the trapper.  Pray that the DNR will allow us to safely transfer them to the sanctuary.

How you can help:

• Contact Channel 4 or the Post & Courier to support relocation to the Keeper of the Wild Sanctuary 
• Contact your friends at the DNR and plead for their welfare
• Send a financial donation to Keeper of the Wild, a non-profit organization that rehabilitates wildlife that have been displaced by man’s actions.
• Pray that we work out a peaceable solution for all involved. 

Photo by NG Photographer Joel Sartore

For the last several weeks, we have witnessed our neighborhood come alive with wildlife. Caterpillars, frogs and toads, raccoons and opossum and now foxes.  This latest discovery has been a special treat since foxes all but disappeared from our landscape for many years.  It signals a turning point in the restoration of our backyard wildlife habitat program, a NWF program that our garden club and many of our neighbors have adopted as a way to support a sustainable, earth-conscious way of life.

Of course, good news rarely travels alone. Hiding in the shadow are always the naysayers who allow fear and ignorance to dominate their thoughts and actions. 

So while many of us were sharing sweet tales of seeing the fox pass by in the evenings in search of a stray rabbit or a vole and some of us were cleverly securing our chicken coops, others were busy plotting revenge on the innocent creatures whose only crime has been its natural search for food in our diverse habitat.    

But how diverse can our habitat be if we rid ourselves of the inconvenient creatures?  Some many of us have worked long and hard to restore our yards and in turn our neighborhood back into a balanced wildlife habitat that the thought of someone reversing it overnight by trapping and relocating the animals seems like a giant leap back into the dark days of ignorance.

I coined an aphorism a few years ago:  Paradise ceases to be paradise once all of the fools move in.  

Mark my words, you will hear more of this controversy before all is said and done. On one side will be the fearful “protectors of the innocent” citing that their motives are purely out of concern for those dainty little children and small dogs who may fall victim to rabies.  (even though the animals show no sign of rabies.)

On the other side will be the extreme environmentalists who think that our neighborhood should be returned to a wild forest.

But in the middle of all of this, I sit, still believing that there is a happy medium.  I believe we can have nice, neat yards and well manicured parks as well as wildlife habitats.  I believe that we can take care of our own responsibilities as individual homeowners without assuming that we are in charge of the universe. 

Unfortunately I am only one voice among many and sadly, in our modern society, it is the loudest voice that usually wins. Which begs the question.  Who is the real vixen in this tale?

Mother Goose

My sister Susan sent me these pictures yesterday.  While running errands, she happened to spy a Canada goose in the middle of a heavily trafficked median.  This time of year, geese are everywhere so she thought little about it.  But when she passed by a second time it was still there, apparently stranded in the blazing heat that emanated from the asphalt as cars whizzed by left and right. 

What a place to call home

Curiosity and concern got the best of her so she pulled over to make sure it was okay.  Believe it or not, it was sitting on a nest of eggs, right there in the middle of traffic!   Knowing better than to attempt relocation, Susan did what I like to think most of us would have done.  She filled a plastic container with water and set it by the mother goose who immediately drank it up.

Next she went home to get her camera and some bread which she threw to the stranded mother who again ate with abandon as she snapped these photos.    When we spoke last night, she was already making plans to send my brother back by there today with fresh food and water….and maybe a beach umbrella to shade her from the baking heat. 

The nearest water is a quarter mile away across the mall parking lot.

For all of my Bucks County readers, if you’d like to help, the mother goose is located in the parking lot of the Oxford Valley Medical Plaza near the mall.  Knowing my family, don’t be surprised if you see orange cones cordoning off the area!!!

I’ll keep you posted on this evolving story.

Happy Day!

Blue Lupines and Pink Knock-out Roses dance in the wind with Yellow Bulbine in the background

For the last 25 or so years our garden club has been planting and replanting the medians that bank the highway on James Island.  Every few years or so we would tweak our planting scheme, adding new plants, deleting others.  Just as some of us had made peace with the final arrangements, we decided to take a giant leap and change it completely.

This took a great deal of trust in the horticulturist we “hired” to design the new schematic. Of course, at first, the change was very difficult for some.  How dare we change what they worked so hard to create and nurture?  Truth be told, even I was not overly excited about the major changes. After all, I’m the type who stops on the side of the road to rescue half dead plants.

What to do?  Pray and practice trust, even (or especially) when in doubt.  Sometimes the hardest part of decision making is accepting that your best efforts still fall short of perfection.  After a year of grumbling, fielding comments and trusting the process, today we have a beautiful median filled with mostly native plants and full sun die-hards.  Lupine, Bulbine, Heliotropes, Aloes and Knock-outs just to name a few.

Sure, some may still think it is imperfect, but it is the most colorful and vibrant planting we’ve had so far and I am so thankful that we embraced the changes even when afraid of their outcome. 

 “I did the best I could with what I knew at the time and when I knew better, I did better.”  Maya Angelou

 Happy Day,

The sign above this says: Do not remove brick or you could get electricuted. What an incentive to buy! BUY THIS HOUSE - GET SHOCKED!

I saw a bumper sticker this weekend but couldn’t get a photo (I was driving at the time.)  It read:

The Recession is Over…Buy Something!

I wondered if it could be that easy?  If enough people convince themselves of something positive, can we create a positive outcome?  Perhaps we are just fooling ourselves.

My Money & Markets experts change their tune almost daily. Like the stock market, one blog is up; the next is down.  So I’ve decided to listen to them as though I am watching the stock market.

In other words, just as the Dow Jones average ticks up and down daily but aggregately seems to take a long-term direction – usually upward over time – so too can our economy.  I guess it’s like defensive driving. Always keep your predominant focus 1 mile ahead but continue to check your immediate area for potential dangers.

In Real Estate, the long-term strategy is to appreciate 3-5% per year over 20 years.  However, the recent economic tsunami convinced people that you could double and triple your money in a very short period of time.  Some took the bet and made lots of money while others are suffering the fallout, not only of loan adjustments, but also of price crash.

Seems like no one is talking about that.  Everyone wants to blame the banks for handing out loans on inflated values but no one thought they were inflated at the time.  In fact, all most of us saw were dollar signs in our pockets.  Everyone wanted in and like a school fish, as soon as deflation hit everyone turned on a dime and suddenly wanted out at the same profit.

Let’s face it.  Free markets just don’t work that way!   Real estate cannot sustain short term gains forever.  It has to go down before it goes up. It’s simple economics. And the higher it climbs, the more severe it crashes before it begins to climb again.

In Real Estate the rule of thumb is to price it right from the starting gate, make it show like a model home and advertise it everywhere to attract the most buyer attention.  But here are the mystery questions of the day?   I welcome your opinions. In fact, give me a call and we’ll chat about them.

If the seller cannot take a loss, what do you to stay competitive with houses that are now selling for 10-20% less than you paid?

If you know most buyers will offer 10% less than the asking price, do you add the 10% buffer and risk losing out against other homes that are priced lower?

If you dress it like a model and it’s still ugly, what then?

That’s good news if you are in the market for a luxury home.  It also translates to great deals in the vacation home sector.  If you’ve always wanted to own a home near the ocean, here’s my deal of the week. All are available from my team.

Turn of River Condos is located at 2395 Folly Road

Turn of River Highrise Condos on the river at Folly Beach

We have 4 gorgeous condos available from $325,000 to $375,000.  Normally these would go for $500,000 and up.  Each of these units is very well appointed and would be an excellent fulltime or vacation home.  Built in 2000 all are furnished 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom flats with exterior elevator, pristine sunrise and sunset views from every bedroom, private balconies, a community pool and boat slips along the deep water of the folly river.  Literally 2 minutes to the ocean by boat or 5 by bike or car.

I will hold 3 of these flats open this Sunday, April 25th from 1-3PM.  Stop by for snacks and see for yourself.