Black Witch Moth

In the Dark of Lea County - Black Witch Moth

Mariposa de la Muerte – Butterfly of Death

Here is a uniquely different night harbinger-for-bearing death. What the heck are your writing about Dr. Dirt? 

It is the elusive Black Witch Moth that is frequenting our cities and towns in Lea County. It is a creature of the night that can startle you when spooked by your presence. A lot of folks miss-identify the Black Witch moth as a bat as it flies a very erratic path much like a bat at dusk. It is larger than the Mexican Free-tail bats of Carlsbad Caverns fame.

This is the largest North American moth. A female will have a wing span of 7 inches tip to tip and a white marbled line through the wings. Males are smaller and do not have the white line. The caterpillars of this moth are 2.50 to 3 inches long and they are voracious eaters of mesquites, acacias and legumes that grow in our desert southwest boondock country. They feed at night, crawl under ground debris during the daylight hours. The larvae spin a large cocoon on the ground under cover, as they pupate, over a few weeks the unusual Black Witch moth emerges as an adult and lives for a few weeks looking for a mate during the cover of darkness. One good thing, they are NOT an agricultural farm/ranch pest.

These extremely large moths migrate from Brazil, up through Mexico, from the Caribbean Islands, into the United States and northward to the Canadian provinces and they even wing their way to the Hawaiian Islands too. The only thing wrong here, it is a one-way migration and NO return to the south-ending in death.

In folklore of many cultures in Latin America and the Caribbean Islands, it’s associated with death and misfortune.

Known as in:

Mexico -                 Butterfly of Death or Mariposa de la Muerte

Jamaica -                Duppy Bat or Lost Soul

French-speaking Caribbean Islands -         Dark Sorcerer or Sorei’re Noire

According to folklore, if the Black Witch Moth flies into your field of view, it conveys a curse from an enemy. If it flies over your head, it will cause your hair to fall out. If it flies into your home when you are sick, you will not get well. You will die.

Now, on a happier note, if the Black Witch Moth appears before you after someone has died, it represents the soul of the person returning to bid you farewell. Should one alight on you, you will become rich. Should a Black Witch Moth land above the door of your home, you will win the lottery. (Hummmmh!)

It has its life’s hazards too. The Black Witch Moth is active at night, and darkness adds a measure of protection, but it does fall prey to hungry, feeding bats and giant orb spiders, waiting to entangle a flying moth into its web. A daytime flight of a spooked moth could mean a meal for several birds that would feast on it.

Even in literature they are noted…

“I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in the quiet earth,” the character Lockwood said, at a graveside, in Emily Bronte’s dark and disturbing novel Wuthering Heights.

This is a precursor to a new museum exhibit coming, “In the Dark”. I will have one of these moths for display in this upcoming exhibit.

Crepe Myrtles in Wet Climates

August 11, 2017

Question: Dr. Dirt, I want to grow Crape Myrtles in my yard and I live in Chicago, Illinois. Can you give me some pointers and recommendations? Erin, my sister who works at the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame, referred me to you. 

Christie

Chicago, IL

Answer: Christie, thank you for asking for some gardening help on growing Crape Myrtles in the Chicago area.

Crape Myrtles are usually thought of as "Southern" (south of the Mason Dixon line to the Gulf Coast areas) to grow as beautiful flowering shrubs to tree-form types. Your request is unique, but I have seen Crape myrtles growing in downtown Chicago landscaped beds, raised planters and street medians while attending gardening conferences in your city.
The USDA plant hardiness for Chicago proper and coming off Lake Superior is zone 6a. Areas west and south of Chicago-land are zoned 5b, zones that have colder temperatures that will kill most varieties of Crape Myrtles. Your growing zone 6a will allow Crape myrtle varieties (i.e., Lagerstroemia fauriei) to be grown in your landscape. The Fauriei cultivars are somewhat winter-hardy in zone 6.

Growing Tips: The cold-hardy Crape Myrtles still require some gardening measures you must do to help them survive in your zone 6a.

➢ Treat the Crape Myrtles as a perennial plant. Dying to the ground and re-sprouting in the spring.
➢ Plant them in micro-climates in your landscape. (Near your home, warmest, most protected spot in your yard. Then they may not totally die-back from the winter freezes.)
➢ Plant them in full-sun and a hot location as they love the sun and heat.
➢ Plant the Crape Myrtles in spring to early summer, getting their roots to establish in your soil fast. DO NOT plant them in the fall, a sure death.
➢ Perennial technique, after hard-killing freezes cut stems/trunk to 2 to 3 inches above the ground. Cover the Crape with landscape fabric, then collect leaves and cover over the core plant with a foot or more of leaf matter and at least 3 to 4 feet out from the plant. Leaves act as an insulation cover lessening freeze-damage to the plant and roots. Remove organic matter and fabric as spring arrives in your area. They will re-appear late, as the soil must warm them up and activate their growth from winter's slumber.
➢ Fertilize early in the spring season, irrigate them if in a dry period.
Cultivar Notes: The US National Arboretum has been hybridizing Crape Myrtles for several years for cold weather tolerance. They have developed 25 cold-hardy cultivars for northern climates and zones. Check your plant tags for the botanical name noted for the cold hardiness factor. A plant nursery that sells these cold-hardy types is called The Crape Myrtle Company (http://www.crapemyrtle.com/). Check them out online.

A few Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia fauriei) cultivars to consider and look for are:
Pocomoke - A dwarf, rosy pink
Tonto - is a water melon red
Hopi -a light pink
Sioux -bright pink
Cherokee -a deep red
Okmulgee -dark red

Christie, I hope this gardening information helps you out on your quest for enjoying Crape Myrtles and growing them successively in the Chicago area. THANK YOU, for a truly unique garden question.

Dr. Dirt

A Moment with Nature: Kangaroo Rat

From the Western Heritage Nature Trail System

Featuring: Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys deserti)

The Desert Kangaroo rat is one of 22 species of kangaroo rats that can be found in the North American arid southwest. New Mexico is home to 3 of the kangaroo rats. These small rats inhabit the lowest, hottest, and most arid regions of our seven western states, they can be found in northern Mexico and up to the Canadian provinces too.

Habitat:

The Desert Kangaroo rat prefers arid climates with sparse vegetation covering sandy ground. Desert Kangaroo rats burrow into the sand dunes, they are rarely found on hard or gravelly soils These rats are one of the few animals to establish colonies and exist in shifting sand dunes. A colony will effectively dig 6 to 12 burrows with in the dunes, complete with entrance and escape holes, cache rooms for food supply storage, nesting areas and even a nursery for rearing the neonates.

Appearance:

A Desert Kangaroo rat size ranges from 3 to 6 inches. They have an extremely long tail up to 7 inches long and it tapers with white-tipped guard hairs along the top to the tip end. These rats have small forelimbs and long, strong hind legs which modified for jumping, hence the name “Kangaroo” rat. The legs have long hairs aiding in their defense tactics. Desert Kangaroo rats have the thickest hair in their genus that is a pale brown on their backs with scatterings of black hairs along the spine. They have indistinct white markings above their eyes, on their feet and underbelly. 

Breeding Season:

Desert Kangaroo rats mate in the spring coinciding with spring rains that bring on an abundance of food sources. The female Kangaroo rat is the ‘hussy’ of the rat-world, she will mate with several males. Once she has conceived this rat produces a fetal plug and no other males can breed with her. Droughts diminish the breeding populations considerably. The female can produce 2 litters a year and have 1 to 6 neonates (babies). Her gestation period is 29-32 days. The young are born head-first and the mother assists in delivery by pulling on the fetal membrane during the birthing process. Baby Desert kangaroo rats can breed at two month of age. Their life-span is 3 to 5 years.

Communication:

Desert Kangaroo rats have a keen sense of smell, extraordinary hearing, and excellent night vision. They are not vocal, but can make soft squeaks. All Kangaroo rats are “drummers”, they thump the ground with their powerful hind legs to make a loud noise when their burrow entrances are disturbed and danger is present. Drumming of their hind feet also signals the colony that food sources are found.

Food:

Desert Kangaroo rat diets comprise primarily dried seeds, nuts, leaves of certain food plants, mesquite bean pods. They can and will at times eat an insect, but mostly plant matter. They have fur-lined cheek pouches in which stuff the food sources and transport back to the colony and store in underground food chambers. They normally do not drink water, as their unique bodies metabolizes moisture from their food.

Predation Action:

All kangaroo rats are nocturnal creatures. During the day their colony entrances are packed with sand to keep predators out. These little rats with the unique hind legs sever in two purposes, one for travelling and the other for fear-flight response when a predator is hunting them down. Their hind legs can propel these rats 6 to 8 feet in a rapid response to escape.

Another unusual action of these little rats, is they can be staunch and aggressive for their size. I mentioned above about the long hairs on their hind leg to feet. When disturbed by a predator they will turn around and face the predator and begin kicking sand into the enemy’s eyes. This gives them a possible chance of escape by boing-boing off into a safe zone away from the predator.

Animals that do feed on the kangaroo rats are, hawks, owls, bobcats, skunks, coyotes, foxes and snakes.

So, when you are on the Western Heritage Nature Trail you won’t see a live Desert Kangaroo rat, but you can see a bronzed replica of this little amazing rat of the Lea County sand dunes. On any give moon-lit night, travel down some of the back county roads of Lea County’s oil patch and you will see the Desert Kangaroo rats hopping across the road in your headlights. 

This bronzed Desert Kangaroo rat is off to the South side as your walk to the front entrance of the museum. Oh, by the way, you may see a large Pack rat and some Cotton rats that are inhabiting the biomes in the trail system as you walk along.

A Moment with Nature: Red-Tailed Hawk

A Moment with Nature

From the Western Heritage Nature Trail System

Featuring:  Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

The Red-tailed hawk is one of the most common hawks seen in southeastern New Mexico and can be found throughout North America. It is one of the largest hawks, weighing between 2 to 4 pounds. The females are a third larger than the males, and having a wing span of 56 inches.

When travelling local highways, dusty oil field roads, ranch and farm roads you will usually see several of these magnificent birds. They soar above open fields, in circular flight patterns. They are common birds seen sitting atop wooden power poles. Red-tailed hawks perch high up, they are watchers; their eyes are attentive to any ground movement meaning a possible meal.

Red-tailed hawks have broad, rounded wings and a short wide tail. The females are larger and sometimes are mistaken for a Bald Eagle in the distance.  Their general color pattern is a rich brown above and pale below, with streaks to blotches on their belly and wing underside feathers. The tail has a pale color below and cinnamon red above on mature hawks, which identifies this bird easily. The young immature hawks are brown and banded on the tail’s end.

Red-tailed hawks are carnivores (meat eaters) and they belong to a category of birds known as raptors—birds of prey. Raptors have strong, hooked beaks for tearing flesh; their feet have three toes pointing forward and one toe turned back. These toes function as claws, and they are called ‘talons’, which are long, curved and very sharp for clutching prey. The long talons kill the prey, and if too large to swallow whole, the Red-tailed hawk holds onto the prey with its talons and tears the prey apart with its beak into bite sized morsels.

Red-tailed hawks are common in our region of the country all year. They are not migratory birds, and fly south for the winter. Hawks that reside in Alaska and Canada will fly into the northern tier of states during winter, but this is to find plentiful food sources and then return to their normal ranges in spring. Red-tailed hawks love open country. Look for them along fields, meadows in forested areas, prairie groves and wide spread plains.

Located on the Western Heritage Nature Trail south side is a bronzed replica of a mature Red-tailed hawk that you can view up close. Per chance walking around the Nature Trail’s system you might actually see a Red-tailed hawk perched on the oil rig tower, flying overhead in circles, making a 2 to 3 second screeching sound and giving you the eye from above.

Bird Facts:

·       Red-tailed hawks along with other hawk species are ALL carnivores (meat eaters) and known as raptors.

·       The Red-tailed hawk is the most common bird of the buzzard hawk family.

·       Red-tailed hawk’s eyesight is 8 times as powerful as a human eye.

·       Talons are its main weapons, clutching and killing.

·       Up to 90% of the Red-tailed hawks diet consist of small rodents (not chickens, as this hawk is also known as the chicken hawk, an erroneous title).

·       Federal and State laws protect ALL RAPTORS (hawks, eagles, buzzards) with hefty finesand maybe even some jail time for convicted offenses.

Mulleins Weed

Question: Dr. Dirt, I have a weed growing in my yard that I do not know what it is and how to control them. I have never seen anything like this before. 

John

Tuesday, June 20, 2017 

Answer: John, thank you for dropping this off at the Western Heritage Museum’s reception desk. The weed you brought in for identification is called MULLEIN or sometimes known as WOOLY MULLEIN.

Mulleins can be found in Lea County. They usually have hitch-hiked into our area via baled hay, seeds embedded in dirt or mud from excursions to the mountains west of Lea County. You will find ample stands of mullein growing in the Pecos River Valley agricultural farm fields and wildland interfaces. It can be found up in the Guadalupe and Sacramental Mountains. 

The mullein plant grows rapidly from very tiny fine seeds and creates a stunning rosette of gray intensely covered gray hairs on the leaves and stems. Leaves are very soft to touch. They take two years to develop a flowering stalk that you brought to me today. They are much like thistles or sun flowers and shoot a stalk upwards from two feet to six feet in height. The terminal end is covered with light yellow honey-scented flowers; which are followed by small rounded capsules containing 100,000 to 180,000 of fine seeds on a parent plant. Wind, animal fur/hair, dirt removed from mullein growing sites will be infested with the fine seeds which will readily germinate in Lea County’s soil once sufficient moisture is present.

Control Measures: You can pull mulleins out easily if small; they do have a deep tap-root like a carrot. Broadleaf herbicides can be applied to the plant for a kill action. You must use a soap, adjuvant or spray oil with the herbicide mixture. The extremely hairy leaves will repel the weed spray and run-off the plant’s leaves and not killing the mullein. The spray additive to the herbicide will penetrate the hair and get the herbicide to the plant’s leaf surface. Spray the entire rosette on large plants and concentrate the spray mix to the center of the mullein’s growing point. They do not spread by underground roots or stems. This plant can be a noxious weed if left unchecked once it gets established.

Native Note: This plant can be utilized in a water wise/native landscape and it requires very little water to survive, hence the various locations in our mountain ranges. It does good as a backdrop specimen, the hairy leaves are attractive. Pollinators like the yellow flowers. English plant breeders have taken this particular plant and created flowering ornamental landscape mulleins with different color patterns.

Mulleins are used around the world as a medicinal plant to treat numerous health conditions and used in other forms and ways. It is totally a multi-use plant besides a common weed.

John, I hope this brief information helps you out on your new weed pests. 

Dr. Dirt 

Yellow Flower Trumpet Vine

June 17, 2017 

HELP Dr. Dirt! I've got this mess in the corner of my backyard. I have no idea what to do with it and honestly I'm scared of what I might find in there (insect- wise). I like the flowers but would like to see it look cleaner. 

Erin
Hobbs, NM

Erin’s Vine                                Honeysuckle Vine with pruning, and a trellis against brick wall.

Thank you, Erin for this interesting picture of the Yellow-flowered form of Trumpet Vine.

Answer: From my observation looking into your photo and the background details. I would recommend cutting the trumpet vine back in height and sides coming inward. Whack the vines a few times first with a broom, etc., wear gloves of course and watch for pests or other critters. I would definitely remove a lot of the vinery growth up from the ground. I would install a heavy-duty trellis between the trumpet vine and the fence. Trumpet vines are an aggressive grower and weighty. I would utilize the fence as a support mechanism to hold the weight as the vine grows and becomes larger. You would need to train the vine’s runners to attach itself to the trellis; once established onto trellis the vine will take off on its own.

Under-cutting the draping ground hugging tendrils and runners will give you a cleaner look and shape to the whole plant. Yes, the photo looks messy and could have some critters living within the tangled mess. But a good hair-cut and selecting good runner vines and attaching them to the trellis will give you a more manicured looking plant. The yellow flowered form is NOT as aggressive as the orange flowered type that can take over a backyard landscape.

Dr. Dirt would be happy to assist you in the your gardening endeavors and demonstrate how to cut the vine and do the proper uplift towards a trellised look. What is out-of-bounds now can be brought back into a controlled growth pattern with the yellow flowered trumpet vine.

These vines are great for watching hummingbirds and Sphinx moths feeding off the nectar-laden flowers.

A great pic and garden question Erin, I hope my brief answer gives you a direction. And I do make house calls for my patients.

Dr. Dirt 

Ocotillo Care

June 5, 2017


Question: I planted an ocotillo recently and have been watering it every day to give the roots a good start. Do I need to feed it? If so what? I had a little bone meal and used that. 

Bob
Lea County, NM

Answer: Many Ocotillos (Oc’s) in Lea County succumb to the local landfills. Number one enemy, too much TLC (tender loving care) given to them and that comes in the form of over-watering Oc’s. Now depending on your local soil, if it is real sandy and loose, YES, maybe a couple of watering’s a week in high heat and wind. If you have red clay or gray clay soils then water sparingly, once a week to 10-days, and do water deep as the scraggly roots come off of the Oc’s center stem. Remember, where you see these desert natives growing naturally, on the steppes/foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains, they get whatever rains come along, drenching’s or light showers. They are basically rooted in four inches or less of soil, and grow into cracks of the underlying rock formations. Then they have the blistering summer heat and winds to contend with...a true survivor.

So, when they are dug up and transported to other areas of the state we need to replicate the soils and growing conditions as best as we can similar to their natural environment. This is where TLC kicks-in way too much!

Clay soils should have some coarse sand and/or gravel added for drainage, wet roots and soggy ground is a death knell.

No fertilizers for the first year, our soil, your soil will be nutrient rich compared to that spot on the slope of the mountainside where it was growing. If you added bone meal, that’s cool and okay, it is very low in nutrients but stay away from the commercial brands for now. Let this native get re-established, the second biggest problem is the plant collectors who hack- off all the scraggly roots trying to extract them from the rock ledges. Most are sold with very little major roots and usually NO feeder roots are attached. These underground anchors are foremost and foundational to getting your Ocotillo to live. With me not seeing the actual root structure, I am giving you a broad care scenario.

If you found this Ocotillo with good root structure then you will be rewarded as these plants are long-lived and will add much growth and vibrant color as it matures. Best yet, is the beauty, the form, its uniqueness and the brightly fire-torch ends that are hummingbird magnets and with night-time large moths feeding on the rich nectar they produce.

Bob, I hope this helps you out and you have a successful transplanted Ocotillo to admire for years. 

Dr. Dirt