Backyard Bugs

Often on Backroads, we head out to explore the world around us, sometimes to discover the wonders of nature.  But today we’ll find nature thriving in our own backyard.

“The favorite thing of all biologists is to just go out and see what you can find! In people’s backyards, just across the street, or in some weedy lot. You name it, there’s something there,” says Entomologist Leslie Saul.

Leslie is going to give us an introduction to the world of bugs, and show us how to look for them in our own neighborhoods.

She says, “Most of the animals on earth are invertebrates.  Most of those are insects.”

And, according to Leslie, the overwhelming majority of them are performing beneficial functions.  She never thinks of them as icky pests.

“You know, when you look close, they’re as beautiful as anything that you would see anywhere in nature!” exclaims Leslie.

Leslie was the first Director of the Insect Zoo at the San Francisco Zoo.  Now she and her husband Norm Gershenz run a nonprofit called the Center for Ecosystem Survival. 

One of the center’s projects is the Insect Discovery Lab, which brings exotic bugs from all over the world out to schools and other groups.

“I think computers and technology are neat, but there’s nothing like something live and real right there,” says Leslie.

She adds, “We’re really trying to get people exposed to nature, and trying to get them to care about nature.”

In the classroom, Leslie wows kids with magical creatures such as Malaysian leaf insects. But there’s plenty of fascinating local fauna as well, and that’s what we’re searching for today.

We start on the edge of Golden Gate Park, right next to busy San Francisco streets, where Leslie finds a promising looking dead tree.

“I came up here and I saw, oh, look at that!” says Leslie as she points to the tree. “And see these smooth edges and these holes. Those holes are termite galleries.”

We’re on the trail of the Pacific Dampwood, one of thousands of species of termite in existence.

“It really requires damp, moist conditions, so they’re not the dry wood termite that’s often found in houses,” explains Leslie.

The first things we uncover are sow bugs, affectionately known as roly polies.

“These guys are actually crustaceans.  They’re not insects,” she says.

Leslie unpacks some tools, including a crow bar, and she puts me to work prying off a bit of the tree stump. It isn’t long before we find some busy termites.

“Termites are amazing because they’re social insects.  So they have a queen that lays all the eggs.  The nymphs and the workers do all the work, and they’re almost all female.  And then there are soldiers that defend the colony.  And so they have a true division of labor,” she explains.

Leslie assures me that further inside the stump are thousands of termites working away at what is essentially a remarkable recycling operation.

“From solid wood into really dust,” she says.

Just a few feet from the termite colony, a log invites investigation.

“Let’s pull this over,” says Leslie.
 
When we do, we uncover a couple of bright red centipedes.

Leslie explains, “Now centipedes can bite, and they are predators.  But the ones around here are so small that their mouth parts are pretty small.” She says they can’t inflict a very large bite.  “And if you don’t squeeze them, they just kind of run around, usually,” she adds.

As the centipedes scurry about, we turn the log back over, leaving it the way we found it.

“Very important to put all this stuff back, so that they can find their homes again and carry on,” Leslie says.

A couple of minutes away, at a lovely little lake in Golden Gate Park, ducks and egrets are holding court. But we’re looking for something smaller.  And soon we find it – a beautiful spider in the middle of a large web.

Leslie says, “The common name for this spider is either a shamrock spider or a pumpkin spider.  I personally like the pumpkin spider, because she’s big and round and orange.”

We’re in the park, but pumpkin spiders are common sights in many backyards as well.

Leslie adds, “What’s really amazing about this species too: it changes color.  Not many spiders do that.  It’s very rare in spiders. She can go from this sort of brownish-orange color off into almost a greenish color.”

With bugs, just as with most of our experiences along the back roads, you’ll see more if you slow down and take the time to look.  No matter where you live, you should be able to find something interesting.

For example, there are several spots, including one in the Marin County town of Fairfax, where huge clusters of ladybugs congregate every winter.

According to Leslie, “They’re one of the few animals that do this.  But ladybugs are kind of special in other ways.  They have what they call warning coloration, so they’re bright red and black.  And that sort of advertises that they’re distasteful to predators.  So as they group together in the thousands and millions, it’s sort of like a super signal that says, ‘Hey, stop.  We’re not good to eat.’”

Meanwhile, we’re off to Oakland, to a school garden created by a group called OBUGS to teach kids about nature. OBUGS planted flowers to attract insects, and it’s working.

Leslie immediately spots a huge bumblebee that she thinks is a queen.  She says, “They are actually social, but they live in small groups.  Not thousands of bees like the honeybees, but in small groups maybe up to thirty.”

Honeybees are buzzing around in this garden too.  “A honeybee of course is an introduced animal, but a very important pollinator for our crops.  And they pollinate over sixty different crops in California alone,” says Leslie.

More than eighty species of native bee have been recorded in neighboring Berkeley.  We’re seeing a good variety just in this little garden, including a dazzling one I never noticed before.

Leslie explains, “It’s a leaf cutter bee.  It’s a megachilid.  If you notice, she’s got a yellow belly.  And she’s carrying her pollen on her belly.  Most bees – a lot of bees carry the pollen on their legs, like the honeybees do and bumblebees.  Well they have specialized hairs on their belly, and they carry their pollen on their belly.”

According to Leslie, insects are responsible for pollinating nearly eighty percent of the world’s flowering plants.  Bees are a big part of that.

She says, “Einstein is quoted as saying if all the bees disappeared, that planet Earth would really only last about three or four years, and everything would collapse.”
 
Leslie studies bees, often traveling to remote corners of the planet to conduct her research.  But you don’t have to be a trained scientist, or venture very far, to appreciate these smaller forms of life.

“Everybody could do this in their own backyard.  It doesn’t take very much room.  And so there’s so much life here.  And when you see all this activity, that’s a good sign.  You know we use to think that we’d want to get all the bugs out of our gardens, but it’s the opposite”, exclaims Leslie.  “Bugs are good! Come on in!  Because it means good things are happening!”

For more information about Leslie, the Center for Ecosystem Survival and the Insect Discovery Lab, go to http://savenature.org/ or call (415) 648-3392.  For more information about OBUGS, the Oakland Butterfly and Urban Gardens, log onto http://obugs.org/ or call (510) 465-4660.

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