I had to check because it’s much lighter than most of the photos I’ve seen, and it looks a little different… so I have to head back and get it when I’m done with my errands.
10 total egg casings, 300+ caught today, 6500+ total… no real impact on the population where I’ve been working.
Photo is from yesterday when I caught 1000+ in a single day so I don’t dox myself by showing the store brand recyclables I stored them in today.… and the meme I spent all night thinking of because I caught a thousand (one thousing lanterm flied ).
The photos are: 800+ bug haul, two egg casings in the crevices of bark, one uncovered row of eggs, the eggs on the end of a stick (they look almost like sesame seeds—juicy but flat), SLF vs. harvestman.
Since another person was kind enough to share their spotted lantern fly cape in my DMs, I figured I would share another kind of art :)
I am still collecting in one place that is less than a square mile. Still no signs of slowing.
Hey— I’m sorry it took so long for me to write out how exactly I started capturing and collecting and then how I refined my process.
So, for me, foremost… I’m autistic. To those who don’t see why it’s relevant, for me, it mostly comes down to intense interests that allow me to focus for stretches of time and retain related details. I am also really good at systems and optimizing, and there’s a really solid dopamine hit from competing with myself from day to day.
Which means, unfortunately, that I didn’t just build a trap and let them come to me. It’s just that, when I found a cluster of trees covered in them where I live, I started collecting for the bird rescue as soon as they made a public request for them. My area is considered to be moderately infested, but over about a year, I’ve noticed a major difference in how many there are.
The first days: I used a glass jar with a narrow neck and a pill bottle. I would scoop them, one at a time, off grass or trees, with the pill bottle, and then I would dump into the large jar. I started to learn the patterns in how they move and where they hang out— the wings propel but don’t fly, so they rely on their super strong legs to get away, which means they only jump the direction they’re facing, and unless it’s really windy, they don’t get far.
About day 5: I realized that if I scoop carefully with the pill bottle and the lid held partly open, I can collect a few at a time to deposit into the larger jar.
About a week: I started realizing they sleep in clusters on leafier branches. Also, I started to feel much more comfortable handling them with my bare hands, so I started scooping off grass. Then, scooping off trees and branches. Be gentle enough not to squish, but keep your hand closed because they *will* jump through your fingers.
This week: when I have a large empty jug to be recycled, I dump them directly in there and deliver them in that with air holes poked. I’ve started combining all of the info about how they hide, and in a few hours, I can collect hundreds. I’ve only been collecting at the complex where I live.
How I store them until I take them to the bird rescue:
I craft, so I have a huge role of mesh/tulle that I use to cover the opening of recyclable bottes and secure with an elastic band. Sometimes I use the boxes that salad greens come in. The easiest container thus far has been a Parmesan cheese bottle, because I can screw the lid shut over some mesh and leave the sprinkle/pour compartments open. When a container is secure, I leave it in the bathroom sink or tub with the lights off and door closed so if there are escapees, they’re more contained. Poke smaller holes because if the small ones can squeeze through, they will. If you don’t feel confident dumping bugs from container to container, practice outside.
Other observations and tips:
-where I live, wasps hunt and eat them. Sometimes, wasps warn me if I’m too close, but they seem comfortable with my presence because I am calm and don’t bother them. They sometimes rest on my legs or shoulders. Once, I had a wasp go in through an air hole in a container and get stuck, but it let me help it get out with a stick and some patience. Sometimes, I see ants walking off with chunks of SLF guts while a wasp is eating the rest. Ants and wasps also clean out the leftovers.
-They’re most active (and everywhere) when it’s sunny, but if you are comfortable catching in the rain, they cluster where they can stay somewhat dry. I also pulled like 20 off a random patio umbrella (underside along the spokes). In my area, between 11 and 5 seems to be their window of activity, peaking whenever the sun does.
-find a good long stick if you want to poke ones that are too high so they jump (and often land on the ground or glide much lower on the tree).
-the egg-carrying females have yellow stripes on their distended bodies.
What I am still trying to figure out:
-I still haven’t found any egg casings and I won’t feel confident identifying them until I successfully ID one in person.
I can’t remember if I forgot anything but please feel free to ask. Meanwhile, today, I have gotten (so far) about 250, which places my total at 2700.
The freaky distended yellow bellies mean going to lay eggs.
I’m not ignoring requests for my methods but haven’t yet typed them out.
1500+ and counting.
Hey— trying to find a song for a friend. He’s about 70, and most of the songs he’s mentioned so far have been from about 1972-1985.
He remembers the lyrics as:
“i am just stopping by to say goodbye/ cant really stay/ hate to see you cry/ my heart is overwhelmed/ it hurts with the pain/ my mind makes me visit you leaving again”
But for my life, I can’t seem to find anything close enough to be correct but misremembered.
Any ideas?
Edit: he says he thinks the title is “This is My Last Night with You” and added possible lyrics “As I leave you behind, a feeling of emptiness enters my mind / once again, yes, this is my last time with you. “
Hey— trying to find a song for a friend. He’s about 70, and most of the songs he’s mentioned so far have been from about 1972-1985.
He remembers the lyrics as:
“i am just stopping by to say goodbye/ cant really stay/ hate to see you cry/ my heart is overwhelmed/ it hurts with the pain/ my mind makes me visit you leaving again”
But for my life, I can’t seem to find anything close enough to be correct but misremembered.
Any ideas?
Edit: he says he thinks the title is “This is My Last Night with You” and added possible lyrics “As I leave you behind, a feeling of emptiness enters my mind / once again, yes, this is my last time with you. “
Hey— trying to find a song for a friend. He’s about 70, and most of the songs he’s mentioned so far have been from about 1972-1985.
He remembers the lyrics as:
“i am just stopping by to say goodbye/ cant really stay/ hate to see you cry/ my heart is overwhelmed/ it hurts with the pain/ my mind makes me visit you leaving again”
But for my life, I can’t seem to find anything close enough to be correct but misremembered.
Any ideas?
Each individual ball was at least 1.5-2” across
I’ve been kind of plunging the depths of the available information about the Eastern Woodlands, and I am really struggling to keep straight certain names/words because there are so many different spellings. There have been a few times that I realized after a while that two extremely different spellings indicated the same thing.
As far as pronunciation, I’ve been comparing alternate spellings and trying to arrive at the most likely intended pronunciation.
I am considering my options and think maybe the next best choice is to reach out to language reclamation projects and hope that they have the time to offer a sense of what pronunciation resources are available and what they may be comfortable sharing. I don’t want to overburden any resources better directed to someone else but I also don’t want to approach something so sensitive irresponsibly or arrogantly and learn it completely wrong.
What has your experience been with learning language and names that feel unfamiliar and may be poorly recorded/ not publicly available/ otherwise somewhat challenging? What was helpful to you?
I recently posted about dehumanizing record-keeping. I’ve been on a bit of a voyage because I always assumed my family was doing some pan-Indian “Cherokee princess” romanticism nonsense. I was raised with some cultural exposure but not community exposure. I chose to keep learning because I think the history matters whether it’s personal or not.
Turns out, I was wrong, and my relative wasn’t so much a pretendian as making the most of what we know as Wampanoag descendants from a village that is historically recorded but not well enough to be federally recognized (or even reasonably fully researched). It appears that my relative was involved in historical preservation efforts and maybe one of the two existing recognized Wampanoag tribes.
Without getting into complicated family stuff, we have always been very isolated people in general and no one is particularly close. I cannot discuss this with anyone in my real life.
So… I am sitting with the information I have, including the information missing, and feeling out my position as a lifelong learner invested in social issues. The conclusion I think I’ve arrived at is that I need to accept how much privilege I hold, but I have a responsibility to understand and honor the history.
I am privately taking some steps to build my understanding and maybe continued to participate in online spaces before I consider attending events.
But I’m looking for other people who have been on this path before me, I guess. And any thoughts about how to approach all of the things we just don’t know because we are still learning vs. the things we don’t know because it’s just lost information.
I’m struggling to even phrase this post, but it feels particularly evil to see how individual ancestors were recorded. I logically knew that many people were recorded as “(tribe name) Indian woman.”
Even when I did find some names, it felt like reading descriptor-based “Jane Doe.” The name pattern seemed to be (common English first name) (first syllable of tribal group). Not the tribe, but imagine “Narragansett woman” were only slightly personalized to “Mary Narr.” The pattern continues until everyone had very solidly English names.
And… my heart hurts.
I’m not sure what I’m seeking by posting.
It seems the primary means of avoiding residential schools were hiding children while remaining in the area, but I wondered how commonly families might have relocated to more effectively hide their children or obscure their cultural backgrounds. It seems plausible that, especially in cases where families may have been white passing, some families may have assimilated on their own terms (as much as it could be their terms) and tried to self-erase for safety.
I am struggling to find resource that speak to this possibility.