Every Sunday there is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast. Listen to it here:
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Help the snails eat my ramen kit
Mia van Rooij suffers from snails that eat the sealant from the windows and she asked if I was aware of that. The answer is yes, because I have already had quite a few questions about that. It mainly concerns snails and it also appears that all kinds of kit are eaten. Some people may have painted the kit, but the snails don’t care. It turns out that they are even more likely to attack it, because they also like the paint.
What to do now? When asking experts, I have previously received the tip to string a blank copper wire, because snails do not crawl over a copper surface. In addition, ensure that the plants do not grow too close to window frames or doors and, above all, keep everything algae-free.
Who left his or her feces on my doorstep?
Frans Geerts found a pile of poop together and wondered who the perpetrator was. Since they are dark little poops, they must have come from an insectivore. They are somewhat rounded, clearly black and appear to be stuck together, which is where the house shrew has the best chance.
House shrews are quite common in our country and are mainly active at night. Sometimes you can encounter them during the day, but never in the morning. House shrews are very useful animals, because they hunt all kinds of species: insects, spiders, larvae, woodlice, snails, worms, moths, mosquitoes and cockroaches. They also tackle accessible areas of bumblebee and even wasp nests.
What kind of mosquito is near my window?
Gerard Jumpertz sent me a photo with the question: what kind of mosquito is this? If you look at the photo, you can clearly see that it is indeed a type of mosquito, but you can also immediately see that it is neither a mosquito nor a crane fly. We are dealing with a window mosquito here, but I cannot see exactly which one, so we call this mosquito window mosquito spec.
Window mosquitoes are related to the dancing mosquitoes, but are their own species. They like to come to light and you can encounter them all year round, with a peak in the spring. The adults, as in the photo, are usually grayish black, but sometimes also red. Window mosquito larvae live in rotten wood, but also in wounds in tree trunks.
Strange bulbs seen in a larch or pine in France
Karin Nutters sent me a photo of some kind of strange bulbs in, what she writes, a larch. She made this discovery in France. Now I don’t know what kind of trees grow in France and certainly not in the southern part of France, but when I look at the photo, I think of a kind of pine tree (pinus) rather than a larch.
One of the speckled moth species that make webs in Scots pines is the gray needlebrush, also called summer needlebrush. This butterfly species occurs throughout Europe and Scots pine is the host plant of this moth. Caterpillars of the gray needle brush make tunnels in the tips of the needles.
Sawdust under a tree, who are the perpetrators?
Dick and Leny Hoogkamer saw sawdust under a dead tree stump and they wanted to know how it got there. We always say ‘dead wood is alive’ and we mean that there is a lot of life in dead wood. It is often said that up to 50% of biodiversity is in dead wood. Of course that depends on the circumstances, but the least is 20% biodiversity.
Such a dead trunk is mainly home to invertebrates, a large proportion of which are beetles. Examples are longhorn beetles and woodworms. The females of both species lay their eggs on dead wood and the larvae that hatch from the eggs make tunnels in that dead wood. All that digging produces residual material that falls from the dead tree trunks as sawdust.
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Nature in North Brabant: redwing in image and sound – De Terndief
Publication: January 16, 2017
In the winter period, in addition to blackbirds, other thrushes are also present in our country. Redwings and fieldfares have come here to spend the winter. De Terndief made a nice video about the redwings in the Biesbosch. More information about winter birds; the famous birdwatcher Lars Johnsson wrote a beautiful book about winter birds. Read the extensive review
Can hedgehogs swim?
Frits Dammers saw a hedgehog in the stream and wondered whether hedgehogs can swim. In principle, hedgehogs can swim well and they sometimes choose to go into the water. Presumably they do this not only to get to the other side, but also because they can get rid of fleas while swimming. So you could also encounter a hedgehog in your pond.
They are good swimmers, but make sure if you have a pond that there are opportunities for them to get out. Ponds with (too) steep or smooth edges immediately result in the hedgehogs drowning. If you have such a pond and hedgehogs nearby, place a board covered with chicken wire in your pond so that they can escape that way. Video with swimming hedgehog
Strange green bird spotted in the front yard
The little description that Margriet Janssen sent me is sufficient to indicate that it is a green woodpecker. Green woodpeckers can grow up to 34 centimeters in size, which is comparable to a Turkish turtle dove. The main food of green woodpeckers is mainly ants and their larvae. The latter mainly live in and on the ground, but can also be found on tree trunks. Green woodpeckers are therefore the most specialized ant-seeking woodpeckers of all other woodpeckers.
You will see green woodpeckers more often pecking on the ground than on trees. The latter does happen, but then they mainly pick the ants from the trees. On the ground, especially in short grass, they look for all kinds of ant nests. They prefer to eat the hairy red wood ants, but other ants are also on the list.
In addition to ants, they sometimes also eat other arthropods, such as spiders and a variety of insects. Finally, I can also report that they sometimes feast on berries, such as wild rowan berries and fruits such as cherries, apples and grapes. In this video of the Brabant Landscape you see a green woodpecker eating near an anthill
Could it be that there are still young Egyptian geese around in December?
Kees van Iersel saw, in addition to adult Egyptian geese, young geese walking in his hometown in December and he wonders whether that is still possible. In itself this is not a strange appearance, because Egyptian geese breed almost all year round. Previously it was discovered that they usually start breeding from January and end in October.
Nowadays you notice that the species already have young ones from mid-December. They did not originally occur here, as the name suggests. They were kept in our country in avifauna parks etc. and first escaped from parks in Rijswijk and Wassenaar. The very first breeding case outside the parks was in Scheveningen in 1967. Since then, the Egyptian geese population has grown explosively because they have no natural enemies. Nowadays there are approximately 8,000 to 10,000 Egyptian geese living in the Netherlands.
Beautiful photos section
Just outside at the right time to see this special cloud, Maria de Jong, Vessem
Nature tip; Family Christmas treasure hunt at Nature Center de Maashorst
Super fun family Christmas scavenger hunt
From December 9 to January 7 you can do a super fun family Christmas treasure hunt at De Maashorst Nature Center. You download the route via an app on your phone and with a special code you can unlock the tour and set off. This can be done on both an Android device and an iPhone.
The route is almost 3 kilometers and starts and ends at the visitor center. Along the way you hear a nice Christmas story you need some solve quiz questions to be able to continue. You get something special for the road and when you come back there will be one cup of hot chocolate ready for you. The participation costs are € 3.75 per child up to 16 years old, and you can mom and dad, grandpa, grandma or someone else who likes walking or doing puzzles take for free. Isn’t that a nice gift!
Bee departure you will also receive one cardboard Christmas bauble on which you can write down a wish and/or a good intention. If you hang the Christmas bauble on the white wooden tree inside, Santa Claus will look to see if there is a nice wish hanging there that he can make come true in 2024.
The Nature Center will be closed on the holidays themselves this year, but you are very welcome on all other days of the Christmas holidays and during regular opening hours. For more information, see our website.