Small white soft ball at the Moerkuilen in Nijnsel
Thea Willems sent me a photo with a small white thing on it. If you look closely, you can see that the bottom is a bit flat. I think it should be hanging by a small wire, but you can’t see that in the photo below.
I think we’re dealing with a gnome twilight light here. In reality, this is a cocoon spun by one of the bottom bag spiders. They don’t make a web. They are mainly hunters at night. They don’t even make silk to hide in during the day, but hide under rocks or in small holes. Fifty species of bottom sack spiders occur in Europe.
Whose is this broken egg?
Nienke Verbeek sent me a photo with a half empty egg on it. She described it as small and with pale pink flecks. However, it is always difficult to find the right name for this if you cannot see for yourself how big the egg is. Holding a recognizable object, for example a ballpoint pen or something next to it, always helps. Yet I dare to gamble that this was an empty egg of a great tit. She also asks whether the egg may have been stolen. I think it was indeed taken by an animal that likes great tit eggs. Which animal, that is gambling. I think the indentations on the egg shell indicate a bird, but which one? Jays, great spotted woodpeckers, jackdaws and so on may be the culprits, but it might as well have been a squirrel with the egg still processed by a bird.
How do I get rid of this true plague of horsetail?
Paul Couturier has a lot of horsetail in his garden. He even speaks of a true plague. How should you fight horsetail, is his question. First of all, it is important to see what the bottom looks like. It must be in perfect balance and a lot of horsetail is a sign that you have poorly draining, poor soil. The soil then has deficiencies of various minerals. It is best to supplement it. You can use lava flour or rock flour for this, but soil research is even better. What is also possible, but that is long-term work, is to leave the horsetail alone. Because that plant ensures that the deeper minerals come to the surface. In the long run, other plants will feel at home there and the horsetail disappears.
What is this insect called?
Anke Lips wondered which insect she photographed. In that photo you see an insect with very clear yellow and black bands. So we are dealing with an insect from the hymenoptera family, namely the German wasp. I can’t really see how big this German wasp is, but I suspect it is a queen. German wasps belong to the paper wasp family and are the most common wasp species next to lemonade wasps and common wasps. German wasps live in colonies and build their nests from wood fibers. They chew the wood fibers into a papery paste. They catch insects which they then grind with their mouthparts. They give the paste to the larvae. The larvae give the workers a reward in the form of a sweet ball. Later, when there are no more larvae, the workers go in search of sweets and then, just like the lemonade wasps, harass the terrace visitors.
What kind of growth is this?
Anika van Rijthoven encountered strange vegetation on birches in the Pannenhoef. She herself thought of fungi and that is not such a strange thought. You see growths or growths on that birch that have arisen because the spores of a fungus have ended up in a wound. Such a proliferation is actually the outgrowth of a large amount of growing tips, caused by a fungus or fungus. We call this witch’s brooms and actually it’s a gal. The fungi that cause this belong to the family of bag fungi. A witch’s broom looks very much like a bird’s nest, but it is not. It is an accumulation of twigs, usually hanging from a thick branch. The great thing about such a gall is that there are also all kinds of insects that make their shelter here.
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The medicinal properties of dandelions – Agnieszka knows what to do
There are two hundred types of dandelions and they all have a similar medicinal effect. Anyone who sees the dandelion as a troublesome weed in the garden is doing both the dandelion and himself a serious disservice. The dandelion is nutritious, free and medicinal. You can mix a few dandelion leaves into a meal every day. That’s good for the liver. Dandelion is not a weed; it is a free medicinal vegetable.
My tree is full of bugs
Hans Staats sees a lot of insects on a tree. In the photo he sent, I can clearly see who the nuisances are. There are aphids on the tree. Aphids are small herbivorous insects that suck sap from plants and trees with their stinging and sucking mouthparts. They are not only many, but also have all kinds of colors. You have green, gray, white, black, yellow, red and purple aphids. Aphids prefer to crawl to the growing points of all kinds of plants. There they can easily reach the juice flow and there are a lot of nutrients. Unfortunately, all that sucking reduces the growth of the plant. Hans Staats also sent me a photo of the tree. It looks like it is a pine or spruce and they can suffer from the pine aphid. Originally it did not appear here, but it came with the Christmas trees called Nordmannspar. These spruces have their origin in the Caucasus.
What is the name of this insect that was lying on the ground in the garden?
Helga Jansen found a strange insect on the ground in the garden. She thought this insect was dead. After giving some sugar water, it came to for a while, but a little later it was still dead on the ground. You can see the animal in the photo. Helga wonders what this is. We are dealing here with an insect from the world of flies and mosquitoes, because you can clearly see that this insect has only two wings. What is also striking is a huge suction snout in relation to the rest of the body. In addition, you see a line of black on the top of both wings. We are dealing here with the common woolly glider, which belongs to the flies. For the rest, the body of this fly species resembles a bumblebee, but that is because of mimicry. As a result, they hope that animals that do not dare to catch bumblebees will also leave these ordinary woolly gliders alone. Common woolly gliders are real flower visitors, sucking up nectar with their long snout. Females of the common woolly glider can often be seen floating above sandy plains. There they stick their abdomens in the sand to dust the eggs with sand. Once the eggs are dusted with sand, they fly to where sand bees have their nests. Then they shoot their eggs in such an entrance. In the video below from EIS knowledge center you can see how the common wool glider does this.
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Nature tip
Saturday, April 30, from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., an excursion will take place to the Experience at Reusel. Nature photographer James van Leuven – also director of the well-known series ‘Op Pad’ – and Annelieke Kelderman, creator of the information points at the Brabants Landschap foundation, give participants their view on the landscape. They explain how they add extra nature experience to a walk. Because if you know what you can see along the way, you will also look at nature differently.
More information:
• Registration is required, this is possible through this link.
• The excursion starts at De Hollandershoeve at 46 Turnhoutseweg in Reusel.
• You will be welcomed with coffee and cake. Then the walk starts.
• Bring binoculars
• Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed.
• Wear sturdy walking shoes.
• Wear clothes that suit the weather.
• Always check yourself for ticks afterwards.