Do You Like Hummingbirds? How About Songbirds? Then Can You Help Me Spread the Word?

People kill all of the caterpillars and then ask, where are the butterflies?

I was recently talking to a family member who disclosed that she was going to hire an exterminator to “get rid of all of the spiders” at her house. Mind you, these aren’t venomous spiders like the brown recluse or black widow, they are just “regular spiders” who’ve made the fatal mistake of entering this house. (I suspect this is the sad fate of MANY spiders) As someone who prides myself on being a voice for those (plants and animals) who can’t speak, I was so overcome with emotion I abruptly hung up. Then promptly broke down in tears as I talked to my husband about the hopelessness I often feel when it comes protecting to the thing I love most–Nature. So frequently it feels like I am just beating my head against a wall, one small voice in a sea of people who don’t love, respect, understand, or care about nature. If I can’t even positively influence a person in my family who loves me, who has heard me speak year after year about the value of spider and insects, how can I possibly hope to influence total strangers? 

Also recently, I was standing in line with my niece while in Colorado and overheard two young women talking in front of us. One was telling the other about a few flowers she was planting in her garden to as she said, “attract the pollinators.” The other woman looked at her like she had two heads and exclaimed loudly, “Why would you want to plant anything that’s going to attract bees that can sting you!?” She went on about how ridiculous this idea was and why on earth would anyone WANT to attract bees to their yards. “What a stupid idea!” she kept exclaiming.

Both highlight the fact that many people have no idea how all of these parts are connected and how any one animal fits in the bigger picture and affects others, including humans. According to pollinator.org, “Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need help with pollination – they need pollinators. Pollinators provide pollination services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1200 crops. That means that 1 out of every three bites of food you eat is there because of pollinators. If we want to talk dollars and cents, pollinators add 217 billion dollars to the global economy, and honey bees alone are responsible for between 1.2 and 5.4 billion dollars in agricultural productivity in the United States. In addition to the food that we eat, pollinators support healthy ecosystems that clean the air, stabilize soils, protect from severe weather, and support other wildlife.” 

And with the exception of a few venomous spiders, most spiders are harmless. Contrary to what many people believe spiders are not “out to get you.” They use their venom to immobilize their prey and people are definitely not on their menu. They are not going to waste their venom by biting you just because you are near. Not only that but they, just like bees and other pollinators, have an important place in the food web keeping insect populations in check. In the world there are more than 37,000 named species of spiders but scientists discover more and more each year. They estimate this number is only a quarter of all those that actually exist. 

In addition, spiders in my mind make the world a more beautiful place with their intricate webs of silk that on dewy mornings are decorated with hundreds of tiny drops of water, each a perfect, upside-down reflection of the world around them. My favorite thing about summer is finding and photographing their webs in unnamed fields that glisten in the sunlight like diamonds. Of all the amazing things in our world, photographing spider webs is my very favorite subject, though I definitely didn’t always think that way.

But enough about the why I like spiders. Let’s talk about why you should like (or if not like, then at least tolerate) them. And not just spiders but all of those unloved, small animals–like mosquitoes, caterpillars, spiders, bugs, beetles, etc are some animals that may fall in this what-good-are-they-group of animals that people are quick to kill. Let’s just focus now on one group–the invertebrates, which includes the spiders and insects. And yes! Contrary to what many believe insects and spiders ARE animals!

Did you know that hummingbirds gather spider silk for their nests?

Other birds do too including kinglets, gnatcatchers and some vireos. The silk is like duct tape, holding the tiny construction together, yet allowing it to stretch as the babies grow and get bigger. These birds REQUIRE spiders to supply this material. 

Did you know that spiders and insects like caterpillars provide essential food that the mama songbirds need when she is feeding her babies? Do you like seeing cardinals? Or bluebirds? Or other songbirds?

Did you know 96% of terrestrial birds rear their young on insects or spiders, especially choosing caterpillars because these are high in important nutrients the growing babies require? They may feed on seeds at other times of the year but when they are raising young, they MUST have insects or spiders because the baby birds cannot digest the seeds.

According to entomologist Doug Tallamy, author and researcher from the University of Delaware “ONE clutch of chickadees can consume 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars in the 16 days from hatching to fledging.” That’s a lot of insects! Now what do you suppose would happen if that one chickadee couldn’t find any caterpillars or other insects? Multiply that by the number of other songbirds in that same territory and that by the number of songbirds in your state, and then in your country. It adds up to a lot of songbirds needing a lot of caterpillars, and other invertebrates.

Do you grow a garden? Cultivate flowers or vegetables? Then you should know that caterpillars will just be part of this process. We cannot have butterflies or moths without also having caterpillars as all of them begin life as an egg and then hatch into voracious caterpillars who feed on leaves of all kinds of plants, including some you might have in your garden. They do nothing but eat, eat, eat, molt and poop. If all of that works out, then they transform into winged adults that we all love and welcome with open arms. If you welcome the butterflies, you must also welcome the caterpillars. (with the exception of non-native caterpillars like the gypsy moth that the birds don’t usually feed on since they are hairy. These ARE pests and need to be controlled.)

In Doug Tallamy’s book, Bringing Nature Home, he tells us, “430 species of North American birds are at risk of extinction. There are 50% fewer songbirds today compared to 40 years ago. We need to move wild areas into the places we live, the cities and suburbs.” 

It’s easy for each of us to, as Doug says, “move wild areas into the places we live.” All we need to do is start thinking about the animals instead of only thinking about what our neighbors will think or what “looks nice.”  And by animals I don’t just mean the cute, cuddly and beautiful animals, but the hairy, scary, scaly, slimly, furry, feathery, tiny and odd ones too. We need to consider the animals we share this planet with. We need to start planting flowers and trees that support many kinds of animals, including caterpillars.We need to change our mindset when we see a caterpillar feeding on one of the plants in our garden or a spider in our house. We need to stop spraying every weed we see and every bug that finds its way into our spaces, in and outside of our homes. We need to redefine our priorities and then start taking action to make small changes. 

I know many of you feel similarly about nature and wild plants and animals. You too probably are sad when you see another field filled with milkweed and aster being mown, another forest being turned into a parking lot for a dollar store, another lawn or wild space being sprayed to eliminate the dandelions and “pests.” Everyday, everywhere I go it seems I’m confronted with some action that humans are taking that negatively affects the wildlife I love. It is hard not to let it get me down.

But you know what? Everyday there are also people taking actions that we never see or hear about. They are out at their local nurseries buying milkweed to plant in their yards so the monarch caterpillars have something to eat. They are pulling weeds by hand instead of spraying pesticides. They are planting native wildflowers and plants instead of choosing invasives like burning bush, barberry and English ivy. They are talking to their friends and family every chance they get to try and open their eyes to small changes they can make.

Do you want to take action? Here are a few plants you can make room for in your yards that will make a difference. Some are for the caterpillars. (These are called host plants.) Some for the butterflies and moths– nectar sources for the adults.

Host plants:

• Plant milkweed for monarch butterflies (choose a native one like swamp, common or butterfly weed)
• Plant fennel, dill, golden alexanders, and Queen Anne’s lace for the eastern black swallowtail butterfly.
• Plant pipevine for the pipevine swallowtails 
• Plant spicebush for spicebush swallowtails
• Plant pawpaws for zebra swallowtails
• Plant native passion vine for gulf fritillaries, variegated fritillaries and zebra lacewings
• Plant hollyhocks for painted ladies
• Plant coneflowers for silvery checkerspots,
• Plant willow for red-spotted purples and viceroy caterpillars
• Plant spider flower for cabbage white caterpillars
• Plant asters for pear crescents

Nectar plants: (Part of this list comes from a book called The Lifecycles of Butterflies by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards)

• Tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis)
• Coneflowers (Echinacea species)
• Lantana (Lantana camara)
• Milkweeds (Asclepias species)
• Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia)
• Tall garden phlox (Phlox paniculata)
• Sunflowers (helianthus species)
• Zinnia (Zinnia elegans) Be careful not to buy the double bloom one as this doesn’t have pollen for the bees 
• Blue mist flower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
• Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)
• Aster (Asteraceae species)
• Bee balm (Monarda species)
• Blazing star (liatris)

What things are you doing to welcome animals to your yards? Do you have a favorite flower? As always, I’d love to hear from you! Use the reply box at the end of this post to weigh in and tell me your thoughts. Hope to hear from you today!