Purple Bird Bayscape

05/31/2026

You bought the bee hotel at the garden center, nailed it to the fence, and figured nature would handle the rest. Two years later it's full of cobwebs and earwigs.

The hotel isn't the problem. It's the five things nobody mentioned at checkout 🌿

🐝 Maintenance — the big one:

- A bee hotel is not a set-and-forget structure. Solitary bees pack their tubes with pollen, eggs, and mud — and parasitic mites and fungal spores build up in that material year after year. Without annual cleaning, the hotel becomes a trap that harms more bees than it helps. Pull the tubes in late fall, remove the cocoons carefully, wash everything, and replace with fresh tubes in spring

🪵 The tubes themselves:

- Solid drilled blocks look rustic but you can't open them to inspect or clean. Paper tube inserts or stackable trays that come apart are far better — they let you check every chamber, remove mites, and start fresh each year. If you're buying a hotel, look for one you can take apart

🌱 The mud source nobody mentions:

- Mason bees seal each egg chamber with mud. If there's no exposed clay soil or mud nearby, she can't finish the nest no matter how perfect the hotel is. A shallow dish of wet clay near the hotel solves it. Without mud, the tubes stay empty

☀️ Orientation:

- South or southeast facing with morning sun. Developing larvae need warmth to grow. A shaded north-facing wall stays too cold for most solitary bee species

🌿 The decorative filler:

- Pine cones, bark chips, moss, sticks — all that decorative material takes up space bees won't use and holds moisture that invites mold. Pack the hotel tight with tubes and nothing else

Clean tubes, fresh mud, and morning sun. That's the entire formula 🐝

05/31/2026

The mole tunneling through your lawn isn't eating your grass. She's eating what's eating your grass.

Most people see the raised ridges and assume the mole is damaging roots. She's not — she's hunting. Moles are underground predators. Their diet is almost entirely grubs, earthworms, and beetle larvae. The grass roots she tunnels past are untouched.

The grubs she's finding are often Japanese beetle larvae — the same ones that hatch into the beetles that skeletonize roses, lindens, and grapevines every July. She's catching them underground before they ever reach the surface.

🌿 What the tunnels actually mean:

- Surface ridges in spring and fall — she's hunting in the upper soil layer where grubs are feeding on roots. The tunnels are her hunting routes, not damage
- Dirt mounds near deep tunnels — she's pushing soil up from her main corridors below. These are permanent highways she uses all season
- A yard with mole activity almost certainly has a grub population worth hunting. If you remove the mole, the grubs stay — and the beetle damage above ground gets worse

🌱 The trade-off most people don't consider:

- A flat lawn with no mole tunnels often means the grubs went uncontrolled — and the Japanese beetles that emerge in summer have no predator pressure from below
- Mole tunnels aerate compacted soil and improve drainage — the same benefits people pay for with a core aerator
- The raised ridges flatten with rain or a light pass of a lawn roller. The grub control she provides doesn't have a DIY equivalent

The tunnels are the hunting trail. The mess on the surface is the receipt for the pest control happening underneath.

The lawn looks a little rough. The roses in July will tell you it was worth it 🌱

05/31/2026

Personally, I love slugs. Leopard slugs, the spotted guys commonly found in Maryland, actually feed on DEAD material. They’re a friend to every gardener because they act as composting factories, munching on dry leaves and passed on insects and popping out fertilizer for your plants. Snails are the ones who feed on live material, but please remember these precious organisms are also a part of the ecosystem and are alive just like us, they deserve to live too. I’ve had pet snails and slugs so these guys are close to my heart. 🐌

The mess in your yard this month wasn't mess. It was habitat with tenants.

The orb weaver's web on the porch railing — trapped flies and gnats all month. The paper wasp nest on the far eave — the colony picked hornworms off your tomatoes before you noticed them. The rock pile by the shed — a garter snake moved into the gaps and started hunting slugs.

🌿 The parsley and dill you let go leggy — black swallowtail caterpillars striped every stem. You would have pulled the plants a week before the butterflies emerged.

The windfall apples you didn't rake — red admirals landed and drank from the fermenting fruit. The bee balm you didn't deadhead — a hummingbird kept returning to the spent flowers long after you'd written them off.

The slug pellets you skipped — a toad showed up and handled it.

Every messy corner had something living in it. The web you didn't sweep. The fruit you didn't clear. The stems you didn't cut.

The yard knew what to do with all of it 🐾

05/31/2026

Scientists didn’t expect this — but they caught it on camera.

According to a new report, a cow named Veronika was observed using an object from her environment to scratch an itch, marking the first recorded instance of a bovine deliberately using a tool. Researchers say the behavior appeared intentional and goal-oriented, rather than accidental.
The finding adds to growing evidence that animals we often underestimate may be more inventive and aware than we realize — especially when it comes to solving everyday problems.

05/30/2026

A vlog about 3 common invasive vines who are found in Maryland and some beautiful, ecosystem nourishing alternatives that can be planted in their place. Stay till the end for a surprise guest! 🦋

05/30/2026

Did you know that today is National Alligator Day? Alligators are a very important species, referred to as a keystone species, and you can find them in the Keys. Not just here, but they are also found in all 67 counties of Florida! Where have you seen an alligator?

Photo Credit: Anna Marlow

05/30/2026

Plant vlog: 3 common invasive vines in Maryland and some native alternatives. Really enjoyed making this video!! Stay to the end to for a surprise 🦋