Meet the Neighbors: American Coot For the introduction to this series, see here American Coots, sometimes called mud hens, will only be your neighbor if you live in the right neighborhood. You need to live by a lake or pond because they never go far from water. These birds are not related to ducks. They […]
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Meet the Neighbors: White-bowed Smoothwing For the introduction to this series, see here Farmers and gardeners like things that eat aphids. Sometimes they even buy packages of ladybugs or aphid-eating wasps to help control aphids. Many people do not realize that there are many other insects that eat aphids. The white-bowed Smoothwing is one of
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Meet the Neighbors: Twelve-spotted Skimmer For the introduction to this series, see here. This beautiful dragonfly is a mosquito-eating machine. The larvae live in ponds and lakes and are carnivorous, eating almost anything they can catch. One thing that they eat a lot of is mosquito larvae. The adults are excellent hunters. One of their
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Meet the Neighbors: Sooty-winged Chalcoela Moth For the introduction to this series, see here. You probably know that most moths lay eggs on plants. Then the caterpillars eat the plants before turning into adult moths. Maybe you have heard of moths laying eggs on fur or grain. You probably do not think of moths eating
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Meet the Neighbors: Colorado Soldier Beetle For the introduction to this series, see here. Soldier beetles are colorful beetles that can be found on flower heads in late summer and fall. There are many species wildly distributed across the US. Many of them have beautiful orange, yellow, or red coloration. They are called soldier beetles
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Meet the Neighbors: Fox Squirrel For the introduction to this series, see here. This is the backyard squirrel in Colorado. If you live in the eastern half of the country, you will probably have gray squirrels living near you as well as fox squirrels. In other parts of the US, there are other species of
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Meet the Neighbors: Apache Jumping Spider For the introduction to this series, see here. Here is a bright-colored jumping spider. These spiders are very beautiful and fascinating to watch but you have to creep up on them because they are very wary and agile and will disappear around the leaf or plant stem if they
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Meet the Neighbors: Asian Lady Beetle For the introduction to this series, see here. Meet one of the most variable creatures you will find in your yard. This beetle comes in a wild array of patterns and shades. Some have as many as 22 spots and some have none at all. Some have spots that
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Meet the Neighbors: Meal Moth These little moths are pests because they lay their eggs on grain. The larvae eat the grain and spoil it. This species is found all across the world and is a problem in many places. This moth does the most damage if the grain is stored improperly or if the
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What’s In My Backyard? Explore and Learn: Swarming Ants For the introduction to this series, see here. Imagine that you are out in your yard in late summer. It is a hot day and you notice unusual activity around an ant colony so you move closer to see what is happening. Around the entrance, there
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