by Shirley D. Smith, Somervell County Master Gardener

If you attended April’s Community Horticulture Education Series presented by the Somervell County Master Gardeners, then you know that the Monarch butterfly is headed our direction.

When you travel and it begins to be lunchtime and your tummy tells you it needs food, you probably start to look for a good place to eat.  Well . . . . . the Monarchs will be doing the same.  They will have flown from north central Mexico and are hungry!  They are also looking for a plant on which to lay their eggs.  The plant they will be looking for is called Asclepias asperula or antelope horn.  This plant grows right here in central Texas along with its cousins – other milkweeds.  If you see a somewhat strange looking plant such as shown in the accompanying picture, then you are probably looking at antelope horn.  It seems to be in abundance this year (at least it is on my property south of Glen Rose).

Antelope horn milkweed is an erect-stemmed plant growing to about 15 inches tall. Leaves are narrow, lance-shaped and about 3 inches long. The flowers are greenish with distinctive purplish horns and are present from March to October. The fruit is a wrinkled pod containing silk-tufted seeds.

Every spring, millions of Monarch butterflies migrate north from the forested uplands of central Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental range.  Some reach as far north as Canada.   However, those making the journey in 2014 will be fewer in number than ever before.  To further elaborate on their plight, here is an except from USA Today dated April 27, 2014:

Monarch butterflies once were so common that some people find it hard to believe that they are declining so rapidly.

“If you tell an old-timer that, they say, ‘Well, that can’t be, because when I was a kid they were everywhere,’ “

That was the case when Taylor, who grew up in Minnesota, was a child. He would put a caterpillar in a peanut-butter jar with a leaf and watch as it became a butterfly. It was a common experiment for kids who grew up in the Midwest and had an interest in nature.

The key to the butterfly experiment was simple: The leaf had to be a milkweed leaf. That’s all the caterpillar needed to survive to adulthood. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed and nothing else.

Researchers believe the loss of milkweed plants is a big reason for the Monarchs’ decline.

Milkweed is not a cash crop and so has been eliminated from many Midwestern farm fields to make room for more corn and soybeans. Nabhan and others believe that simply planting milkweed in the path of the migration can increase the Monarchs’ numbers.

“We have to get the message out,” she said.

Because this butterfly has recently been found to be in dangerous decline, their plight has attracted political attention.  Here is another except from that same article:

During their summit meeting in Toluca, Mexico, in February, the leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada pledged to support the Monarch. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called it a “landmark species” and said they hope to form a task force to address the problem.

If you are over 50, then you remember how abundant the Texas horned lizard or horny toad was when you were a kid.  Up on the High Plains where I grew up, they were everywhere and we took their numbers for granted.  When was the last time you saw one of these little guys?  Yeah, me, too – not for years!  Hopefully, the Monarch will make a come back and not become threatened as is our beloved Texas Horned Lizard.

The reason for this article is to make you aware that we could possibly lose this beautiful creature as we have almost lost the horny toad.  What a terrible thought!  You can do your part by making sure the milkweed growing in your yard, in your pasture, in your flowerbed or wherever is not destroyed!

By Sheryl Kleinschmidt, Master Gardener

 “The song came to me from the singing of a yarb doctor named Mayberry Thomas, a resident of Knoxville, Tennessee.  When I first knew him in 1929, he had a little stand in the unused end of the Knoxville public market where he sold roots, herbs, a liquid made from wild cherry bark, dried mullein leaves, sassafras and dozens of similar items.”  — The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles

Yarb Doctors and Granny Women primarily treated their patients with herbs.  “Yarb” was the colloquialism of “herb” used by most in the Ozark regions of Arkansas and Missouri as well as others places like Tennessee. There are reputed to have been many more Granny Women than Yarb Doctors.  One possibility for that is that these healers were seldom paid for their services.

One well-known Granny Doctor (same as Granny Woman) who practiced her medicine in the Ozarks was Ella Dunn.  She took care of her neighbors in Taney County most of her adult life.  For two decades she practiced as a Granny Woman before studying more conventional medicine in the mid-twentieth century.

The herbs used by these early-day healers were quite varied and certainly had been proven by lots of trial and error.  “Recipes” were handed down from mother to daughter as they were sometimes the only treatment received by these back-woods folks.  Children were taught to self-diagnose and to recognize the appropriate herb or plant for healing—sometimes with disastrous results, however.

There were a number of ways that plants and herbs could be prepared for medicinal use.  One method was by boiling and is called decocted.  If an herb was steeped but not boiled, it was said to be infused.  Demulsified meant the herbs were used in an ointment.  Another method of preparation was the making of a poultice.  A poultice would be made of herbs in a mixture of cornmeal or lard and heated.  The warm poultice (heat brings blood to area for healing) would then be applied to wounds or to the chest for congestion.

Today there has been a revival in the medicinal use of herbs as people seek out alternatives to traditional medicine.   Generally speaking, the herbal approach to healing may take longer, but many find it preferable to sitting in a roomful of sick people at the doctor’s office.  Besides, healing, herbs are quite effective in the prevention of sickness and disease.

One herb certainly used by many of the early healers is Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) which tolerates many soil-types, is a perennial, and easy to grow.  A patient would be required to chew the leaves of the Feverfew plant to alleviate fever, headache, cramps and arthritis.  Old-timers planted it around their houses to “purify the atmosphere and ward off disease”.

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinallis) is one of my personal favorites because of its aroma.  I was given a pot of it when I lived near Little Rock, Arkansas, and put it on my patio.  It was prolific and spewed seeds as far as six feet out into the yard.  Every time I mowed the grass I was rewarded with the heavenly scent of Lemon Balm.

Lemon Balm likes to grow in a rich, moist soil and is loved by bees.  Its crushed leaves actually resemble the pheromones given off by the bees.  Medicinally, the leaves were boiled (decocted) and made into a tea which reduced anxiety, helped reduce colic and aided digestion.  In ointment form, it relieved fever blisters.

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is a biennial and considered a naturalized weed in the eastern states.  In the Middle Ages the plants were called hag tapers because the stalks could be dipped in melted fat and lighted as a torch.  They were thought to either be used by witches or used to drive them away.

As a medicine, the whole Mullein plant seems to possess slightly sedative and narcotic properties—another reason why the Yarb Doctors and Granny Women needed to be very careful in the preparation of and administration of herbal remedies.  Mullein was often used in the treatment of ear infections, colds and bronchitis.

Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) was also a staple in the healer’s arsenal against disease/sickness and if it wasn’t needed, made a beautiful addition to the flower garden.  Its one-inch purple petals are strikingly attractive.  Echinacea can chase off or help speed recovery from an acute bacterial or viral infection—especially in the respiratory tract.  It is available in capsule form in today’s health food stores.

The use/knowledge of Echinacea was wide-spread before the use of modern medicine and even the Plains Indians used it topically and internally.  Because of its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory qualities, it was also used to treat wounds.

These are just a few of the herbs used by our ancestors as medicine or tonics.  For those interested in learning more about medicinal, culinary, or other uses of herbs you may want to check out a couple of these resources.

HERB SOCIETY OF AMERICAN-PIONEER UNIT      www.herbsocietypioneer.org/

NORTH TEXAS UNIT OF THE HERB SOCIETY OF AMERICA     www.herbsociety.org

THE OZARK FOLK CENTER in Mountain View, Arkansas     www.ozarkfolkcenter.com

The Ozark Folk Center has one of the most diverse herb gardens in the United States (I have personally visited there several times).  Since it is also a state park, they offer nice, clean cabins at affordable prices with an awesome restaurant that features many herbs in their food choices.  There are two upcoming herb workshops in which you may be interested:

1)       Culinary Herbs—March 17-19, 2014

2)      Medicinal Herbs—April 4-5, 2014

Understanding Fire Ants: How to Identify and Control Them        

By Christine Morgan, ND             

Master Gardener

There are six known species of fire ants in the United States. They are        called fire ants because they inflict painful, venomous stings. Four species are native, and two came from South America. The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) has inhabited the southern United States since the 1930’s, but in recent decades has been moving northward and across the southwest. The black imported fire ant (Solenopsis richteri) has been found in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee since 1918, but its range is limited because of less tolerance to colder weather. Imported and native fire ants are similar in size and appearance. They are reddish-brown or black in color and measure up to a quarter inch long. They also exhibit basically the same behavior when threatened. Fire ants, when disturbed, swarm toward AND crawl onto an invader. Once in battle mode, fire ant workers bite with their mandibles and can sting multiple times with stingers attached under their abdomens at the same time.

I really want to talk about red imported fire ants. Two things make them of greater concern than their native cousins. First, they are more aggressive. Both types swarm…but imported ants charge straight up vertical surfaces such as walls, blades of grass, animal or human legs! You can tentatively check what kind of species you have, by sticking a pencil in a mound and seeing if they climb vertically. Second, imported ants are more numerous and their colony size is overall larger. Unlike native species, which are part of the balanced ecosystem, red imported ants have few natural predators in the United States. This has enabled then to grow, flourish and move over a wide range, sometimes displacing native fire ants.

As far as natural predators go, man is about it. There is one other that is promising…a biological control parasite called Pseudacteon crawfofdi (the Phorid fly). These parasites have been used in experimental capacities with some success. How do they work? They dart in long enough to lay an egg on a worker and then fly off. A larva hatches, enters the ant’s body, consumes the insides, and then emerges as an adult. Fire ants are very hard, if not impossible to eradicate. Knowing about their biology may prove to help conquer these foreign invaders. Red imported fire ants create nests that look like mounds of loose soil with no central opening. They also like to build inside barns and structures, and tend to like electricity switch boxes, breaker boxes, or light housings also. When you come upon a mound in question, observe it for a few minutes. Do you see worker ants of different sizes from 1/8 to ¼ inch in size? You probably are looking at red imported fire ants; species of other ants tend to be more uniform in size. Their swarming and stinging behavior, the resulting pustule that arises and itches from being bitten, is what sets them apart from other species. The swarming activity that they exhibit, makes it very likely that an animal or human will receive multiple bites. Animals, especially horses, cows and humans can be covered in hundreds of ants before the signal is given through pheromones to sting. Ants communicate primarily via pheromones, which are similar to hormones, but are emitted through the air. They coordinate their attacks to intensify more injury to their victims. One of those communication agents is the “alarm pheromone”. A chemical warfare agent that drives the ants into a frenzy of stinging. If only one ant releases the alarm, then hundreds or thousands of ants will start stinging suddenly. Many mounds contain 100,000 ants!

There has been some recent documentation about hybridization of ants between native fire ants and some of the more rare venomous South American strains. Some species in South America can kill a human with one bite. Some incidents of fire ant bites have resulted in allergic reactions, sepsis and other severe conditions in a few individuals. There is speculation about whether these hybrid ants are here in the United States, and are able to inflict potentially harmful bites. Especially if the bite area is in direct contact via the vein and bloodstream of an animal or human.

What should we do to eradicate them? The secret is to exploit their weakness: a colony’s communal stomach. Ants are divided into foragers, workers, and nursery workers who tend to the queen and her brood. Foraging ants do not simply bring food back to the queen and her brood. Instead, the foragers eat the food in the field and partly digest it before regurgitating it into mouths of workers. Then workers regurgitate the food and feed it to the nursery workers who swallow it and digest it further. They then feed it to the queen and her brood.  This is a process called “trophylaxis” and protects the queen from poisoning through multiple layers of “testers”. That’s why a slow-acting poison that spreads throughout the whole colony before having any toxic effects can eliminate the entire population.

Chemical baits that works as a slow-acting poison are called Hydramethynlon (trade names Amdro, Max Force, and others). Other slow-acting poisons are Spinosad (Green Light Ant control), and Pyriproxyfen (Spectracide Fire Ant bait), Baits will not poison mammals. It can be deadly for chickens and other poultry if they eat it. It is toxic to fish also. Baits (powder of granules) are sprinkled on or around the mound. Hydramethylnon works as a metabolic inhibitor by blocking the biological process in the ant that makes ATP (adenosine Triphosplate). ATP is a compound required by most biological processes to provide energy for life. Without ATP, the ant becomes lethargic and stops eating causing death. The feeding process of the whole colony is stopped. The EPA has classified Hydramethylnon as a “group C possible human carcinogen”, so use with care.

A drench or dry treatment using liquid chemicals (mound application) can be used also for effective quick kill applications when ants pose imminent danger to people and animals. Some products used for this include Deltamethrin (Bengal UltraDust), Permethrin (Real-Kill fire Ant killer), and Acephate (Ortho orthene fire Ant Killer).

Organic fire ant control uses these products: D-limonene (Citrex), and Pyrethrins (Organic Solutions).

Other natural methods include diatomaceous earth and a method of coating the mound with baking soda and then pouring 20% vinegar on it, causing a chemical reaction and quick kill.

Please remember that they swarm, and be careful around the mounds.

References:

Texas Agri-Life extension services

Claborn, David DrPH

Kidd, Hetal.1991The Agrochemicals Handbook. Third edition. Royal Society of Chemistry Information Services, Cambridge UK pps.10-12Taber, Stephen Welton Texas A&M University Agriculture SeriesUnderstanding Fire Ants: How to Identify and Control Them