Former J L Scott Aquarium Site

Former J L Scott Aquarium Site

The only thing of the J L Scott Aquarium remaining after the water surge of hurricane Katrina (2005) is its front (visitors) parking lot (P). The former site of the building is indicated (J L Scott). The employee parking lot (E) at the west end of the building was on a hill with the building, and both the hill and the employee parking lot no longer exist.

Higher powers decided the building was not worth repairing after Katrina. The building previously underwent various repairs in 1986 after hurricane Elena (1985). Those repairs to roof, windows, and water-damaged areas took longer than we thought it would take. And the repairs after the 1985 storm were very minor compared to Katrina damage.

The Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge was rebuilt after severe damage by surge waters of hurricane Katrina.

It is always distressing to cross the Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge and see the empty spot where the J L Scott Aquarium used to be and where I worked for 15 years, or over half my marine biologist work life working for others. The building had its walls blown out, roof badly damaged, wood trim torn off the plexiglass larger tanks, and many tanks destroyed or overflowed with surge waters, and supplemental tank equipment dislodged or destroyed. When they tore down the damaged building they even took the 13-foot high built-up hill the building was built on .... so it is now a flat site again.

I still do not understand why the hill was removed, too. Its removal left this site more susceptible to flooding, now being 13 feet lower. Why would people want to decrease the height of flood-prone land ?

The site was latest used as a staging area for equipment used in combatting the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The present property owner was not determined.

An article in the Mississippi Press for 2 March 2012, page C-1 noted that architects have been selected for designing a new facility at Cedar Point in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D., retired, Aquarium Supervisor, J L Scott Aquarium,  (C) 2012 --

Dehorn Goats with Bands and File

Dehorn Goats with Bands and File

My farm had field fence surrounding it when I bought it years ago. Hurricane Elena in 1985 felled so many trees that tore down the fences in so many places I had to sell all my cows and bull because the fences could not contain them, and I could not drop everything to do extensive fence repair. After the fences were repaired later I restocked the farm with goats and sheep.

I soon found out that horned goats got caught in the field fence when they stuck their heads through the fence mesh to eat on the other side of the fence and their horns caught on the horizontal portion of the fencing wire mesh, and they could not pull their heads back through the fencing. I had to untangle several goats before I thought of a possible way to solve the problem ...... dehorn the goats. After I lost one goat caught in the fence to a broken neck I decided to try dehorning the goats.

I was not aware if any others (years ago) had tried this method, but I decided to give it a try. I knew castrating bands would cause testicles and tails to lose their blood supply and they would eventually fall off. I had used bands on cattle, sheep, and goats. I thought why not give it a try on mature goat horns (bands can "cut" through the bones of tails, so maybe they would also do horns). I initially put the constrictor bands on the horns close to the skull; but most moved toward the tip of the horn and came off. I then thought of using a round quarter-inch file to make a groove on at least two sides of the horn to have a place for the band to grip and stay. The groove enabled the bands to stay on; after a length of time (about 3 weeks) one goat bumped its horns at a feeding trough and one horn fell off, releasing a fair amount of blood. The other fell off later without much blood loss. The horn stubs healed over and the goat went about its daily business without getting its head caught in the fence again.

I find that researching the internet now (2012) that some were having problems keeping the bands on the horns. I suggest using my trick of years ago --- a round file to make grooves to hold the bands in place near the base of the horns.

Adrian R. Lawler,  (C) 2012 -- 

Scarab Larvae in Gardening Containers

Scarab Larvae in Gardening Containers

I recently noticed that four of my container garden beds had surface soil being disrupted almost daily. Two of the beds contained onions, the third had leaf lettuce, and the last had rutabaga. Part of the regular garden (not in containers) also had evidence of soil disruption and 3/8 inch to over 1/2 inch holes at the surface.  All of the disruption noted was on the east side of the garden area.

One of the onion beds was really doing poorly, with the onions wilting and dying. I suspected scarab beetle larvae. I transplanted (10 Feb 12) the onions to another container; they all lacked roots or had roots badly damaged.

I removed (15 Feb 12) the dirt from the onion container (an inner drum from a washing machine) and recovered 55 large 1 1/2 to 2 inch long scarab beetle larvae (grubs). All the larvae were at, or near, the bottom of the container, about a foot below the surface of the dirt. None where found touching each other. The larvae were not identified but I suspect they were larvae of green june beetles, which I had previously seen in the garden area.

These larvae were highly disruptive in containers:
---Turning over surface soil almost nightly.
---Uprooting sprouting, or young plants.
---Eating on plant roots and either weakening plants or killing plants.

The 55 grubs were in a container 21 inches in diameter; the surface area was pi r squared or 3.1416 x 10.5 squared = 346.36 square inches = 2.40 square feet. So there were 22.92 grubs per square foot. This would appear to be a high concentration, probably because a batch, or more, of eggs were laid in the container and the larvae were thus trapped inside the container during their larval life.

An estimate of the number of grubs in the regular garden soil from a count of the holes at the surface gave 0-2 grubs per square foot of garden. In prior years the grubs were 0-1 per square foot in the garden area.

It is not known why grub production appears to have increased in 2011. I have raised part of my garden in containers for over 50 years, and never previously had such a problem with scarab larvae.

Adrian R. Lawler,  (C)  2012 --

Coyote Hit by Car

Coyote Hit by Car

On 7 Jan 2012 I took pictures of a young female coyote apparently hit by a car. It had extensive road rash, sections of skin rubbed off of both sides of the body, from apparently getting dragged along the road by a car. Although the coyote had a rank odor about it, none of the many wounds appeared to be infected. The wounds were dry and healing. Scientists might want to look at the immune system of coyotes to find out why so many wounds were not infected in this one.

The coyote appeared to have adult teeth, and since they were very clean-looking the coyote is presumed to be a young adult. It was estimated to weigh 30-40 pounds.

This was the first coyote I have seen in this area of south Mississippi (I have lived in Ocean Springs, Mississippi for over 40 years.).

Three pictures are included below.

Adrian R. Lawler,  (C) 2012 --

　
　

Simple Fruit Fly Trap for House

Simple Fruit Fly Trap for House

Add a piece of fruit to an empty plastic water bottle and place bottle in a location where fruit flies have been seen.  Periodically close bottle with cap or hand, etc., and take bottle outside to release fruit flies caught.  Gently shake to get flies going to top, and flying off.  Use bottle until fruit fly larvae in bottle pupate on inside of bottle.  Cap bottle and discard with trash before flies hatch.  Start a new bottle with new fruit.

Adrian R. Lawler,  (C) 2011 --

Forgo Butterfly Flowers if You Want Good Fall Garden

Forgo Butterfly Flowers if You Want Good Fall Garden

After growing Ageratum (Ageratum houstonianum : Bluemink, flossflower, garden Ageratum, blueweed) for a fall garden for several years, I finally put together the relationship of the Ageratum flowers, Hawaiian beet webworm moth Spoladea recurvalis, and terrible caterpillar infestation of chard, eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, and amaranth in my fall garden. The adult moths were attracted to the Ageratum (see picture of adult on Ageratum at link below). Then they mated on my place and the moths laid their eggs on various plants listed above in my vegetable garden and the hatching caterpillers proceeded to eat them up. Infestation lasted from June through November.

I decided I liked my fresh vegetables more, so now I pull up every Ageratum I find. I am taking a food source for the adults out of the loop and stopping the reproductive cycle on my place. The horrible fall caterpiller infestation from Hawaiian beet webworm moth larvae no longer happens.

This moth is found world-wide in North America, Hawaii, southeast Asia, Australia, and Africa.

Flowers that attract butterflies and moths can lead to their larvae eating up vegetable garden plants nearby ...... so gardeners everywhere should beware.

The larvae of the Hawaiian beet webworm moth have the curious habit of folding over part of an eggplant leaf, cutting it off from main part of leaf, and riding inside the folded leaf to chard planted below to then eat on the chard.  Each morning when the larvae are present I pick up folded bits of leaves and either kill the larvae or feed them to pond fish.  I do not know if this habit is just that or an attempt to get to a food liked better below. 


Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D.,  (C) 2011 --

See :http://bugguide.net/node/view/9731/bgimage?from=24

American Bird Grasshopper Eats Peas out of Pods

American Bird Grasshopper Eats Peas out of Pods

Periodically in late spring when I am harvesting pole sugar snap peas, or in summer while picking black-eyed peas (California No. 5 cowpea) , I find pods with the peas eaten out of them. Bite marks on the pods indicate side-cutting grasshoppers, rather than mice or birds. Occasionally I find a large flying grasshopper nearby. This grasshopper has been identified as the American bird grasshopper, Schistocerca americana (Drury).

In 2010 overnight I had most of my maturing sugar snap peas eaten out of their pods by these grasshoppers. Apparently a large number of the grasshoppers flew in during the night to do their damage. The next day I picked all the remaining peas so I would get some. The next morning I checked the peas and found no obvious further damage to the foliage of the peas. It looks like the grasshoppers were after the almost mature green seeds rather than pea leaves, and not after the fully mature and hardened (dried) seed peas.

In black-eyed peas they ate the immature peas out of the pods.

Free-flying adults normally avoid low-growing crops such as vegetables, but pods of tall pea and black-eye pea vines are readily eaten on.

It is suggested that gardeners in the range of these grasshoppers keep their pea crops picked daily so there are few pods on the vines with maturing peas left for the grasshoppers to get at night. Or one could have the vines growing low to the ground.

Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D.,  (C)  2011 --

See article:   

 http://www.simplykitchengarden.com/vegetablepests/231.html