The Woodsman's Journal Online: August 2024

Sunday, August 25, 2024

“I went to a Garden Party...”©

My wife, Katie, went out to pick some lettuce from her porch garden box, when she saw these two guys having a garden party and chowing down on her parsley! But just who were they?

Turns out they are known as parsley caterpillars or parsley worms, and they turn into beautiful butterflies called eastern black swallowtails (papilio polyxenes), which are found from southern Canada to northern South America but are most common east of the Rocky Mountains.

The caterpillars enjoy feeding on members of the carrot family (apiaceae), such as dill, parsley, fennel, celery, caraway, and carrot are common food sources in backyard gardens. Wild plants that eastern black swallowtail caterpillars also eat non-native plants like queen anne’s lace (wild carrot, daucus carota), poison hemlock (conium maculatum), and wild parsnip (pastinaca sativa), as well as native plants such as golden alexander (zizia aurea) and spotted water hemlock (cicuta maculata).

Female black swallowtails lay round, pale yellow eggs, individually on host plants, usually on new leaves but occasionally on flowers. The eggs darken as the caterpillar grows inside and hatch in 3 to 9 days, when the worm chews its way out of the egg and eats the eggshell.

The first caterpillar instars are mostly black and spiny, with a whitish spot, and look like bird droppings. The second and third instars have spines that are reddish orange, and the fourth and fifth instars are green with transverse bands of black and yellow, a camouflage pattern that makes them hard to see while resting on the sun-speckled plants. The caterpillars grow to be 1½ to 2 inches (4 to 5 cm) long and the caterpillar stage takes 10 to 30 days, depending on outside temperature and the type of plant that the caterpillar is living on.

All swallowtail caterpillars have a reversible horn-like organ behind the head known as an osmeterium which looks like a forked snake’s tongue. On the parsley worm it is a bright yellowish-orange color and if it is disturbed the caterpillar will rear up, extend its osmeterium, and release a foul smelling chemical repellent to repel predators.

Once the fifth instar caterpillar matures, it leaves the host plant to find a place to pupate and build a chrysalis. A swallowtail caterpillar normally positions itself “heads-up” on a plant stem, tree trunk, or a foundation wall and spinning a slender silken band to support itself and attaching its back end to a silk pad. It then molts one final time to form a chrysalis with short horn-like protrusions where its head is. The color of the chrysalis is either greenish with yellow markings or mottled brown. This is determined not by the individual’s immediate surroundings, but genetically; overwintering pupae are always brownish.

Adult eastern black swallowtails’ wings are black with yellow, blue, orange and red markings, with two rows of yellow spots along theedges, and a powdery iridescent blue area between the two rows and a red eyespot on the edge of each wing, near the narrow tail.

Eastern black swallowtails are sexually dimorphic, and the females are larger than the males, with a wingspan of 3¼ to 4¼ inches. You can tell males from females, because the males have larger and brighter yellow spots than the females, while the females have smaller and lighter colored yellow spots and brighter blue areas.

Eastern black swallowtail butterflies drink nectar from milkweed, thistles, purple coneflower, zinnias, and many other flowers.

So, it is okay if these guys come to the garden party, as long as they don’t bring too many friends, because they will turn into beautiful butterflies!

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Bonelli, Paula; “Parsley Caterpillar: Garden Friend or Foe?”, Birds & Blooms, July 29, 2021, [© 2024 RDA Enthusiast Brands, LLC], https://www.birdsandblooms.com/gardening/attracting-butterflies/parsley-caterpillar/, accessed August 23, 2024

University of Wisconsin; “Black swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes”, [© 2024 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System], https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/black-swallowtail-papilio-polyxenes/#:~:text=The%20yellow%20spots%20are%20typically,difference%20is%20called%20sexual%20dimorphism, accessed August 23, 2024

Wikimedia; “Male black swallowtail butterfly on wild bergamot at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota”, by Kris Spaeth/USFWS, July 12, 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Swallowtail_Butterfly_(28283722255).jpg, accessed August 23, 2024

Wikimedia; “Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), male, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada”, July 10, 2011, by D. Gordon E. Robertson, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Swallowtail,_male,_Ottawa.jpg, accessed August 23, 2024

Wikimedia; “A Black Swallowtail butterfly”, August 6, 2007, by Kenneth Dwain Harrelson, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pristine_Black_Swallowtail.jpg, accessed August 23, 2024

Wikimedia; “Papilio polyxenes caterpillar first instar”, May 30, 2022, by WanderingMogwai, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Papilio_polyxenes_caterpillar_first_instar.jpg, accessed August 23, 2024

Wikimedia; “The chrysalis of the black swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polyxenes. Gray/brown color morph. Image taken in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve”, July 11, 2015, by Sdetwiler, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Swallowtail_Chrysalis_by_sdetwiler_at_wikimedia_commons.jpg, accessed August 23, 2024

Wikimedia; “Black swallowtail caterpillar osmeterium”, June 24, 2010, by Styler, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black-swallowtail-osmeterium.JPG, accessed August 23, 2024

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Fight, Flight or Freeze©

Did you ever notice how in times of stress, crisis and emergency people respond differently?

Many people run from the emergency, some run towards the emergency, and some freeze. I first noticed this back in the early 1980’s when at wrestling practice one evening, a piece of the gym wall broke free and took off the back of the custodian’s, Mr. Franks, head.

It is important to understand this phenomenon, especially if you are ever in a crisis situation. In fact, your life might depend on it someday, you might be injured and everyone else around you either freezes or runs away in panic!

In emergencies or other stressful situations, responses are often automatic and instinctive. These automatic reactions are adaptive mechanisms developed over millions of years to ensure your survival in the face of danger.

People often know this phenomenon as the classic “fight or flight” response, but there are four more reactions besides fight or flight, there are also freeze, fawn, and flop responses.

Fight, Flight or Freeze...

“Fight or flight” describes the first two basic responses that your body immediately weighs to respond to a dangerous situation -- either you make a quick escape, or you respond to the emergency or fight back. During a fight or flight response, the body releases the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into the body, this will prime the body for action by increasing your heartrate and breathing rate, dump glucose into the body from the liver, increase your visual acuity and auditory perception, and slow unneeded body functions, such as digestion.

In the above example, from the devasting series of tornados that struck nine southern states on March 21, 1952, researchers found that few people exhibited panicked flight. However, this could be because they were already in what they thought of as their safety zone, their home, when the tornado struck.

Interestingly, with regards the percentages noted by J.S. Tyhurst, writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry, in 1951, about individual reactions to community disasters, it seems like the 80/20 Rule (also known as the Pareto Principal) is at play.

Fight

The human fight response is described as a readiness to confront a perceived threat or emergency head on. Often, the fight response appears as aggression, anger, or a strong urge to defend oneself, however it can also be seen as an urge to protect others. Tyhurst showed that 15% of people reacted in an organized way and faced the threat.

Flight

Flight, on the other hand, is marked by the desire to escape or avoid a threatening situation. Flight aims to physically remove you from the danger or threat to a place of safety and security. Tyhurst’s study noted that 70% of people responding to an emergency showed some type of disorganized behavior, such as flight, or not knowing what to do, or otherwise acting disorganized. Disorganized behavior and thoughts can give way to panic. However, people who are demonstrating disorganized behavior will often be able to respond in an organized fashion, if they are given a job or a specific instruction, such as “You in the red shirt, call 911”! or “You in the yellow dress, bring me that first aid kit”!

Depending on the circumstances, sometimes flight is the correct response to a threat.

Freeze

The freeze response involves is the body's way of playing dead, hoping that the threat will pass if one remains motionless. This is a common response when the threat or danger is too overwhelming to confront or escape from.

During a “freeze” response, your body’s parasympathetic nervous system will dump large amounts of ‘recovery hormones’ into the body. This sudden increase of ‘recovery hormones’ during an unsafe situation will have the opposite effect of the “fight or flight” response, leaving the individual in a state of panic unable to act quickly. Freezing can be useful in some situations because sometimes the correct response is to stop moving, for example if you come face-to-face with a dangerous predator, or you must remain still in order to hide from an attacker; however, in other situations it can render you defenseless when faced with an attacker head on. Tyhurst’s study showed that 15% of people in a disaster completely froze, could not react, and suffered from shock during the emergency.

Training to reduce panic...

The best way to learn to cope with emergency situations is to train for them, whether that that training is in self-defense, first aid or survival training. Training in how to deal with dangerous situations is a form of exposure therapy and it will allow a trained individual to respond to the specific type of threat that they have trained for in a more conscious, prepared and controlled manner. Untrained individuals, or those who have been overwhelmed by the threat, are not able to respond in a thinking and controlled way to an emergency, this is why training is critical!

Whether the decision is a conscious, trained one or not, your brain does a fast calculation, based on your past experiences, your training, and your physical condition, to determine which decision is best for you, based on the emergency you find yourself in. Hopefully, you and the people around you can cope with an emergency if it presents itself.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

dela Paz, Johann, PT, DPT, MS; “Understanding the 5 Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, and Flop”, November 7, 2023, [© 2024 PT MEAL Podcast], https://www.ptmealpodcast.com/blog/understanding-fight-flight-freeze-fawn-flop/, accessed August 17, 2024

Quarantelli, E. L.; “The NORC Research on the Arkansas Tornado: A Fountainhead Study”, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, November 1988, Vol. 6, No. 3, pages 291-293, https://udspace.udel.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/914f74cd-8f8d-48fe-9e86-f5a05fb082a8/content, accessed August 17, 2024

United States Federal Aviation Administration; Aviation Instructor's Handbook, FAA-H-8083-9A, 2008, https://books.google.com/books?id=UtT_jMq7_kYC&pg=SA1-PA9&dq=%22fight+or+flight%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjnqqzJhf2HAxXPAHkGHbCODBw4KBDoAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=%22fight%20or%20flight%22&f=false, accessed August 17, 2024

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Rabies Bait Season!©

Racoon season...Rabies bait Season!

According to popular belief, rabies¹ occurs most often in the so-called “dogdays” of July and August. While this isn’t true², it is true that summer is the peak season for rabid animal/human encounters, because warm weather and outdoor activities increase the chance of people encountering wild mammals, who just might be infected with rabies.

Each year during August, the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) and its partners in the National Rabies Management Program drop oral rabies vaccination (ORV) baits from the air using fixed wing aircraft and helicopters and by hand-dropping baits in urban areas. The dropped ORV baits use a licensed vaccine developed for use by government programs whose goal is achieving large-scale eradication of rabies.

The ORV fishmeal baits attract raccoons, coyotes and foxes,³ looking for an easy snack. They come in two forms, the square-shaped, hand-dropped bait is brown in color and looks like a fig bar and has a plastic vaccine packet inside. The air-drop ORV packet looks like a ketchup package, covered with a fine, brown-colored layer of fish meal. As the animals eat the bait pack, their teeth puncture the vaccine packet and the vaccine is absorbed into their mouth, triggering an immune response that will protect it from rabies.

So, what should you do if you come upon some ORV baits?

First, leave them alone, the baits are not harmful to humans or pets. And remember the following:

ü Tell children to leave the baits alone.

ü Most packets are eaten within four days; almost all baits will be gone within a week. If packets are not found and eaten, they will dissolve, and the exposed vaccine will be rendered inactive. So, keep your dogs and cats inside, or confine them, for at least a week after baits have been dropped in your area.

ü Dogs and cats are attracted to the baits and may eat them. Eating of these baits by pets or livestock will not hurt them. Pets dogs and cats may experience an upset stomach, however if several baits are eaten.

ü Baits dropped in places frequented by pets or children should be moved away from these areas into more wild areas using either gloves or a paper towel.

ü Damaged baits should be disposed of by being put in the trash using gloves or a paper towel.

ü If your skin does comes into contact with the vaccine, which is a red to purple liquid, wash the area with soap and water.

If you do spot an animal which is acting strange or threatening, call your local animal control service, the police or state Game Commission to report the incident.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Maki, Joanne, et. al.; “Oral vaccination of wildlife using a vaccinia–rabies-glycoprotein recombinant virus vaccine (RABORAL V-RG®): a global review”, Veterinary Research, Volume 48, Article number: 57, September 22, 2017, https://veterinaryresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13567-017-0459-9, accessed August 8, 2024

McDowell, Alisha; “Taking the Bait: USDA Safeguards Wildlife Against the Rabies Virus”, USDA/APHIS, September 25, 2023, https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2023/09/25/taking-bait-usda-safeguards-wildlife-against-rabies-virus, accessed August 8, 2024

Paige, Alexis; “Raccoon rabies vaccination baiting begins”, August 5, 2019, WTAE, [©2024, Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of WTAE-TV.], https://www.wtae.com/article/raccoon-rabies-vaccination-baiting-begins/28609267, accessed August 8, 2024

Staff; “Rabies Bait Will Be Dropped In The Local Area”, Wetzel Chronicle, August 25, 2010, [© Wetzel Chronicle], https://www.wetzelchronicle.com/news/2010/08/25/rabies-bait-will-be-dropped-in-the-local-area/, accessed August 8, 2024

Staff; “Rabid raccoon found in Saluda County; 1 pet exposed”, November 2, 2022, [A Gray Local Media Station © 2002-2024], https://www.wrdw.com/2022/11/02/rabid-raccoon-found-saluda-county-1-pet-exposed/, accessed August 8, 2024

USDA; “National Rabies Management Program Overview”, March 11, 2024, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/national-wildlife-programs/rabies, accessed August 8, 2024

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Tracking 102...How old are those tracks? ©

So, how old do you think these tracks are? I know, but how would you guess their age, if you came upon them?

Expert tracker Tom Brown Jr. noted, “Determining the age of a trackis an art in itself ... and one that can be learned only through observation and practice”¹.

Aging tracks is an art, because so many variables, such as whether the track is made in mud, sand or snow, the wind, the sun and the rain, all play a part in how fast a track decays.

Dirt and Mud...

In the summer, unless you are at the beach, the tracks that you find will be in the dirt and mud. So how long do they last before they crumble back into dust? That depends...

Weathering...

Tracks are affected by the weather, the wind, rain or fresh snow will gradually cause the features to collapse until no fine details are left². When a foot displaces soft, moist soil to form a track, the moisture of the dirt holds the edges of the track sharp and intact, but as air and sunlight dry the edges of the track, small bits which were held in place by the moisture, fall into the print. If these bits are just beginning to drop into the track, then it is probably fresh. If the edges of the track are dry and crusty, the tracks are probably at least an hour old. Remember this is only an approximation, as the weathering of tracks will vary with the terrain.

Rain, wind and water...

A light rain may round out the edges of a track. A short heavy rain might leave “pockmarks” in the tracks and a heavy rain might erase the tracks completely. Remember when, and how hard the last rain was, to correctly age any tracks.

Wind also affects tracks, by drying them and blowing litter, sticks, or leaves into it. Be sure that the litter was blown into the tracks, and not crushed into them when the tracks were made. Remember when and how hard the wind blew to age a track.

A trail of tracks leaving a stream may appear to be weathered by rain, because of water dripping from wet fur or clothing, down onto the tracks. A wet trail of tracks that slowly fades into a dry trail shows that it is fresh.

So, how old are these tracks?

The pictures above were taken on a shaded, muddy, dirt road, approximately 24 hours apart. It didn’t rain either day, there was very little breeze, and the temperature and humidity were much the same on both days³.

Notice how the details of track on the left are noticeably clear and sharp.

The details of the track on the right, photographed again about 24 hours later, are faded and much less distinct and clear. Notice also, how the entire track is uniformly dry.

Practice, practice, practice...

The best way to learn to age tracks that you find is to practice, practice, practice, and here are some tips.

Tom Brown Jr. explained that “A good wind may smooth out a depression made in dry sand within 30 seconds”⁴.

T.A.L. Dozer noted, “Tracks with well-defined, sharp features always appear to be fresher than smooth tracks. Make animpression with your thumb in the ground alongside the track so that you can see how the soil behaves”.

Tom Brown Jr. wrote, “Under most conditions, though, the peaks of a track — one made in, say, medium-hard garden soil — will have deteriorated or rounded somewhat after 24 hours. In another day, the mark may have accumulated debris, leaves, or pockmarks from raindrops. Eventually, as the track crumbles and fills or is covered by other prints, it will disappear completely”.

Tim MacWelch explained that spider webs can help you age tracks “...broken webs mean that someone or something has come down that trail within the past hour, maybe an hour and a half if it’s cool weather. If the web is partially rebuilt, something broke it about two hours ago. If the web is complete, nothing went through that spot within the past three hours”.

Tracks made in snow change their shape due to melting, sublimation, and the settling of the snowpack, and often becomeenlarged. For more information on aging winter tracks read “Melt-Enlarged Tracks and Spring Heeled Jack©”, HERE.

I hope that this helps you determine just how long ago the tracks that you find in the wilderness were set down.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Brown, Tom Jr., and Morgan, Brandt; “How to Track Animals in the Wilderness”, Mother Earth News, September 1, 1982, [© Copyright 2024], https://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-living/nature-and-environment/how-to-track-animals-in-the-wilderness-zmaz82sozgoe/, accessed August 3, 2024

Dozer, T. A. L.; “Advanced Tracking Skills”, September 16, 2007, https://selousscouts.tripod.com/advance_tracking_techniques.htm, accessed August 3, 2024

Dozer, T. A. L.; “Tracking and Countertracking”, September 16, 2007, https://selousscouts.tripod.com/tracking_and_countertracking.htm, accessed August 3, 2024

MacWelch, Tim, “Manhunt: 5 Tips for Successfully Tracking a Human”, September 14, 2015, [© 2024 Recurrent], https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/survivalist/manhunt-5-tips-successfully-tracking-human/, accessed August 3, 2024

Speiden, Rob; “KEEPING TIME OF TRACK: TRACK AND SIGN AGING”, [© 2007 Natural Awareness Tracking School, LLC], page 3. https://www.sarti.us/sarti/files/KeepingTimeOfTrack.pdf, accessed on August 3, 2024

Wikimedia, “Modern raindrop impressions in stream sediments”, by EdwardEMeyer, May 15, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Modern_Raindrop_Impressions_in_Stream_sediments.jpg, accessed August 3, 2024

About Me

I live near Buffalo, New York and have more than 25 years of experience in the outdoors. I enjoy being in the wilderness, paddling a canoe or exploring the woods, when I am not researching survival, woodcraft, camping skills or life on the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I am a published author and I have been a guide for Birchbark Expeditions and an Outdoor Skills trainer for the Boy Scouts since 2014. I am also a martial artist, having studied several different combat arts over the past 30 years. Currently, I am the author of The Woodsman’s Journal Online and BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.

The Woodsman's Journal Online

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Sunday, August 25, 2024

“I went to a Garden Party...”©

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Fight, Flight or Freeze©

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Rabies Bait Season!©

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Tracking 102...How old are those tracks? ©

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