CITY ROOM; Pests Emerge; Prepare For Bites and Bumps
By MARIELLE ANZELONE
Published: June 3, 2012
See a larger version of the forest from this week. Compare with the enlarged version of last week's image.
Did you enjoy the warm weather this winter? Remember laughing in the face of a snowless January? Well, get ready to pay the price. It's going to be a bumper season for mosquitoes. For evidence, I submit the inflamed pink bumps dotting my arms and face, acquired during my last visit to Corson's Brook Woods.
Freezing temperatures keep insect populations in check. This year's mild weather means more insects survived to spring. The winter was especially kind to the Asian tiger mosquito, a tropical species now living here. While most mosquitoes are active from dusk to dawn, fittingly vampiric hours, Asian tiger mosquitoes are undeterred by midday sunshine.
All biting insects are pests, of course, but these foreign mosquitoes are more aggressive than their native counterparts. They are also more likely to carry human diseases, including West Nile virus. And scientists fear their increasing numbers could someday support an outbreak of the chikungunya virus, a disease characterized by severe joint pain that is common in Asia and Africa.
When I wasn't frantically swatting them away, I admired the Asian tiger mosquitoes' striking appearance, with black and white stripes visible to the naked eye. (Only female mosquitoes consume blood meals. Males are perfectly behaved, typically eating innocuous fare like nectar).
At our site, recent heavy rains have felled more tree branches. They join other decaying wood on the forest floor, where they support all kinds of life. Seeds blown into the woody nooks of logs have sprouted. Adjacent to these seedlings are rows of fanlike false turkey tail fungi, gray and leathery with smooth tan undersides.
One log sports clusters of blood-foot mushrooms resembling small, brown parasols. Crushing a stem releases a droplet of reddish latex, hence the evocative name. Two already don caps of powdery mildew, parasitic fungi growing on macrofungi. It's a dog-eat-dog world in the mushroom kingdom.
We see slow-moving metallic glints on wild ginger leaves at our feet: sow bugs, the roly polies of youth. These small animals are not insects but isopods, more closely related to crawfish than to beetles. They are out in numbers, enjoying the abundant detritus and high humidity.
American strawberry bushes are in bloom, festooned with disc-shaped greenish flowers. The display is judged ''unremarkable'' in gardening books, but each blossom attracts ample attention from ants with its prolific nectar. This shrub's gorgeous red fruits, coming in summer, apparently reminded someone of strawberries once, but they are not edible. In addition to this thriving stand, we spot a few other occurrences throughout the woods, encouraging news for a plant that is considered endangered in New York State.
Near the sunny forested edge we find an encampment of Eastern tent caterpillars in the branch of a black cherry tree. Their large, webby enclosure is firm and pliable and pocked with exit holes for them to feed during the day. These hairy caterpillars are voracious leaf-eaters, but won't kill their host tree.
Outside the forest, an unmown lawn has become a lively home to wildflowers and flying insects. Common hawkweed, a dandelion look-alike, dominates with thousands of long-stemmed blooms. These swaying golden flowers attract dozens of cabbage white butterflies. This picturesque display is bittersweet. Knowing that both protagonists are pest species dampens my enjoyment of the beautiful scene.
Marielle Anzelone - botanist, urban ecologist, founder of NYC Wildflower Week and author of last year's Autumn Unfolds series on City Room -- is tracking spring's progress in a forest on Staten Island each week. Go to her Flickr page to see more photos.
This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.
PHOTO: FLITTER: A cabbage white butterfly among common hawkweed. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIELLE ANZELONE)