Author: Holly Strand

Holly is a Communications Specialist for the State of Utah’s Division of Emergency Management. A geographer by training, Holly received her master’s degree from the University of Colorado. She worked 10 years for World Wildlife Fund, helping collect expert knowledge to map and describe conservation priorities in biodiverse regions around the world. Before that, she led specialty tours to northern and eastern Eurasia. Over twenty years of professional work in great places with unique habitats and endemic species has given Holly an appreciation of what’s special within the Utah landscape.
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Boxelder Bug Poetry

Boxelder Bugs
Courtesy Michigan Department of Agriculture

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

Bill Holm wrote and taught in the English department at Southwest Minnesota State University for 27 years. He helped me come to terms with one aspect of Utah nature that I found troublesome at first —the ubiquitous and abundant boxelder bug.

“My boxelder bugs have odd preferences,” Holm wrote. “They love radio dials, phonograph speakers, amplifiers, pianos, and harpsichords. Some would argue that this is because of the warmth and vibrations, but I prefer to think it is because of their taste for Bach and Vivaldi.”

According to Utah State University’s Cooperative Extension, the red and white bugs are essentially harmless. They stain walls or carpets if you squish them. However, they are annoying primarily because they enter homes and other buildings in large numbers. Once in, they’ll find their way into your personal effects. Like your hair or your toothbrush or the glass of water you keep on the bedside table.

After hearing me go off on a boxelder bug rant, a friend gave me Holm’s book Boxelder Bug Variations: A meditation of an idea in language and music. It changed my attitude toward with household invaders, as now I think of them as poetic. Maybe if I read a few verses, you will feel the same:

First, a boxelder bug prayer:

I want so little
For so little time
A south window,
A wall to climb,
The smell of coffee,
A radio knob,
Nothing to eat,
Nothing to rob,
Not love, not power,
Not even a penny,
Forgive me only
For being so many.

And finally, three boxelder bug haiku:

(1) Careful if you kill him!
There may be an afterlife
For both of you.

(2) Those black spots in your lamp?
Only bugs who didn’t make it
Into the next world.

(3) The piano string stops trembling
But boxelder bugs
Keep dancing.

Thanks to Jen Levy for introducing me to boxelder bug poetry, and to Milkweed Editions for permission to reproduce Bill Holm’s work.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:
Photo: Courtesy Michigan Department of Agriculture
Text: Stokes Nature Center: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Boxelder Bug Variations: A Meditation on an Idea in Language and Music, Holm, Bill, 1985, Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions https://www.milkweed.org/

Boxelder Bugs Fact Sheet, Erin Hodgson, Alan H. Roe, USU Cooperative Extension:
https://extension.usu.edu/files/factsheets/boxelder.pdf

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Midges, gnats and no see ums

Midges, gnats and no see ums: Utah Midge (Chironominae) Antelope Island, Davis County, Utah Copyright © 2009 C. A. Carson Courtesy Kerry S. Matz, BugGuide.net https://bugguide.net/node/view/278828/bgimage
Utah Midge (Chironominae)
Antelope Island, Davis County, Utah
Copyright © 2009 C. A. Carson
Courtesy Kerry S. Matz, BugGuide.net
https://bugguide.net/node/view/278828/
Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

Summer has finally arrived, even in northern Utah. As the temperature rises, different locations around the state are experiencing the perfect conditions for no see ums.

Not long ago, a couple of no see ums got under my skin– so to speak. I asked some friends and colleagues, “What exactly is a no see um?” Is it the same thing as a gnat? A midge?” Only one person in 20 knew the difference, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to sort out what is what.

First of all, let’s talk about midges. Midges are small, mosquito lookalikes. They represent a very large group in the taxonomic order of flies or Diptera. There are at least 2000 species different species in North America alone. They often occur in huge swarms, usually in the evening. You might see them “dancing” in the air, in columns rising up from the ground. Sometimes they will rest in large numbers on walls, screens and buildings, particularly during the warmer part of the day. When present in large numbers, they can be annoying. Midges are why you should keep your mouth closed when riding your bike.

Most midge species don’t bite. The term no see ums refers to the ones that do bite. In southern Utah biting midges –aka no see ums –are often called cedar gnats. You may also hear them referred to as punkies or moose flies as well as some other names not mentionable on air.
No see ums can surprise you for their bite is completely out of proportion to their tiny size—which is less than 1/8 of an inch long. Like mosquitoes, only the female bites for she needs a blood meal to produce eggs.

Unlike mosquitoes, no see ums don’t puncture the skin. They cut it open with their scissor-like mandibles. Then they squirt a chemical on the open wound to prevent clotting. Finally they suck up the resulting pool of blood through their proboscis, a straw-like structure near their mouth. Think of no see ums as miniature blenders making a smoothie out of you!

Finally, let’s consider gnats. The word gnat is a very loose term that seems to refer to either midges or biting midges or both, depending on the speaker.

Whatever you choose to call them, midges/gnats/no see ums are guaranteed to season the air and to decorate your windshield this summer.
For pictures of swarming midges and a scary close-up of a no see um see www.wildaboututah.org

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy Wikimedia and Carol Davis, Photographer
Text:     Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center

Sources & Additional Reading

Borror, Donald J., Charles A. Triplehorn (Author), Norman F. Johnson Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th Edition. 1989. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

Hovenweep National Monument. Biting Gnats fact sheet. www.nps.gov/hov

Utah County Online. Health: Mosquito Abatement. Insects Resembling Mosquitoes. https://www.co.utah.ut.us/dept/healthmosq/MosqLookAlikes.asp
[Accessed June 25, 2010]

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Tarantula Tales

Harietta the Tarantula
at Stokes Nature Center
Courtesy & Copyright 2010
Andrea Liberatore

Aphonopelma iodius
Courtesy & Copyright 2003
James Pitts

Aphonopelma iodius
Courtesy & Copyright 2003
James Pitts

Burrow of Aphonopelma iodius
Courtesy & Copyright 2004
James Pitts

Burrow of Aphonopelma iodius
Courtesy & Copyright 2004
James Pitts

Tarantula crossing the road, Eagle Mountain, UT, click to view larger image, Photo Courtesy & Copyright 2010 Shawna Olsen


Tarantula on a parking lot
University of Utah
20 August 2013
Salt Lake City, UT
Click to view larger image,
Courtesy & Copyright 2013
Lily Marsden

Tarantula on the East Bench, Ogden, UT, click to view larger image, Photo Courtesy & Copyright 2013 Lauren Fowler

Tarantula on the East Bench, Ogden, UT, click to view larger image, Photo Courtesy & Copyright 2013 Lauren Fowler

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

Here at the Nature Center, we have an 8 legged staff member named Harrietta. She is a beautiful Chilean Rose Tarantula. Visitors to the Nature Center often exclaim. “Wow! I’m glad those things don’t live around here!” But they are wrong. Tarantulas DO live here as well as in most areas of Utah.

Depending on your source of information Utah is home to either three or four different tarantula species. They’ve been found in the Mojave region in southwestern Utah as well as in the Great Basin.

For a number of reasons few people actually see the tarantulas in the Utah wilds. First of all, Utah is in the far northern part of the tarantula’s distribution range. This means environmental conditions here are less optimal for the spiders than in locations to the south. Secondly, both males and females spend most of their life in and around their burrows, which are dug into the ground in sparsely vegetated areas. As ambush predators, tarantulas lie motionless at the burrow entrance, waiting for an unsuspecting cricket, centipede or even a mouse to wander by. Only then will they dash out of their burrow to bite their victim and pull it back to the safety of their home for feeding. Lastly, tarantulas are nocturnal creatures, venturing out only after most humans have gone inside for the night.

Your best chance to see a tarantula is in the fall. During the months of September and October, mature males roam away from their burrows in search of a female counterpart. In SW Utah large numbers of males can sometimes be seen wandering in search of tarantula love.

In spite of their fearsome appearance, tarantulas are harmless to humans and large pets (e.g., dogs and cats). Their venom is of no medical significance, and, nobody has ever died from such a bite. Most people compare the bite to that of a bee sting and experience no lasting ill-effects other than mild to moderate pain and slight swelling at the site of the bite.

Special thanks to Andrea Liberatore of Stokes Nature Center and Dr. James Pitts of Utah State University’s Dept of Biology for their help with this Wild About Utah topic.

For sources and pictures go to www.wildaboututah.org.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.
Credits:
Images:     Courtesy & Copyright 2010 Andrea Liberatore Stokes Nature Center
Courtesy & Copyright 2010 Shawna Olsen
Courtesy & Copyright 2013 Lily Marsden
Courtesy & Copyright 2013 Lauren Fowler
Text:         Andrea Liberatore & Holly Strand,
Stokes Nature Center

Sources & Additional Reading


Allred, Dorald M., B. J. Kaston. 1983. A list of Utah spiders, with their localities. Western North American Naturalist, Vol 43, No 3 https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/ojs/index.php/wnan
/article/view/2591/2938

Hendrixson, Brett. “So You Found A Tarantula” . American Tarantula Society Headquarters. https://atshq.org/articles/found.html [Accessed July 22, 2010]

Prentice, Thomas R. 1997. Theraphosidae of the Mojave Desert West and North of the Colorado River (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosideae) The Journal of Arachnology 25:137–176 https://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free
/JoA_v25_n2/JoA_v25_p137.pdf [Accessed July 22, 2010]

Sharp, Jay. “About Tarantulas” Desert USA https://www.desertusa.com/july96/du_taran.html [Accessed July 22, 2010]

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Rattlesnakes

Great Basin Rattlesnake
Courtesy & Copyright 2009
Holly Strand
Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

Its rattlesnake season in Utah, for the warm weather draws them out of their dens. We have 5 species plus 2 subspecies of rattlesnake in the state. The Great basin rattlesnake is the most widespread, living all across Western Utah at elevations up to 9000 feet. This is the fellow you see around Logan. Another subspecies of western rattler–the midget faded rattlesnake –is dominant in the eastern part of the state. The Hopi rattlesnake and the greenish colored prairie rattlesnake are found in southwestern Utah. And the Mojave rattlesnake, speckled rattlesnake, and sidewinder are found only in the extreme southwest corner of Utah.

The rattle itself is a unique biological feature. It’s a loose, but interlocking series of nested segments—actually modified scales– at the end of the tail. When vibrated, the rattle produces a hissing sound. Kevin Colver– an expert in natural sound recordings –provided this clip of a Mojave rattlesnake. Sound from Westernsoundscape.org Hmm. wouldn’t that make a great ringtone?

Aggression and venom in rattlesnakes vary by both species type and by individual. The western diamondback rattlesnake is the archetypal large, aggressive and very dangerous species, responsible for the majority of human fatalities. But its northern range limit is south of the Utah border. However, the Mojave rattler found in southeastern Utah is extremely toxic and excitable. Its venom attacks both the nervous system and circulatory system.

Luckily, rattlesnakes aren’t out to get us—mainly they just want to be left alone. You’ll be fine if you stay aware of what might be lurking in or around rocks. And don’t walk barefoot or in open-toed shoes in their habitat. Also, use a flashlight after dark –most rattlesnakes are active at night too!

Thanks to the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation—the Russell family for supporting Stokes Nature Center programs. And to Kevin Colver for the sound of the rattlesnake. Additional nature sound recordings can be found at 7loons.com and westernsoundscape.org

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson Leaping Lulu
Audio:     Courtesy & Copyright 2006 Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections & Jeff Rice, Stokes Nature Center
Text:     Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center
Voice: Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center

Sources & Additional Reading:

Klauber, Laurence M. 1982. Rattlesnakes. Their Habits, Life Histories, and Influence on Mankind. Berkeley: University of California Press, https://www.amazon.com/Rattlesnakes-Habits-Histories-Influence-Mankind/dp/0520210565 (1997 Version)

Vipers, Species, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Division of Natural Resources, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?family=viperidae [Updated January 2024]

Tips to stay safe around rattlesnakes, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/utah-wildlife-news/943-rattlesnakes-safety-tips.html [Updated January 2024]