Saturday was a beautiful morning to be out in Carroll Watkins Park.  Thank you to all the volunteers who came out for the garden work day and Bug Blitz!

Volunteers arrived early Saturday morning to weed, transplant, and collect seeds at Carroll Watkins Park in Gwynn Oak.  They weeded around the garden sign and transplanted golden ragwort that was growing under park benches.

We installed new plant identification signs, funded by a BGE Green grant.  The signs include information about each plant’s appearance and special characteristics.  Keep an eye out for more plant identification signs at other NeighborSpace parks.

Don’t worry, these milkweed bug nymphs observed last weekend are not “bugging” the native Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed) and Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed).  Milkweed bugs, Oncopeltus fasciatus , are native to Maryland and feed on milkweed plant seeds.  Like other native organisms with native host plants, milkweed bugs and plants have co-evolved together.  The milkweed bugs do not damage or harm the host plants.  Their bright orange or orange-red and black coloring is to warn predators that they are toxic and taste bad. Like monarch butterflies, milkweed bugs feed on milkweed sap, which contains toxic chemicals called cardenolides. The bugs store these toxins in their bodies, making them distasteful to predators that eat them.

Blue Water Baltimore led a macroinvertebrate bug hunt in the Gwynn Oak Park. Volunteers turned over rocks in the Gwynns Falls to count macroinvertebrate species.

Among the Bug Blitz finds were crayfish, mayfly nymphs, clams, and hellgrammites. Mayflies and hellgrammites are especially sensitive to water pollution.  Their presence in the stream indicates that pollution is low and water quality is good!