Perspiration and Inspiration

Guest post by Jill Staake, creator of My Florida Backyard

On a steamy Florida summer day, the kind of day where you work up a sweat just going out to the mailbox, it can be hard to imagine why anyone would voluntarily spend several hours pulling weeds in a garden that's not even their own. But volunteers at the MOSI BioWorks Butterfly Garden do it every day of the week. What makes all the perspiration worthwhile? For me, it's the inspiration I find along the way.

A recent muggy Tuesday morning found me arriving at MOSI as usual, armed with gardening gloves and SPF 100. I discovered Kristen (the woman who makes BioWorks tick) already hard at work with another volunteer, Patti. They were in the Tree Grove, attempting to "find" the sensory garden under the Ray Charles Live Oak. Passionvine and beach sunflower, two wonderful native plants when kept in their place, had taken advantage of the summer sun and rain to grow out of control, hiding the smaller plants beneath. I dove in, untangling what seemed to be miles of passionvine from the chenille plants and mint, and pulling other pesky weeds along the way.

Frequent water breaks in the shade were imperative, and during one of these came my first moment of inspiration. "Oh, look at you!" Kristen exclaimed, as she unearthed a small fuzzy creature from the sweet potato vine. Patti and I crowded around to admire the Leopard Moth caterpillar she'd found. Sweat poured from our faces, but for a moment we all forgot as we enjoyed this little gift from nature. We were soon back to work, but a few minutes later I spotted one of the rarer visitors to the garden, a Queen butterfly, hard at work laying eggs on the milkweed. Kristen ran inside for a net, quickly catching and releasing the butterfly into the Flight Cage where hopefully she'll continue to lay eggs, allowing us to raise another generation of these wonderful creatures.

A few hours in the sun were more than enough, and once that section of garden was cleared and the debris trucked over to the compost pile, Kristen declared an end to the gardening for that day. Plenty of work remained, though, as all the caterpillar rearing tanks in the lab needed to be cleaned and supplied with fresh food. After taking stock of the tanks, we filled a bucket with water and headed out to gather pipevine, milkweed, rue, and other host plants. We'd barely made it out the door when Kristen's sharp eyes spotted a lovely little Snowberry Clearwing Moth perched on the firebush outside. Others walked right on by as we marveled at the fuzzy green body and delicate transparent wings. Kristen mentioned they use Coral Honeysuckle as a host plant, and I vowed to keep an eye on my own coral honeysuckle at home for future evidence of these visitors.

We gathered the plants we needed, along the way collecting several dozen Polydamas eggs and caterpillars off the pipevine and a few Black Swallowtail caterpillars from the rue. The sun beat down pretty heavily as we tackled one of the worst of the plants we needed - Wild Lime for the Giant Swallowtails. This tree is filled with needle-sharp thorns, and Kristen and I constantly muttered "Ow, ow, ow" as we cut the branches we needed. Between the sweat pouring into our eyes and the prickly spikes attacking our fingers, the job was pretty miserable, but another moment of inspiration was just ahead.

"Look - a tropical checkerspot!" Kristen said, pointing out a tiny blue and brown butterfly nearby. We crouched down to look more closely. "She's ovipositing!" Kristen proclaimed as we watched the butterfly bend her abdomen up and gently deposit an egg on the underside of a leaf. After she finished, we plucked the leaf, along with several of the same plant nearby, and took it into the lab. If we're fortunate, the egg will hatch and we'll be able to observe the life cycle of this small butterfly from start to finish.

Back in the lab, we changed newspapers and rinsed out tanks, putting in new food and pinning chrysalises into cases for display in the window. There were nearly a dozen species of caterpillars in the lab today: Monarch, Polydamas, Cloudless Sulphur, Sleepy Orange, Spicebush, Long-Tailed Skipper, Giant Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, Gulf Fritillary, and one we're reasonably sure is a Virginia Tiger Moth. After more than a year of volunteering here, I know all of our common caterpillars by sight, as well as what they feed on. This is knowledge I certainly didn't have before I started, and which I've been able to take home and apply in my own yard. Volunteers don't get paid in money, but information is constantly available and free to anyone who wants to absorb it!

When I climbed into my car to head home, I was feeling pretty disgusting on the outside. My clothes and hair were drenched with sweat, and a fine layer of dirt seemed to cling to me everywhere. But I felt very satisfied on the inside, because I knew that once I'd showered off the grime of the day, the inspiring moments would seem even more clear. When my husband asked about my day at MOSI, I would tell him about the Leopard Moth caterpillar,the capture of the Queen, the Snowberry Clearwing Moth sighting, and the ovipositing Tropical Checkspot. The perspiration of a day of volunteering at MOSI washes away pretty easily, but the inspiration stays with you for a long time to come.

Interested in volunteering at MOSI BioWorks? Click here for more information.