Promoting Wildlife in Your Yard
Letting wildlife be wildlife is the best way to promote diversity and help native species of all kinds thrive. While occasionally we can help by removing non-native or invasive species, for the most part restraining ourselves from trying too hard to "fix" things is the best, least expensive, and most efficient way to promote wildlife on our properties.
Stop Using Chemical Treatments
If you stop using chemical treatments on your property you can greatly increase the wildlife diversity. Chemicals that kill insects, fungi, bacteria, and unwanted plants will also kill important species that have a role in the balance of the ecosystem. Broad-spectrum insecticides kill anything they contact, which includes butterflies, pollinators, and beneficial predatory insects, not just mosquitoes or annoying bugs. And although we all hate to be attacked by mosquitoes, they are a very important food source for dragonflies, bats, and birds. In fact every insect gets eaten by another insect, reptile, bird, or even mammal, so when you kill off your insects you make many animals leave your property to find food elsewhere.
Use Organic Treatments for the Eradication of Invasive Species
Organic methods of controlling non-native and invasive species are less damaging to the overall system. Using organic treatments for fire ant control is an example. Fire Ants are not native and are taking over from our native ants. But killing all ants is not a good response; it is better to target just the Fire Ant mounds. For invasive birds like cowbirds and starlings, traps can be set so that only the invading birds are killed while other native birds caught in the trap can be released. When dealing with invasive plants, such as Chinaberry, ligustrum, and nandina, chemicals do not always work, and often kill adjacent native plants instead. The best way to get rid of plants that resprout is to cut them to the ground and then monitor them so that as soon as they resprout you cut back those stems. The key is to make the plant use up all of its stored energy in trying to grow back without letting new leaves create new energy that can be stored up. Eventually the plant will have no energy left and will die. Patience and diligence are very important, and ultimately successful without using any chemicals.
Managing Insects
Insects that chew your favorite plants can be frustrating, but remember that every insect has its usefulness in the system. While it is tempting to spray your plants with pesticides, remember that you may also be killing butterfly larvae, or the birds that eat the insects covered with the pesticide. Patience is our guide here as well. When a lot of insects begin to attack a plant, there is a bit of a lag time but nature will send a predator to find and eat them for free while you sit back and wait. And if you absolutely need to save one plant, just brush the bugs off now and then. My peach tree, for example, one year got chewed on heavily by grasshoppers. I did nothing about it, and on the third day a gorgeous roadrunner showed up and ate all the grasshoppers on and around the peach tree. If I had sprayed them, the roadrunner would either have missed the meal or perhaps would have ingested the spray.
Welcoming "Weeds"
In nature there are no such things as weeds. We humans may not like certain plants because they are spiky or itchy or ugly, but many of these have the necessary defense attributes that make them ideal host plants for butterflies or good seed plants for birds. The super annoying noseburns, for example, while causing an itchy, burning, stinging rash for an hour or so, are the sole host for the delightful Common Mestra butterfly. Most nettles, in fact, are great hosts of butterflies and moths, including the gorgeous Red Admiral. Texas Thistles, while they can become huge and painful to rub against, create a safe paradise for many species of insects, provide nectar for butterflies and hummingbirds, and make nutritious seeds for Lesser Goldfinches to eat. The bur clovers that create wheel-like seeds that stick to your shoelaces are favorites plants of many of our smallest and prettiest butterflies that often get overlooked because of their size, namely Reakirt's and Ceraunus Blues. Hedge Parsley, which makes soft oval-shaped burs, are the hosts to Black Swallowtails. In nature the attributes that we humans dislike the most in plants are often the ones that make them so hardy and valuable to wildlife.
Keep the Cedar
There is a common misconception that Ashe Juniper trees (a.k.a cedar) are bad and should always be removed or they will starve all other trees, including the precious live oaks, of water. This is nonsense and has caused much of the native habitat to be cruelly pruned and stripped. The premise is that if one removes all of the junipers from a piece of land, the water will flow into creeks again, water that the junipers have sucked up away from other trees. But if you take away half, say, of the oaks instead of the junipers, the water will run off just the same, because all trees reduce erosion with their roots and the humus layer they produce every year. What is accomplished in removing trees of any kind is simply an increase in runoff, and if the creeks are flowing again that means the water is flowing off your land where it can nourish your plants to another place far away. It also creates open spaces where sun-loving plants begin to grow, making things look lush, but only different from before, not more full of life. Juniper trees are critical shelters for small birds who use them to take cover from predators, find tasty bugs and juniper berries, meet up with mates, and let their fledglings practice short flights in safety. Where there are junipers there are more native birds, especially near bird feeders, because the birds, vulnerable at the feeder, fly in between feedings to the juniper trees to eat the seeds and scout for danger. They can disappear in the thick bunches of needles much more easily than in any other tree. Junipers left to grow naturally provide cover at ground level for rabbits, foxes, deer, and all the other mammals that we say we love to see but then drive away by cutting off all the lowest branches they need to hide amongst. Junipers are easy to climb and become sleeping beds for many animals both night and day. Every year they drop needles which maintain a layer that slows rainwater runoff, protects seedlings, and is habitat for insects that become food for birds and animals. They are also the sole host plant of the beautiful Juniper Hairstreak, a small butterfly abundant all throughout the warm months. If there is only one thing that you do to protect Hill Country habitat, let it be to protect juniper trees from being eradicated.
Creating a Sustainable Butterfly Or Hummingbird Garden
Creating a butterfly or hummingbird garden is an admirable task, and the more you know about the life of such a garden the better you can make it. Gardens that contain plants that flower profusely are valuable as nectar food, but if they are hybrid or non-native landscape plants, they provide little else and need more care. Better choices are truly native flowering plants, even if they are seasonal or not as profuse, because they are hardier, more water-efficient, and often are larval hosts as well as being nectar providers. Many butterflies lay their eggs on annual or perennial garden plants, but in reality the caterpillar nursery extends outside of the garden: some of the most beautiful butterfly species lay their eggs on trees, native bunch grasses, groundcovers, and even in fallen tree leaves. Hummingbirds require protein, which they get from eating insects, so look for plants that are good insect havens, and don't kill the spiders, which are one of the favorite foods of hummers. While hummingbirds do investigate red flowers and feeders, they also drink nectar from white, yellow, and purple flowers—any color at all—and use the sugar water from feeders primarily for energy to hunt for insects, not as their primary food source. Trees in the garden also provide safe perches for the hummingbirds, and if you are lucky, maybe even a nest. Hummingbird nests are made from lichen and spider webs, so resist any temptation to get rid of lichen from your tree branches. The nests are better camouflaged if you leave the ball moss, which the nest imitates. Save yourself the effort and spend the time watching your hummers.