As you all read, in Chapter 4, we were gifted a million rotten, moldy hay bales ensconced in assorted layers of frustration by the loggers who previously owned our lot. After getting pissed about the fact that we have to remove and disassemble them by hand, I realized that it is actually pretty cool.
The hay bales have been sitting in the same spot for several years decomposing and providing a home to tons of things. Sort of like the concrete statues placed in the ocean by Jason deCaires Taylor, they have become a refuge for hundreds, maybe thousands of species which had previously lost their habitats due to the logging of the lot. (If you don’t know about the underwater art museum created by deCaires Taylor, it is worth checking out!)
The bales have slowly become home for all manner of life. At first glance, it seems that we have two very dense brush thickets bracketing our building and camper sites, which is basically the plateau of the lot. The hedges are thick with thorny brambles up to 10 feet tall and peppered with locust saplings (which also have massive thorns) along with many other species of brush, tree sapling, flower, grass, etc. The point is, when you look around the 20+ acres you do see foliage regrowth distributed throughout the entire place, however, the two dense hedges stand out like…I don’t know….like arms on a chicken? As you get closer, you notice the quiet hum of honeybees busily teeming about the entire thing. Then you see and hear the songbirds chirping and hopping from branch to branch collecting seeds and bugs for their little ones who are hidden deep within the mess of brush.
When we first arrived, I was a little sad that there were no trees on the lot because I figured that meant there would be no birds or bats or other wildlife for years to come. When I realized how full of life these hedges were, I began to rethink our decision to clear it all out. Of course, we have to clear the building site, that is not negotiable. However, Byron and I decided that the rest of the hedges would remain, as they are clearly providing valuable habitat for lots of beneficial critters.
The longer I stood there watching and listening, I saw hummingbirds zipping from bush to bush. Leaning in for a really close inspection, I saw different types of mantids swaying back and forth on the branches pretending to look like leaves or branches in the wind. I was not super excited about the gnats, mosquitoes, and deer flies. Nor the horseflies or ticks. There were also numerous invisible bloodsuckers that I was not able to catch in action to identify, nonetheless, I sustained mysterious and intolerably itchy little bites all over my ankles. Chiggers perhaps? Little bastards.
Along with the good comes the ugly, I guess. Food for the good guys…
Once I made my way through the brush fortress and got to disassembling the bales, I uncovered more amazement. Throughout the bales, holes of various sizes had been hollowed out leaving perfectly secure little dens or nest spots. I am not sure exactly who had created or inhabited them, but after catching a couple of rat and rabbit-shaped figures fleet out of the corner of my eye, I suspected they might have been the unfortunate evictees.
The layers of hay bales also housed millipedes, centipedes, and pill bugs by the hundreds, which scattered like drops of water in a hot pan as I peeled the layers apart. There were even larger, more formidable tenants at the bottom of the bales. A couple of fat toads slowly plopped out and disappeared into the grass along with a few unfamiliar things I had not come across before. If Roscoe hadn’t been nosing it curiously, I might not have ever noticed the giant green bodied beetle lumbering out of the bale headed for safety. After looking it up, I found out it was a female (no horn) eastern Hercules beetle. This is a species of rhinoceros beetle, which you might recognize from the movie A Bugs Life. I had seen them on TV before but thought they were way too exotic a creature to come across in my own yard. I was in bug-nerd heaven.
The giant wolf spider, Tigrosa georgicola, also got me all sorts of excited. The first one I came across, hopped (yes hopped) out of the bale and darted into a pile of debris. I wasn’t sure I had actually seen what I thought I saw so I picked up the stuff that she(?) was hiding under and sure enough; it was the largest spider I have ever come across. From leg to leg, nearly the size of my palm! I am assuming it was a female just because it was SO big, but I really have nothing to compare it to. She was extraordinarily fast and athletic. What, you never heard anyone refer to a spider as athletic before? I was in awe of the speed and agility with which she evaded me. There were many other large, run of the mill wolf spiders darting about as well. These were much more like what I was used to seeing. Tigrosa georgicola dwarfed them. Neat!
Don’t get me wrong, I would probably hit the ceiling if I found one of these in my hair or climbing up my leg. The large praying mantis that I startled into a clumsy flight from the branch on which it was perched onto my shoulder, scared the daylights out of me. Still so amazing. As much as spiders and other bugs like these might creep people out and inspire a swift stomping rather than an escort back outside, it is helpful to remember that these guys are extremely beneficial in controlling other, “yuckier” things like roaches, flies, wasps, garden pests, and others. Not to mention these guys don’t want to have anything to do with you and are much more worried about getting away from you than harming you. As evidenced by the hasty retreat of my new friends.
The complexity of the bale ecosystem was seemingly infinite. There were predators galore along with a veritable prey smorgasbord. The food chain was extensive and even included the occasional and very elusive whitetail deer that stopped in for a bite. The red-tailed hawks perched in the trees along the property line, eyeballing the buffet for dinner and a rat snake or two has been seen lurking about. There are probably lots of others that I haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing, not to mention those that are too small to be seen, but for sure those bales are much more than they appear to be!
Awesome right? Ok fellow nerds. Time to go home. Hopefully, there are a few new geeks in the lot of you now as well!
Come back next week though ok? Oh, and sign up for my email list to keep in touch!