Autumn 2012
Natural Interpretive Programs
Volunteer for Stewardship Saturdays!
1PM-4PM
Saturdays: October 20; November 17; December 8
Help take care of a local natural treasure. Each month, we’ll go afield to the campus Environmental Study Area to remove invasive plants. It’s a great way to get
out in nature, get a little exercise, and make a big difference to the health of the
Area today and tomorrow. Through hands-on experience you’ll also become more
familiar with the stewardship values and practices which are woven into the EIC’s
habitat management activities. Volunteer for any number of work sessions.
Please register for each by contacting EIC Natural Areas Manager Rick Simek at
(313) 583-6371. Expect moderate physical activity. Please bring your own gloves
and water to drink while out in the field. Ages 10 and older. Individuals and
groups are welcome.
Two “Adopt-a-Habitat” volunteers remove
Buckthorn by digging up the roots.
Young Naturalist Program for 9-12 Year-Olds
This popular 9 month program provides an opportunity for children who enjoy nature to investigate and share that interest
with their peers. UM-D student naturalists lead the program. Monthly program session topics include Pond Study, Insects
and Spiders, Maple Syrup Science, Owl Prowl, Spring Wildflowers, and Birds. Participants are expected to attend most if
not all of the monthly sessions. A $70 program fee covers the cost of all field equipment including a field pack and field
guides to various plants and animals. The registration deadline is Friday, October 12. To register GO HERE!
Program session dates: Saturday, October 20; Friday, November 9; Saturday, December 8; Saturday, January 12; Saturday, February 16; Saturday, March 9; Saturday, April 27; Saturday, May 11; Saturday, June 8. The November session will
take place from 6-9PM on Friday, November 9 the remaining sessions will be on Saturdays 9:30AM-12PM.
Fall Colors and ??
Saturday, October 20
10AM-12 Noon
Fall colors will hopefully be on full display. We’ll leave the rest to serendipity
as we explore other interesting natural happenings on a slow-paced walk. All
ages welcome.
Art Work and Photo by Sara Cole
www.umd.umich.edu/eic
ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETIVE CENTER
1
Mythbusting an Urban Legend!
Before we launch into the Halloween season and start perpetuating scary myths about poisonous spiders, I’d like to
focus on a different arachnid that often is incorrectly called a spider: the Daddy Longlegs. There are other incorrect bits of
information associated with these spider relatives, but let’s take this one eight-legged step at a time. First, “poison” and
“venom” must be defined. Poisonous animals give off toxins that are absorbed by others that have touched or eaten the poisonous animal. Venomous animals transmit toxins through injection through fangs or stinging body parts.
Next, let’s define what it takes, taxonomically, to be a spider. Typically, spiders have six to eight simple eyes and
two body parts: an abdomen and a cephalothorax where the head and thorax are combined into one. All eight legs are attached to the cephalothorax. Another key adaptation for spiders is the ability and body parts with which to spin silk. Spiders have six spinnerets, three pairs, located at the posterior end of their bodies. There are seven different types of silk: not
all spiders spin all seven types of silk or build webs with it, but they do spin silk for a number of purposes, such as egg sacs,
prey storage, and safety lines for travel. Many spiders also use venom to disable or immobilize their captured prey.
What most people recognize as daddy longlegs are actually arachnid
cousins to spiders that are grouped in their own order, Opiliones. Common
names for this Order are 1) daddy-longlegs, 2) harvestmen and 3) opilionids.
They are characterized by having at most 2 eyes, one basic body segment
which shows segmentation on the posterior portion, and all 8 legs attach to the
pill-like body segment. Although they are opportunistic predators, they frequently feed on decomposing plant and animal matter. They have mouthparts
with which to feed, so they are able to bite, but they lack venom or the fangs
that would inject it, so logically this busts the myth that they cannot bite and
are “the most poisonous spider on earth.”
To complicate this mistaken identity further, there is actually a true
spider that is called “daddy longlegs,” also referred to as the long-legged or
long-bodied cellar spider, in the family Pholcidae. Not relegated to cellars,
these spiders can be found hanging high in their webs in the corners of basements, bathrooms, and other rooms in your home without causing any trouble.
Though they are venomous (as most spiders are), they prefer to subdue their
prey by wrapping it in bondage with strong silk rather than holding it in their
shorter, less powerful fangs and rarely come in contact with their human
housemates. One interesting habit they employ to avoid becoming prey for something else is to spin wildly in their webs
when something disturbs them before dashing away. A gentle breeze is sometimes all it takes…
So, armed with these truths, now YOU can be a mythbuster and dispel this urban legend the next time someone
says that “the daddy longlegs is the most poisonous spider on earth!”
- Dorothy McLeer
www.umd.umich.edu/eic
ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETIVE CENTER
2
A Reflection of Student Involvement!
UM-D students reflect on their EIC activities:
The Center provides UM-D students with a positive environment to explore new interests, build career-related skills,
and overall deepen their on-campus experience. To highlight this, we asked a few of the more recent student staff to
reflect on their participation in a special EIC activity. Enjoy!
Leading the 2011-2012 Young Naturalist Program
Mary Fastiggi and Dana Wloch
The Young Naturalists Program this past year has been a blast. Starting in October, each session was as perfect as
one could ask for. One of the most important concepts for the students to learn is basic observation skills, the first step
to becoming a young naturalist. During our first session, chance was in our favor for learning to observe and interpret
activity in the natural area. We stumbled upon a deer (or vice versa, rather) and observed the food chain in action—a
red-tailed hawk was scouting out a way to grab a tasty snack (AKA squirrel) from a hawthorn tree. Eventually the
hawk gave up, deciding a few extra calories were not worth losing an eye or two over, but our students did not give up
asking questions about the hawk, squirrel and their behaviors.
It seemed that every session was almost too good to be true. We saw an
owl on the owl prowl in November, footprints in the snow in January
(remember winter? Us neither, but it snowed right before this program), and
counted over 150 frogs in the pond on our amphibian study in June.
Although this program was full of outdoors excitement, it was not beyond academic goals. Of course a naturalist program is going to be heavy on
science, and we succeeded in exposing the students to many important conDana on the left and Mary on the right
cepts. We spent time learning about ecology, identification, decomposition,
life cycles, etc. However, other school subjects were not neglected. The young
naturalists were given two vocabulary words each session to broaden their linguistic repertoire and understanding of
scientific terms. In addition, a journal reflection was written at the end of each session. This not only improved their
writing skills, but also solidified their memories of the day as an added bonus. Mathematics was also incorporated into
several programs. For instance, during our maple sap program the young naturalists graphed the percentage of sugar
present in the sap to see if there was any variation in the sugar content in the sap gathered from different locations.
The program was fun not only for the students, but also for us, the leaders. Since this was an ongoing program, we
were able to connect with the students to learn about their interests and try to encourage those interests to blossom in
each session. The young naturalist program fostered an opportunity to gain knowledge and love for the natural world
for everyone involved. We appreciate the opportunity to plan and lead this program series. It was an excellent way to
put our programming experience into action and get involved on a deeper level with planning and organizing for different sessions. We know that the Young Naturalists program is valuable to enriching the community’s relationship to
the natural area and to the environment in general.
www.umd.umich.edu/eic
ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETIVE CENTER
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Thoughts from the Honeybee Hives
UM-D students Kyle Kandilian and Ryan Keeling are the Sustainability Interns at the Center this summer. Here they
share their reflections from assisting with the maintenance of honeybee hives at the newly expanded campus apiary.
The Honeybees and Me
by Kyle Kandilan
I have never been a fan of bees or wasps, but the honeybees have definitely grown on me. Working in the campus
honeybee hives is an amazing experience. It’s amazing to see how these little organisms can organize themselves and construct wonderfully geometrically hexagonal comb cells, and of course produce all of that delicious honey. However, I’ve
learned that beekeeping is also a lot of work. There’s an almost constant need to build new hive frames and boxes, and each
hive has to be checked occasionally to ensure its health and progress. The positives outweigh these minor inconveniences, as
there’s always a new beekeeping skill to master or tidbit of bee facts to be learned.
So far I’ve made a few memories working with the bees. While checking on a Warre hive whose colony had built its
comb perpendicular to the frames (as opposed to parallel as they were supposed to do), Rich Wieske, our bee expert went to
lift the bottom box off the hive. Within milliseconds a bunch of defensive bees had swarmed out, and my instincts took over
as I immediately fled to a safe distance. Rich said he didn’t know I could move that fast! In the end, we finished our hive
check unscathed as the bees were just a little more ornery than usual that
day.
Most of the time, the bees are as gentle as can be and will even
let you pet them. I had no idea that bees could be that nice, and since
working with our bees I’ve gained respect for them as well as lost my
fear of bees in general. I hope that as the bee yard becomes an established part of the Environmental Interpretive Center, others will be able
to interact with and learn to love bees just as I have. I’d be inclined to
think that once you realize all of the pollinating work they do for us, the
lovely honey they make for us, and how adorable they are with their big
eyes and fuzzy thoraxes, you have to like them.
A Calm Place to Bee
by Ryan Keeling
As a part of the Environmental Interpretive Center staff for the
Bee Expert Rich Wieske instructs Kyle, Ryan
last two years I have been involved in many of the activities that the EIC
and other students in the art of bee care.
has to offer. I could not be more grateful for all the opportunities that the
EIC has given me and the knowledge that I have acquired. One of the most rewarding opportunities the EIC has given me is
the chance to work with honey bees in our Urban Apiary (bee yard). As one of the EIC sustainability interns for the summer I
helped to expand our apiary that is sure to be a campus highlight in the near future.
When I first worked with honey bees during my first summer at the EIC I was slightly concerned about having thousands of stinging insects flying around me, but now I feel comfortable enough to work along side the seasoned veterans.
While working at the apairy I cannot help to admire the cooperation the bees have within each hive. It always amazes me to
how well bees work together and what they can achieve as a colony. The sheer geometry of their honey comb blows me away.
Along with admiring the bee’s workmanship I also enjoy the tranquility of bee keeping. After a morning of hive
maintenance moving in “bee time” I can feel my stress melting away. The quiet buzzing of the bees has a soothing capability
that is on par with the sound of moving water. With the knowledge that I have gained working with the bees I intend to start
my own hives. I would enjoy having bee pollen, and of course honey, as a common food source for me. The health benefits of
products that come from bees are unmatched.
From the soothing work to the sweet rewards I have loved every second of my work in the University of MichiganDearborn’s urban apiary. I look forward to starting my own hives and learning more about the art of bee keeping. Special
thanks to Rich Wieske, Rick Simek, Mike Perrin, and David Susko for sharing their knowledge of bee keeping and bee biology.
www.umd.umich.edu/eic
ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETIVE CENTER
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Images from the Bee Yard
Rich Wieske
inspects a
frame from
the Top-Bar
hive, one of
three types of
hives we
have in the
bee yard.
University of
Michigan-Dearborn
Environmental
Interpretive
Center
(313)593-5338
www.umd.umich.edu/eic
David Susko
Director
Michael Perrin
Administrative Manager
Richard Simek
Program Supervisor
Dorothy McLeer
Program Coordinator
Julie Craves
Supervisor Avian Research
Clockwise from above: (1) Marie and Kristen remove the
wax caps from the frame. (2) After spinning in the extractor, the honey is filtered through three filters. (3) Following filtering, it is directly bottled in honey bears. (4) The
bees are busy getting ready for fall at the entrance of one
of our Langstroth hives.