If unsightly mounds of dirt have been appearing on your lawn lately, we may be able to identify the culprit!
A little-known but very active insect is relentlessly digging up our pristine lawns by building funnel-shaped mounds, leaving bare patches which are subsequently open to invasion by weeds.
Click here to head to our latest Bush Bites article, in which Ed Frazer provides an explanation!
The next working bee for our Section 3 Huntington Tuckett bushcare group will include some basic herbicide training to be provided by Andrew Wallace from Brisbane City Council.
The working bee will be held on Sunday 21 July and the group will meet in the parklands opposite 90 Creekside St., Kenmore Hills.
For those who are participating in the herbicide training, please try to arrive by 8.30am sharp.
If you’re simply coming along to join the working bee and enjoy one of their fabulous morning teas, you’re welcome to join them at about 9.15am.
For more info, please contact group leader Jim Pope on 3374 4181.
Our Huntington/Tuckett bushcare group had another very successful working bee on Sunday, with 15 people attending. Here is a report from group leader and MCCG Chairman Jim Pope:
We did some in-fill planting of an area in Tuckett St. park from which 9 very large Chinese Elm (Celtis sinensis) trees were removed late last year.
The original re-planting to replace the Chinese Elms with native trees and shrubs was carried out in February and March this year.
Unfortunately the very dry weather at the time, together with the attentions of feral deer and bush turkeys, meant that we lost some of those plants, so the aim of this working bee was to fill in gaps in the original planting and replace the losses. We also did some weed clearing. Mission accomplished!
Here are some photos from the day:
A further highlight of this working bee, as usual, was morning tea. This time we were treated to some magnificent home-made Persian soup, more like a vegetarian casserole in fact, that was made for us by Bahereh Sabet. Several of us were so impressed with the soup that we asked Bahereh for the recipe, and here it is:
This Persian dish is called AASH RESHTEH (a thick soup):
If you’d like to get involved in a Section 3 bushcare group, please contact group leader Jim Pope, on 3374 4181.
Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee has invited members of the Moggill Creek Catchment to their August General Meeting on Monday 5th August.
Sue Morris of Bat Rescue Inc will be giving a talk on Flying Foxes and Microbats.
The talk is at 7:30 pm at 66 Baron Street, Greenslopes. It will be approximately 45 minutes long followed by a short Q&A.
Attendees are welcome to stay for the N4C Meeting afterwards if they wish.
If you would like to attend, please send an email to [email protected] or click “Going” on the Facebook event page.
Brisbane City Council’s next Biodiversity Seminar will be held on Thursday 11 July.
Join special guest speaker, Professor Darryl Jones, as he explores signs of hope for South East Queensland’s declining koala population.
Stefan Hattingh, Ecologist and B4C operations manager, will discuss local efforts to create wildlife habitat. But can they be successful without connecting corridors?
The seminar will be held at the Belmont Services Bowls Club, 20 Narracott Street, Carina, commencing at 6.30pm.
Bookings are essential. Book your spot through Eventbrite by Sunday 7 July 2019.
For more information, you can:
In July’s issue of Feather Fascination, local birder and MCCG member Jim Butler introduces us to the Eurasian Coot.
This small black waterbird is one which most of us will be familiar with. What we may not know, however, is that coots are responsible for the regional survival of many water plants.
Head to Feather Fascination July 2019 to learn more!
It’s July 2019 and the recent rains have turned up some ant mounds that are conspicuous in mown lawns in the Moggill Creek Catchment area.
They are made by Funnel Ants, a small honey-coloured ant that is common in soils that do not have a lot of clay.
The mounds are made after rain has flooded their chambers, which in dry periods can be a metre or more under the surface.
© Ed Frazer
When conditions are good the funnel ants build shallow chambers in the root zone of the grass. They bite into the grass roots and feed on the sap that flows out. Funnel ants do not have a bite that hurts people.
The males and fertile females (Queens) develop with wings and fly in November to mate. The Queen lays eggs that all hatch as females and they build up into a colony of workers by late January.
Heavy infestations will damage the growth of lawns and they are difficult to control. Commercial pest control companies have access to products that give reasonable success, but these insecticides are not available to domestic buyers.
If you want to see the funnel ants you have to dig quite deeply as they only come to the surface while they are cleaning out their chambers after rain.
Or you can view an image and learn more about these ants, whose scientific name is Aphaenogaster longiceps, by heading to the Australian Museum website.
Your Winter newsletter is hot off the press and should be sitting in your inbox now!
Our sincere thanks to editor Cathi Lawrence for another outstanding production, and to all those who contributed articles.
There is an opportunity to view and vote on the 75 images submitted for the 2020 Brisbane’s Wild West Calendar on Wednesday 17 July at 7:00pm OR Sunday 21 July from 9.00 – 11.00 am at The Hut, 47 Fleming Road, Chapel Hill.
The MCCG and the Rural Environment Planning Association (REPA) support THECA in the production of the calendar each year.
Since 2000, the calendar has featured the flora and fauna of Brisbane’s western suburbs and showcased the work of talented local photographers.
For more information, head to the THECA website, ring 3878 5088, email [email protected] or [email protected].
Tamielle Blunt from the University of Queensland gave a wonderful talk about platypus and our platypus surveys at our 2019 mid year meeting.
Head to the MCCG Facebook page to enjoy the full story and photos of Tamielle’s talk.
