FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF NOV. 8, 1999:
As we were putting our garden to bed, we found a 2-inch long, dark reddish-brown cocoon with a curved tail on its end. We’re hoping it will turn into a butterfly and we’d like our kids to be able to watch. What should we do?
For starters, try to contain those high hopes of kaleidoscopic butterflies, says Bob Stoltz, University of Idaho extension entomologist. What you found was the larva of a tomato hornworm. It will emerge in the spring as a "big old gray" hawkmoth or hummingbird moth and it’ll soon thereafter make a beeline for your tomato plants.
Nevertheless, says Stoltz, a critter doesn’t have to be a swan to make a powerful impression on a child. That ugly duckling of a hornworm puts on a heckuva biological show. Scoop the cocoon and the soil in which you found it into a pot and set it onto your porch or inside your garage. (Don’t bring it indoors; the hot, dry air will kill it.) Resting just an inch or two below the soil surface, the cocoon will stay cold enough and damp enough to survive.
Come late spring, you and your kids can watch as the hawkmoth splits the skin of its cocoon and crawls out. For the next few hours, it will pump blood through its shriveled wings until they unfurl to 4 inches, covering the orange spots on its abdomen. As soon as the gray, black-mottled wings have dried, the hawkmoth will take off.
The emergence of the hawkmoth is so interesting that some people dig around in their gardens looking for the cocoons. "You’ll be hard-pressed to find them," says Stoltz. "Usually you just find them by happenstance."
So, if you chanced upon one, consider yourself lucky–until it strips your tomato plants.
I planted strawberries for the first time last year. Do they need to be protected from cold during the winter?
Yes, strawberries definitely benefit from a protective mulch in winter, says Jo Ann Robbins, University of Idaho extension educator. Be sure to wait until the ground begins to freeze–or after the first snow–then pile a 6-inch mulch of weed-free straw, coarse hay or fallen leaves onto your berry beds. For best results, work the mulch down into the strawberry crowns.
In March, take the mulch off the plants as they begin to green up. You might want to leave an inch-deep layer between the plants–to discourage weeds and encourage moisture retention–but do push the mulch away from the crowns themselves. Once weather warms, mulch against crowns can promote botrytis crown rot as well as molds and mildews.
"It’s really important to get the mulch off before the new growth starts," says Robbins. "If you leave it on, you can lose your plants."
But, she says, if you don’t mulch your strawberries to begin with, you can lose your plants to "that week-long cold snap that’s well below-zero."
I’ve just taken up long-distance running. When should I eat pasta for best results?
As you’ve no doubt already heard, pasta is a very good source of complex carbohydrates, which are stored in the muscles and released as energy during long-distance runs. According to Martha Raidl, University of Idaho extension nutrition specialist, if you’re planning to run 90 minutes or longer you’ll want to eat two hours beforehand to make sure that your meal is digested and metabolized and that your blood sugar levels don’t drop too low.
"The important point is that a person should not get up in the morning and go out to exercise for an extended time on an empty stomach," she says. "The glycogen levels in your muscles and liver are pretty much depleted after fasting all night, and if you try to exercise strenuously, you won’t last that long."
Besides fueling runners, pasta is simply a very healthy food, Raidl says. A one-half cup serving of cooked pasta contains only 100 calories and less than a half gram of fat and is enriched with B vitamins, iron and folic acid.
A restaurant portion is usually two to three servings. To keep its fat content low, order your spaghetti or linguine dinner with a tomato, clam or meat sauce–roughly 17-25 grams of fat per half-cup–rather than cream or cheese-based sauces like Alfredo, which contribute a whopping 97 grams of fat per half-cup serving.
Because of the demands of my job, I often miss events at my child’s school. How important is it, really, for parents to attend?
Studies show that children do best in their school work when their parents are involved in the school, says Harriet Shaklee, University of Idaho extension family development specialist. "Parents who come to school performances, open houses and sporting events show their children that school is important to the family and that they are proud to see the work of their children and friends," she says.
That’s even true of teenagers who try to discourage you from attending. "They say, ‘Don’t go, I don’t want to see you there’ –but go anyway," says Shaklee. "Tell them that attending their school event is one of the joys and privileges of parenthood."
If you absolutely can’t go, try to send someone else in your place–perhaps a well-loved relative or family friend–or send a camera along with your child and insist on a full report.
"You may need to miss some school events, but be sure to be there for the big ones," says Shaklee. "Your interest and your presence signal to your children that you care a lot about what goes on at school."