Some of you may have heard about Monarch butterflies being added to the Threatened species list in the US and be planning to immediately rush out in spring and buy all the milkweed you can manage to do your part and help the species.
And that's fantastic!! Starting a pollinator garden and/or encouraging people and businesses around you to do the same is an excellent way to help not just Monarchs but many other threatened and at-risk pollinator species!
However.
Please please PLEASE do not obtain Tropical Milkweed for this purpose!
Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica)--also commonly known as bloodflower, Mexican butterflyweed, and scarlet milkweed--will likely be the first species of milkweed you find for sale at most nurseries. It'll be fairly cheap, too, and it grows and propagates so easily you'll just want to grab it! But do not do that!
Tropical milkweed can cause a host of issues that can ultimately harm the butterflies you're trying to help, such as--
Harboring a protozoan parasite called OE (which has been linked to lower migration success, reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability) for long periods of time
Remaining alive for longer periods, encouraging breeding during migration time/overwintering time as well as keeping monarchs in an area until a hard freeze wherein which they die
Actually becoming toxic to monarch caterpillars when exposed to warmer temperatures associated with climate change
However--do not be discouraged!! There are over 100 species of milkweed native to the United States, and plenty of resources on which are native to your state specifically! From there, you can find the nurseries dedicated to selling native milkweeds, or buy/trade for/collect seeds to grow them yourself!!
The world of native milkweeds is vast and enchanting, and I'm sure you'll soon find a favorite species native to your area that suits your growing space! There's tons of amazing options--whether you choose the beautiful pink vanilla-smelling swamp milkweed, the sophisticated redring milkweed, the elusive purple milkweed, the alluring green antelopehorn milkweed, or the charming heartleaf milkweed, or even something I didn't list!
And there's tons of resources and lots of people willing to help you on your native milkweed journey! Like me! Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions!
Just. PLEASE. Leave the tropical milkweed alone. Stay away.
TLDR: Start a pollinator garden to help the monarchs! Just don't plant tropical milkweed. There's hundreds of other milkweeds to grow instead!
Credit: @rockatscientist
"The Good War on Terror" written by Christopher Hayes.
I will be producing a print 'zine of this in the coming months. Join my Monthly 'Zine Club to get the first copies automatically sent your way!
hey. listen. when you use too much detergent in your laundry you aren't making your clothes cleaner, you are making them degrade faster. the machine isn't able to rinse out the entire cup of soap you put in, so some of it is left in the fibers of your clothes. when they dry this makes the fabric stiffer and more brittle, so the fibers are more likely to erode and break. over time this makes your clothes wear out much faster than if they were properly rinsed with minimal soap. you are wasting money by overusing detergent, not just on the detergent itself but the clothes you are shortening the lifespan of.
It's very endearing to me how many people are willing to keep an eye on a video feed so they can push a button and let a fish in the Netherlands get to the other side of a dam.
This just got posted to a Discord I'm on & my first thought was, "ah yes, for @elodieunderglass."
If you like frogs. Or possums. Or cool builds. Or happiness. This is the video for you.
october 18, 2024
the source is treehouse foods, who provides frozen waffles to dozens of brands in north america. eggo is not affected.
brands affected: always save, best choice, bettergoods, breakfast best, clover valley, compliments, essentials, food lion, foodhold, giant eagle, good & gather, great value, hannaford, harris teeter, H-E-B higher harvest, kodiak cakes, no name, pics by price chopper, publix, schnucks, se grocers, selection, simple truth, tops, western family.
if you have any frozen waffles from any of these brands in your freezer, please check here for a full list of the recalled food and their lot codes and best by dates, and here for the pictures of the labels (PDF). treehouse says you can return the recalled items to get credit from the place of purchase.
consider sanitizing anything the waffles may have touched, or anything that you may have touched after touching the waffles. listeria is a very resilient fucker.
no illnesses have been associated with this recall so far. but keep in mind that listeria can take months to cause illness, and then weeks to officially connect an illness with a certain recall or outbreak.
again, while most people exposed to listeria will not get sick, listeria can take months to cause illness after exposure. listeria can be deadly, especially to high-risk groups. if you are in a high-risk group or have any concerns due to eating the recalled waffles, talk to your healthcare provider. if they deem it necessary, there are antibiotics you can be prescribed even if you do not have any symptoms.
as a general reminder for this and every listeria recall: although cooking to 165F/74C can kill off listeria itself, heating the food cannot eliminate toxins that may have already been excreted by listeria, which can also be harmful. this especially applies if the waffles have been defrosted or stored in the refrigerator.
America has a weird relationship with cults where they’re terrified of small cults (or organizations they think are cults) but completely normalized massive cults that hurt many more people (eg: LDS Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Amish, Scientology, most Megachurches)