A reader asks:
Why do rabbits eat plants in my garden but not my neighbor’s garden?
This is an excellent question, but unfortunately there is not an easy answer. It could simply be that you grow plants that are more attractive to rabbits. Wild cottontails like lettuces, peas, beans and broccoli as well as many other plants. They especially like to devour young tender shoots, which are rich in proteins and sugars needed for energy. Older plants are more difficult to digest and provide less nutrition. If you can keep young plants protected for a few weeks, the rabbits may avoid them later in the season.
If you and your neighbor are both growing the same plants, but the rabbits eat your plants exclusively, then perhaps the neighbor’s plants are better protected — either physically with barriers, such as chicken wire, a high raised bed or wire cloches. Perhaps they use commercial repellents or grow odiferous neighboring plants (like garlic or marigolds). Some pet dogs may also keep rabbits at bay. I’d advise asking your neighbor about their tricks to growing a rabbit-free garden. With luck, they will divulge their secret. (And do share what you learn with us!)
Sometimes these things are a complete mystery. In my yard, for example, the rabbits left my Swiss chard alone last year, but this year it seems to be a favorite. After my bok choy plants transformed into nubs, I encircled many young plants with hardware cloth to keep out the rampaging bunnies. If it is any consolation, the constant challenge of outsmarting hungry bunnies may keep our brains nimble.
Jumping spiders
You have probably encountered jumping spiders before because they are the largest family of spiders (there are more than 6,000 species), they hunt during the day, and most of the time, they move slowly enough to be spotted easily.
Jumping spiders sound scarier than they actually are. Although a jumping spider is capable of biting, unless you threaten one, it should not bite you. They jump to hunt prey, avoid predators, or to cross long gaps. They are smart about jumping: They anchor a silk line to a stable surface before they jump. Then if the jump goes awry, they can climb the thread back to their original position.
Unlike other jumpers like frogs and rabbits, jumping spiders do not have strong leg muscles. In fact, they have short, skinny legs. So how do they jump? Similar to the hydraulic braking system on a car, jumping spiders use pressurized fluids — in their case hemolymph or blood — to jump. To leap, these spiders contract muscles in the upper part of the body (the cephalothorax), which forces the hemolymph suddenly into their rear legs. The legs instantly straighten, launching them into the air. This process sounds pretty simple, but spiders do more than just randomly jump. When a moving target comes along, they control both the direction and distance of their leap to land directly on their prey. Most jumping spiders can hurdle two to three times their body length, but some can vault up to 38 times their body length.
Jumping spiders are also known for their acute vision. They, like humans and other spiders, have a single lens in each eye that focuses light onto a retina. (Bees and flies, on the other hand, have compound eyes, where hundreds or thousands of lenses collect information that is merged together into a single mosaic-like image) Jumping spiders’ vision is as good as that of much larger animals, such as cats. How can such tiny eyes produce such exceptional vision?
Part of the reason is that they have four pairs of eyes. A large main pair of eyes in front sees fine details and a wider spectrum of colors than humans can see. Three pairs of smaller, secondary eyes on the sides of its head work together to provide an almost 360-degree view and track moving objects—but only in shades of gray. These secondary eyes scan for objects that might need the attention of the bigger main eyes. When a secondary eyes spots movement, the spider pivots its body to lock onto the object with it main eyes. The main eyes zoom in to calculate distance and identify whether the object is prey, a predator, or a potential mate.
If this tiny spider decides an object is food, such as a fly or caterpillar, it stalks the object like a cat might. A spider will hunt just about anything up to twice its size. When it gets about an inch away, it attaches a dragline and then pounces, injecting venom that paralyzes the prey. It then uses its front legs to grasp the prey. Next is liquefying the insides of the prey to suck in the meal. The spider regurgitates digestive enzymes that liquefy the prey’s insides in 30 minutes to several hours. Using their mouthparts like a straw, the spiders then drink their liquid meal.
But these spiders are also activating their gustation all the time. Each foot of a jumping spider contains chemical taste sensors. They essentially taste what they walk on.
These spiders do not make webs, which allows them to be more flexible than web-based spiders. Instead, they use their threads to make tents that protect from bad weather and to sleep in at night. In these tents, they also molt, store their eggs, and overwinter.
Jumping spiders’ hearing is also exceptional. They have fine hairs on their bodies that can detect sounds up to three meters away. Bold jumping spiders, for example, can detect the acoustic signals generated by predatory wasps that specialize in catching spiders. But when they detect a sound, these spiders freeze to make themselves less visible.
So the next time you spot a tiny spider, notice its behavior. If it suddenly turns to stare back at you, it’s a jumping spider.
A stronger
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