Creatures in the Garden Books

Gardeners are learning to welcome the many creatures of the garden instead of battling them. Many gardeners are discovering how interconnected we are with other living beings and learning how to minimize the destruction of a delicate balance. These books are selected to help you identify them, or build gardens for them.

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The Butterflies of Cascadia: A Field Guide to All the Species of Washington, Oregon, and Surrounding Territories

The Butterflies of Cascadia is for those who watch, photograph, study, or garden for butterflies, as well as for everyone who simply enjoys and appreciates their beauty in the Pacific Northwest.

Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: A Field guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America

Book Description: Jeffrey Glassberg's acclaimed Butterflies through Binoculars guides have revolutionized the way we view butterflies. Now there's a field guide in the same practical format, and with the same emphasis on conservation, to identify caterpillars. Caterpillars are as varied, fascinating, and often as colorful as the adult butterflies they become. This is the most comprehensive guide to these creatures available. It contains all the information necessary to find and identify the caterpillars of North America--from Two-tailed Swallowtails, some of the largest butterfly caterpillars at just over two inches when fully grown, to tiny Western Pygmy-Blues. Caterpillar seekers will learn how to distinguish between butterfly caterpillars and moth caterpillars, where and how to find caterpillars, and the visual differences between young and older caterpillars. Each species section describes how to identify the caterpillar, complete with brilliant photos--many published here for the first time. To make for easy field use, each caterpillar's key physical features, abundance, habitat, and major hostplants are listed on the same page as its photo. The book also contains a special section on butterfly gardening, offering valuable information on how to set up a butterfly garden and raise healthy butterfly caterpillars, and provides a thorough list of the plants butterflies most like to feast on. From the concerned gardener who wishes not to kill caterpillars that may one day become beautiful butterflies to the serious butterflier wishing to take the hobby to the next level, this remarkable guide will provide all of the information necessary for an enriching caterpillar experience.

Discovering Moths: Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Backyard

Moths have a bad rap. Discover the importance and beauty of our nocturnal flying jewels.

The Forgotten Pollinators

Book Description: Consider this: Without interaction between animals and flowering plants, the seeds and fruits that make up nearly eighty percent of the human diet would not exist.

In The Forgotten Pollinators, Stephen L. Buchmann, one of the world's leading authorities on bees and pollination, and Gary Paul Nabhan, award-winning writer and renowned crop ecologist, explore the vital but little-appreciated relationship between plants and the animals they depend on for reproduction-bees, beetles, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths, bats, and countless other animals, some widely recognized and others almost unknown.

Insects and Gardens

Book Description Professional entomologist and amateur gardener Eric Grissell suggests that it might be time to declare a truce with the insects in our lives. With a sound basis in science and a practical grounding in gardening experience, Grissell introduces the reader to the role of insects in garden ecology. His insightful account of insect biology is supported by gorgeous photographs, which reveal a captivating beauty and illustrate the vital interdependence between insects and plants. Now available in paperback, this book will be loved by anyone seeking a greater appreciation and understanding of these often-maligned garden visitors.

Insects of the Pacific Northwest

Book Description: The only comprehensive guide to insects of the Pacific Northwest, this handy reference is perfect for hikers, fishers, and naturalists. With coverage from southwestern British Columbia to northern California, from the coast to the high desert, it describes more than 450 species of common, easily visible insects and some noninsect invertebrates, including beetles, butterflies and moths, dragonflies, grasshoppers, crickets, cicadas, flies, bees, wasps, ants, spiders, millipedes, snails, and slugs. The more than 600 superb color photographs, helpful visual keys, and clear color-coded layout will make this field guide an invaluable resource for nature lovers throughout the region.

Living With Wildlife

Book Description: Living with Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest is all about coexisting with the animals commonly found in gardens, ponds, attics, crawl spaces, and other places where humans and wildlife cross paths throughout Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

From bats to woodpeckers, sixty-eight species are described here, with details about feeding and mating habits, family structures, and life cycles. Living with Wildlife explains how to attract animals; how to spot their presence by identifying tracks, droppings, and other signs; and how and where to safely view them.

Focusing on the species that provoke the most calls to wildlife agencies and nonprofit groups, the book provides detailed information on how to prevent and solve conflicts with wildlife.

This book is a valuable reference for homeowners, property owners, and property managers; habitat restoration professionals; the wildlife control industry; and private and nonprofit wildlife groups. It can also be used in horticulture and urban wildlife management courses.

Living with Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest includes information on:
• 68 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
• Feeding habits, nesting sites, reproductive habits, ranges, and longevity.
• Signs of animals’ presence, including tracks, nests, scratch marks, droppings, and calls.
• Viewing and attracting animals.
• Preventing conflicts with animals.
• Controlling animals.
• Public health concerns.
• Legal status of each species.
• Trapping wildlife.
• Evicting animals from buildings.
• Hiring a wildlife damage control specialist.

Noah's Garden : Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards

Book Description Published to rave reviews in 1993, Noah's Garden shows us how our landscape style of neat yards and gardens has devastated suburban ecology, wiping out entire communities of plants and animals by stripping bare their habitats and destroying their food supplies. When Stein realized what her intensive efforts at making a traditional garden had done, she set out to "ungarden." Her book interweaves an account of her efforts with an explanation of the ecology of gardens. Noah's Garden has become the bible of the new environmental gardening movement, and the author is one of its most popular spokespersons.

Peterson First Guide to Caterpillars of North America

Book Description: Here is the first and only guide to a subject of great interest to gardeners, small children, and lepidopterists: caterpillars, the immature form of butterflies and moths. This guide describes 120 common species of these fuzzy creatures. All the caterpillars, their adult forms and many of their host plants are illustrated.

Pollination with Mason Bees : A Gardener and Naturalists Guide to Managing Mason Bees for Fruit Production

Book Description: Introduces concept of pollination and bees/ mason bees to gardeners in order to increase fruit production. Includes information on nest construction and mason bee build-up with detailed pen and ink illustrations.

Pollinator Conservation Handbook: A Guide to Understanding, Protecting, and Providing Habitat for Native Pollinator Insects

Book Description: The Pollinator Conservation Handbook is an indispensable resource for gardeners, farmers, and managers of parks, recreational areas, and wild lands. It will guide you through the steps for creating and improving habitat for insect pollinators, including selecting and planting forage flowers, providing nesting and egg-laying sites, and caring for your pollinator habitat over time. The Handbook also contains an extensive resources section and ideas for educational activities.

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