Kerry Wixted

Connecting Nature & Community

Tag: pollinator

Jewels of the Wasp World

One group of wasps that captivated me early on are the Chrysididae, or cuckoo wasps. They are jewels of the wasp world, adorned with metallic colors that seem to iridize with light along the pitted design of their exoskeleton. Their colors are complex and are created by light refracting through open spaces between six layers
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Secrets of Skunk Cabbage

For many years, I took skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) for granted. It was that stinky plant that dominated wetlands and helped frogs hide from my youthful pursuit. In college, I learned how it was a wetland indicator plant, meaning its presence marked a wetland. It wasn’t until I met Master Naturalist (and later friend!), Siobhan
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Vanilla: a Sweet Flavor with a Sticky History

It would be hard to imagine a modern world without vanilla. Vanilla is one of the world’s most popular scents and flavors. It has been used for centuries, and the demand for vanilla far exceeds natural production. In fact, it is estimated that roughly 18,000 metric tons of vanilla flavor is produced annually, much of
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A Better Guide to Yellow, Stripey Things

Did you know? Maryland has over 1,200 documented wasp species, many of which are super tiny and exist around you without you realizing they are there. I have spent the last 20 years working with wildlife and unlearning a lot of harmful stereotypes I grew up with (snakes are dangerous/spider bites cause major medical issues/
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Give it Up for the Ground Nesters

Here in Maryland, we are in the beginning throes of ground-nesting bee season. You might be surprised to learn that there are over 440 species of bees that have been documented in Maryland and that most of them nest in the ground. When most people think of a bee, they envision the honeybee which has
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