Walnut Creek Watershed Coalition - WC2

A rare find on the Creek Keeper's driveway. These moths live less than one week. This one was weakened by the heavy rains and was probably at the end of its life.

Antheraea polyphemus, the Polyphemus moth, is a North American member of the family Saturniidae, the giant silk moths. It is widespread in continental North America, with local populations found throughout subarctic Canada and in all of the United States except Arizona and Nevada.

Polyphemus moths inhabit deciduous hardwood forests, orchards, urban areas, and wetlands. The caterpillar can eat a total of 86,000 times its weight in the first eight weeks after it emerges. Polyphemus moths are considered to be very polyphagous, meaning they eat from a wide variety of plants.

Polyphemus moths mate the same day that they hatch from their cocoons. The mating process can last from under an hour to many hours. Shortly after mating, the females lay their eggs. After the moths mate, the female spends the majority of the remainder of her life laying eggs, while the male may mate several more times. Adults of this family of moths have vestigial mouths, meaning their mouth parts have been reduced. Because of this, they do not eat and only live as adults for less than one week.

The creature you most want gone from your house is the one keeping the flies, mosquitoes, and roaches out of it.

North America has thousands of spider species, and nearly every one is harmless to you. Spiders aren't out to bite people — they're shy, they want to avoid anything your size, and they bite only when trapped against skin. Of all those species, just two groups are worth learning to recognize: the recluses, which live only in the south-central US, and the widows. Both are reclusive and stay out of the way.

Here's the part doctors keep pointing out: most "spider bites" were never spiders. Brown recluses get blamed for wounds across the whole country, including regions where they don't even live — and when those wounds are actually tested, the most common culprit is a MRSA skin infection, not a bite. A confirmed spider bite is the rare exception.

Everything else is quietly working for you. Spiders are the most important insect controllers in a yard, eating the flies, mosquitoes, gnats, and garden pests you'd otherwise be swatting or spraying. And their silk is so strong — pound for pound, several times tougher than steel — that hummingbirds bind their tiny nests together with it.

🕷️ What's already hunting near you:
- The little spider on the wall that swivels to look at you is a jumping spider — sharp-eyed, web-free, and out hunting flies on foot in daylight
- The big wheel-shaped web on the porch each morning belongs to an orb-weaver; she often eats it and rebuilds it overnight, and it's catching the gnats you'd be swatting
- The fast brown spider that darts across the floor is a wolf spider, a ground hunter clearing out roaches and crickets — and if it's a female, she may be carrying her young on her back

Two spiders earned the fear. The rest earned the rent 🕸️

That earthworm thrashing like a cut snake in your mulch isn't the helpful kind.

Most of us were taught every worm is good for the soil. One isn't. The invasive jumping worm has spread across the East, and June is when it matures enough to identify — so this is the month to learn it.

Three signs, and you only need one or two:
- It moves wrong. Touch the soil and it thrashes violently, whips side to side like a snake, and may even shed part of its tail. A regular earthworm just slowly stretches and pulls.
- It wears a smooth, pale band near its head that wraps all the way around the body, flush like a ring. A nightcrawler's band is raised, pinkish, and only saddles partway across.
- The soil gives it away. Where they're working, the top inch turns into loose, uniform granules that look exactly like spilled coffee grounds.

That coffee-ground soil is the problem: they strip the ground of the nutrients and structure that roots, wildflowers, and everything downstream depend on.

🌿 What to do this week
- Confirm with the band — that's the surest tell.
- Drop any you find into a sealed bag and throw it out; don't chop them.
- Don't move soil, mulch, or potted plants around — that's how they travel.

Bag the ones you find and keep your soil home. That's the job.

Interesting Fact of The Day!

Scientists Set Out to Map Underground Fungal Networks, Find They Cover 62 Quadrillion Miles The network contained within just the top 15 centimeters of soil is approximately 62 quadrillion miles long.

If you see this on a lake any where, be careful. Is also very dangerous to pets!

WARNING .June 12, 2026 It looks like we may have Blue-Green Algae in Jackson Lake (several other lakes in Georgia already have it identified in them according to EPD). The EPD Watershed Office will send someone out in the next few days to verify. This Algae is very toxic and is extremely dangerous for humans and pets, SEE Below.

Blue-Green Algae (cyanobacteria) can be highly toxic to humans. While not all blooms are toxic, certain species produce potent toxins—such as nerve toxins and liver toxins—that can cause severe illness, including skin irritation, respiratory distress, and liver damage, when touched, inhaled, or swallowed.

Common Symptoms
Health effects can range from mild irritations to severe medical emergencies, depending on the type of toxin and level of exposure:
Skin/Eye Contact: Rashes, hives, blisters, and red or irritated eyes.
Inhalation: Sore throat, coughing, or hay fever-like symptoms from breathing in airborne water droplets.
Ingestion: Stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, muscle weakness, and in severe cases, liver damage or neurological issues.

Important Safety Tips
Avoid contact: Never swim, boat, or fish in water where you see visible blooms, foam, scums, or discolored water.
Do not boil: Boiling contaminated water does not destroy or remove cyanotoxins; it can actually concentrate them.
Keep pets safe: Pets are highly vulnerable to blue-green algae poisoning. Never let animals drink from or swim in affected water

Bird watching tour at Henry County Butler Bridge park on June 27, 2026 @ 9 a.m. Weather permitting.

Bring your binoculars and expertise. Beginners welcome! A few loaner binoculars and field guides provided.

Consider downloading the free Cornell University "Merlin" bird ID by sound.

Hope to see you there!

WC2 Creek Keeper.

Merlin Bird ID - Home Identify Bird Songs and Calls Sound ID listens to the birds around you and shows real-time suggestions for who’s singing. Compare your recording to the songs and calls in Merlin to confirm what you heard. Sound ID works completely offline, so you can identify birds you hear no matter where you ar

How many people would be interested in joining a bird watching group? We have some very expert birders in our area, this could be a great way to enjoy nature and meet fellow citizens, and make new friends! From beginners to expert! Some binoculars can be provided. Let us know!

For those that go to Lake Jackson.

He is the loudest thing in your yard tonight — and no bigger than the top of your thumb.

That long, birdlike trill after dark, the one that seems to come from everywhere at once, is a gray treefrog. A male, calling from a shrub or flat against your window glass.

You will almost never find him. He changes color to match whatever he sits on — green, gray, nearly white in the heat — and the sticky pads on his toes let him climb glass to hunt the moths your porch light gathers.

He has survived worse than being seen. He spends the winter frozen solid under the leaves, his blood turned to antifreeze, and thaws back to life each spring.

The voice filling your June nights has a face. You are just never meant to see it.