For several years, there has been a bluebird box at the edge of the large community garden that Theresa Mycek tends in Georgetown, Kent County, and every year it's been occupied by an energetic family of bluebirds that feeds on the pests that attack Mycek's vegetables.
"You know some birds are there because you hear their calls," says Mycek, manager of the Colchester Farm Community Supported Agriculture project. "But with bluebirds, you see them, bright blue, flying around close while you work. They hang out. Sometimes they line up on the telephone lines and watch. It's really nice."
But not everyone is so lucky to have such garden helpers. Beneficial critters such as bats and bluebirds are losing habitat at a blistering rate. Worms, which aerate soil and create platinum-grade compost, suffer from the overuse of pesticides and other chemicals on our lawns. Their loss of habitat isn't just a threat to their survival; it's a big loss for humans, too, since they all offer a vital service.
"Bats help to control the mosquito population, which can spread disease," says Dawn Vezina, education specialist at the Organization for Bat Conservation in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
One way we can help these garden helpers is to give them places to live. Making a bluebird box, a bat house and a worm bin are three easy projects that can be done in a weekend, and they are great educational activities for the kids.
Why do it in fall when the garden is winding down? For one thing, there's time. For another, while bluebirds and bats are both migratory, they often don't leave this area until November. If they find a house before they go, they will remember it and move into their new digs on their return next year. And even if they've migrated by the time you've finished the project, having a nesting box or bat hotel ready when they return ensures occupancy. As a result, you'll have free, round-the-clock insect control.
Bluebirds, clad in beautiful, bright-blue coats and dusty-apricot vests, are little pest-seeking missiles that eat daytime crop-destroyers, including grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, sow bugs and snails. When you have a bluebird box you not only can but should open it up for a quick look at the nest to make sure no predators have invaded it.
"It's very important that if people put up a house, they should monitor it weekly and keep records of what [they] see in the box," says Barbara Chambers, a spokeswoman for the North American Bluebird Society. "You won't disturb the birds because you do it rapidly enough that they become used to you."
