Lydia Agenbag
Art History Major - University of North Texas
Day 1
I have placed my Mandala in a house-sized patch of grass, called an easement, between my two neighbors’ houses across from my home. It doesn’t receive regular maintenance so it is mainly covered with weeds and wildflowers. Although it has rained recently, the ground is still pretty dry and the grass isn’t very green, more brown and crispy. I’m actually not sure if there is anything but weeds here. I’m not seeing much insect activity, even though it’s about 6:46 in the evening when I presume that many insects start to become active. This neighborhood is newly built within the last two three years. Before, it was mostly grassland used for cattle grazing. Now it’s a busy thriving neighborhood. Currently on my street, alongside the easement are a couple of young girls riding their motorized toy car, and another young girl following them on her scooter. Their parents are congregating in their driveway a couple of houses down, most likely wondering what I am doing. It seems to me that there is more activity in my neighborhood than in my mandala.
Day 2
I just saw a grasshopper tonight. I wasn’t able to see much detail, but it did have black stripes on its hind legs, and it blended well within the weeds and dead grass with its tan and brown coloring. He is jumping in and out of my mandala, and I keep hoping he won’t jump onto me. It is pretty impressive how far and high he can jump. The hopper went from the center of the mandala to about ten inches out from the ridge. I estimate its jump was a foot and a half long, which is remarkable considering its body is about two inches long and a half inch wide. Other than the new intruder, I don’t see any notable difference in my mandala. It will likely rain tomorrow, so I am expecting to encounter more insects other than the grasshopper and mosquitoes. What is nice about coming out in the dark, like I am tonight, is the lack of direct human interaction; just the hums of air conditioners and the random annoying barks of dogs. What is inconvenient is the attraction of mosquitoes to my flashlight. I am very curious to why insects are attracted to light, especially moths and mosquitoes. As I shine my light on my paper while I write, mosquitoes are constantly pestering me.
Day 3
Today it rained a bit. I was hoping it would have caused some drastic change within my mandala. Maybe it would make the ground moist, exposing more insect life. Unfortunately the ground is still dry, and hard, which I can especially perceive since I decided to sit on the ground today to look closer into my mandala. I did notice that some of the leaves of one of the weeds have been munched on slightly. I wonder if each piece of grass or leaf has a distinct taste to an insect. Do insects even have taste buds? What if a caterpillar had a craving for a leaf of an oak tree instead of a mesquite tree or elm tree? Do they select their homes on types of trees that taste the best? I’ve also heard theories that mosquitoes have preference for healthy skinnier people, because unhealthy and overweight people have less appealing and bad tasting blood. I wonder if you can actually test the preferences of insect tastes for certain things. I haven’t mentioned yet that I am using a bright pink hula- hoop to delineate my mandala. I hope that the color of my hula-hoop doesn’t deter living things away, and that no one steals it. It didn’t seem to bother the grasshopper much yesterday, but that was the only insect I’ve really seen. Another thing I am curious about if bugs can see color. We know from studies that dogs are color blind, but are insects too?
Day 4
Again I am visiting the mandala late at night. Surprisingly enough, tonight there are some people out and about, especially since it is a Sunday. The weeds do seem to be a bit greener than the last few days because of the rain we are having. I have tried to identify some of the weeds, some I already automatically know from maintaining our yard, like crabgrass. Now after doing some research on the different types of weeds, I see my mandala in a new light. I actually see all the different types of weeds within the small space of the circle. I’ve counted maybe five or six different kinds all fighting for this area. I find it funny that these different weeds can survive together but other grasses cannot compete alongside them. Why can some grasses (weeds) thrive but not others? I kind of feel bad for weeds; they receive such a negative response because they are unattractive. Most people will go out of their way to kill weeds, even using harmful chemicals, just to make their lawn aesthetically pleasing. In fact such chemicals harmed my dog when it was younger. When he was younger he had a tendency to chew things, mostly anything he saw. About the time we got the dog, my parents had planted some rose bushes in the backyard of our home. They had covered the bottom of the rose bushes with woodchips that were treated in pesticides and weed-killing chemicals. When we as a family were gone, our dog had chewed and may have swallowed some of those treated woodchips. When we came back we found him deathly sick with blood in his feces. My parents had to rush him to the hospital for emergency care, which cost them a lot of money. Every since then my dog has had a very sensitive stomach and we have had to take him a couple of times to the vet to treat his stomach. All this time and money my parents spent on our dog could have been prevented if they had taken the time to check the ingredients the mulch or have not even used it. The most interesting thing is the root of the problem was caused by the need to make a yard aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps sometimes letting nature be can really be beneficial and perhaps more appeasing than if it was manipulated.
Day 5
I have learned a number of things recently about the grasshopper I encountered, due to much research. I’ve learned that there are many grasshopper species, more than I ever expected. Most seem to be a major pest in many areas causing a lot of destruction to plants wherever they go. I have been able to narrow the species of the grasshopper in the mandala down to one of two kinds. It could be a Carolina grasshopper, Dissosteira carolina, or a migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes. The generation of a grasshopper tends to be one a year, living as eggs during the winter. They spend most of spring and early summer in six stages of molting; finally develop into adults by mid to late summer, and finishing out their lives after 40 to 60 more days. It makes sense why I haven’t seen many grasshoppers within my mandala and outside of it. The one I did see must have been a late bloomer, or may have been lucky and had a longer lifespan than others. I have also learned that they are a menace to farms, eating away at crops such as corn, soybeans, and rice. Also different types of grasses are a major target as well, thus explaining why grass is so lacking in my mandala. Ways to reduce grasshopper populations is by using them as fishing bait or as food for animals such as frogs and lizards.
Until I read Nancy Turner and Fikret Berkes article “Coming to Understand: Developing Conservation through Incremental learning in the Pacific Northwest”, I didn’t realize how important my observations and connections to the living things in my mandala were. Within their article Turner and Berkes emphasize how these relationship can affect how we treat ecology, “Perceived kinship with other life forms, even trees and other plants, lead to a different way of treating those beings”(7). I completely agree with this, because before I started this project I didn’t really give much thought to things such as weeds, or grasshoppers. Now as I’m interacting with these things and really turn my attention on them I will definitely react to them in a different way than I have done before. I notice even today when I found a grasshopper at work, I wasn’t frightened by it nor did I try to kill it, but instead I tried to see its distinctive markings and identify its species. Now I am not sure if it will really matter if I can identify different types of grasshoppers, but I do know that my being more self aware of nature surrounding me will be beneficial.
One of the key ideas that I can relate to in Turner and Berkes article is the definition of “ecological understanding”. “Incremental learning of individuals and groups and elaboration of environmental knowledge as a result of detailed observation and experience of variations in nature and leading to a sophisticated understanding of the ecosystem in which they dwell”(3). Through reading of David Haskell book “The Forest Unseen: A years watch in Nature” I have gained a more “sophisticated understanding” as Turner and Barker describe it, especially for ticks. Before, I had a huge aversion to ticks, especially due to a close family friend being seriously ill from a tick bite, but as I read Haskell’s quick lesson and grail comparison, I gained a new respect for the tick. Haskell helps the reader understand the tick’s “quest behavior” of seeking blood, by comparing it to the Knights of the round table “giving the animals a measure of Arthurian nobility, tempering our disgust at their bloodsucking habits”(118). The reason why it is beneficial to understand a tick’s habits is because it helps prevent tick bites and the spread of diseases they carry. Haskell continues throughout his book to teach his readers a better understanding of the natural world he encounters in his own mandala, showing that just taking a few minutes to look and observe helps change one’s worldly perspective.
At first the idea of having to sit five different times for fifteen minutes staring at a piece of grass seemed like a daunting, boring task. Even the first day of my observation really felt like a hassle. By the second day of my observation, I began to open my mind and truly give all my effort into this project and I am grateful that I did. I mainly found myself comparing insects and plants to humanistic characteristics to try and understand them, which is how I gain the respect I did for them. As I watched that grasshopper jump 18x longer than his body length, I tried to imagine myself jumping 18x my body length, which would be equivalent to a football field. The idea of me being able to jump across an entire football field is incredible and completely impossible. Overall this project was a great learning experience for me, widening my outside idea of life and teaching me to be more observant and understanding than I was before.
References
Haskell, D. G. 2012. The Forest Unseen. Penguin Books, New York.
Turner, N. J. & F. Berkes . 2006. Coming to Understanding: Developing Conservation through Incremental Learning in the Pacific Northwest. Human Ecology 34:495-513.
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