Many of us have fond memories of watching fireflies light up backyards on warm summer evenings or catching them in jars and watching their mesmerizing patterns. We've heard many folks observe that they hardly see these magical little creatures around anymore. Ecologists are learning more about firefly life cycles, and honing on what we can do to help. Our top recommendations are to leave leaf litter to decompose in place wherever possible and remove unnecessary outdoor lighting to allow their...

You may have heard that many solitary bees and wasps depend on standing stems over the winter, hence the garden practices of "save the stems" and "garden stubble" (if you haven't heard of these, check out our blog post). As native insect enthusiasts, we want to make sure we are providing the highest quality winter homes for our friends, but there are still a lot of questions out there about what the bees like best! Here at Rooted Gardens, we tried sending out an extensive survey to our...

Monarch butterflies are facing some serious threats. Over the past 20 years, Monarch caterpillars only eat Milkweed plants! their populations in the eastern United States have declined 80-90%, likely due to a combination of a decline in milkweed populations, mortality during migration, and climate change [1]. Monarch caterpillars require what's known as a host plant, which is a specific plant that an organism needs to survive. In this case, monarch butterflies will only lay their eggs on...