JOIN butterfly expert, Américo Bonkewitzz, at the Butterfly Habitat Garden at Durban Botanic Gardens on Sunday, 6 October, to learn about butterfly gardening and his newly-developed Eco Rocks.
Explaining the concept, Américo said the ecosystem kneels to a single element, water, and where it is present, life flourishes.
For that reason, to boost the presence of invertebrates, it is required to make water easily accessible.
He said the only “tool” that was available to increase the presence of insects was an insect hotel, offering a place for breeding mostly.
“On the internet there is plenty information on insect hotels, mostly designed for carpenter bees, honey bees, wasps and also spiders. Another feature is that they are very conspicuous house-shaped structures not matching with the natural surroundings. Some of them look pretty, but only for a very narrow group of invertebrates, and are not suitable and not accessible to many other species of invertebrates who live under stones or even small vertebrates like reptiles and amphibians,” he said.
Américo runs invertebrate training courses for field guide students and based on his experience in the field, realised while lifting up rocks, how many creatures lived under them.
“I had an epiphany and thought if the rock was not so flat, and was empty inside, it would give more space for creatures to live in. This simple idea opened up a Pandora Box!” he said.
Américo came up with an idea that could boost and strengthen a local ecosystem, a faux rock that can provide a source of water and suitable shelter/habitat to invertebrates and, to some extent, also to small vertebrates. He called it the “Eco Rock”.
The rock is hollowed out on the underside, with small cavities and tunnels for various creatures to live in.
The top is sunken to create a small pool for water, and is surrounded by moss, which helps retain humidity, insulating the Eco Rock from the hot and dry environment outside, keeping the interior cool.
Moss acts as a “sponge” for insects to drink water from, particularly wasps, bees and butterflies. In addition to this, moss delays the drying process of the rock and also offers a microbiome that can be used by many invertebrates.
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“Urban people are concerned mostly with pollinators, meaning generally with what they are able to see and accept because of their beauty, but they reject many nocturnal invertebrates, many of them found under rocks and cavities in tree trunks, such as spiders, scorpions, whip-scorpions, cockroaches, snails, slugs, geckos, snakes and frogs, the list is endless. They do not even know the role in the macro ecosystem of the microbiome on moss, how these two connect each other,” he said.
Under a stone, the temperature and humidity fluctuate the least during the day, thus avoiding dehydration and for a predator, then, provides an excellent place to ambush a prey looking for refuge from the scorching outside environment during the day.
What’s more, under a stone prey cannot be seen by predators like birds. Invertebrates are completely hidden from the outside harsh and dangerous environment. Eco Rocks can blend with the environment, offering a cryptic appearance in the landscape and cater for most of the invertebrates to vertebrates that occur in the wild.
“I believe that this is an essential tool in a wildlife garden if someone wants to increase or boost the biodiversity of an area. Eco Rocks aprovide an appealing look and can be displayed in gardens, while, on the other hand, offers the capacity to provide a suitable shelter and water source to wildlife,” he said.
Eco Rocks are painted externally with oxide pigments mixed with cement. Internally they are painted with a mixture of white cement and oxide, rendering a light grey colour.
“I am very excited about this project and encourage people to come to the talk at Durban Botanic Gardens to find out more, and to purchase Eco Rocks.
The talk will be from 10am to 11am. The first half an hour will be on how to create a butterfly garden and thereafter Eco Rocks will be discussed.
To book, email Américo on info@butterflying.co.za.
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