ZZZzzz...
That’s how we all felt after working 40 hours doing mistletoe control for a Homeowners Association in Scottsdale this week. It was hot, and the footing was treacherous in spots. We all got spines in our shoes and scratches on our arms and legs. The garbage cans of mistletoe we took out of the trees got heavier (it seemed) every day. That is an estimated 5-6000 lbs of mistletoe underneath Gareth and Daniel! Every bit of it was carried out in garbage cans. You can see why they are tired!
Here are some before and after pictures to show you some of the trees we worked on and what the washes looked like.
A flowering Desert Ironwood (Olneya tesota) with a pretty visible infestation, Before...
Look especially at the lower part of the tree – see all the density there? It is still dense in the “after” picture but the color is different and it is not as thick because we hauled 4-5 packed garbage cans of mistletoe out of it!
... and After.
Old Palo Verde with a bad infestation! Before...
... and After!
We saw a lot of interesting things working in the N.A.O.S. areas this week including lots of Mourning Dove nests, as well as a few nests of Verdin and Lesser Nighthawk. We saw two dead Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes (we didn’t do it!) and numerous species of lizards. I didn’t collect any beetles, but I was not spending much time looking! There are many other things I could share from our week, but that will have to wait for another time…
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