6
in other words
july17
2014
Diggin’ in the Dirt: Scorpions in Columbia County?
By Chip Bubl
Oregon State University
Extension Service - Columbia County
Food preservation and food safety
Want to learn how to safely
preserve produce from your garden
this summer? The OSU Extension
Service in Columbia County offers food
preservation information and resources.
Here is a list of services that we provide:
• Free Printed Publications and Safe
Canning Recipes
• Online Publications and Recipes:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/fch/
food-preservation
• Free Pressure Canner Gauge Testing
(call ahead before bringing in your
gauge)
• Food Preservation and Food Safety
Hotline from July 14 through October
17, 2014, 9 AM – 4 PM Monday- Friday.
1-800-354-7319
• A list of our hands-on canning classes
can be found on our website: http://
extension.oregonstate.edu/columbia or
call our office at 503 397-3462
Jenny Rudolph, MPA
OSU/Columbia County Extension
Educator
2014 Home Food Preservation Class
Series Offered in Scappoose
Have you thought about learning
to preserve fruits, vegetables, fish or game
this summer? Are you an experienced
canner who would like an update on
the latest USDA recommendations?
Then plan to attend one or more of the
canning classes offered by the Oregon
State University Extension Service this
summer. Class sessions will be held at
the Scappoose Grace Lutheran Church,
51737 Columbia River Hwy, Scappoose,
OR 97056. Each class will cost $25.00
or $90 if you sign up for all four. Some
scholarships are available. Participants
will receive instruction and hands-on
experience with safe methods of food
preservation. Class size is limited, so
sign up today. Pre-registration and pre-
payment of class fees are required.
• Thursday, July 31st 3:00 to 6:00 pm –
Canning Fruits and Pie Fillings
• Thursday, August 7th 3:00 to 6:00
pm – Pressure Canning Meat, Fish and
Vegetables
• Thursday, August 14th 3:00 to 6:00 pm
– Pickling and Fermenting Vegetables
• Thursday, August 21sr 3:00 to 6:00 pm
– Canning Tomatoes, Sauces and Salsas
For more information and to
register for classes, please call or visit
the OSU Extension Service office at:
505 N. Columbia River Highway, St.
Helens, OR. 503-397-3462
They feed on crawling insects like
beetles, crickets, and larval insects of
various types. They need 3-8 inches of
decayed material/duff to burrow so big
old downed logs with supporting lots
of life as they decay and compost are
ideal sites to look for them. They mate
in December- February and give birth
August – October. The young are born
alive and cling to their mother’s back
Natural History Report: Scorpions in for about two weeks. Life span isn’t
Columbia County?
well known but assumed to be 6 or more
We have a scorpion. It isn’t years. They go through several molts
uncommon but you could go through before they reach their full size in two
your entire life without seeing it. In 35 years.
years, I have had three samples brought
into the Extension office. The scorpion We even have a fire fly (that doesn’t
is called Uroctonus mordax (no common fly) but does shine
name yet) and is about 2-3 inches long.
There are two species of
Color is reddish to dark brown. The ones glowworms in the Pacific Northwest,
I have seen were fairly dark colored. It the Western Banded Glowworm
looks and reacts like any desert scorpion, and Tiemann’s glowworm. These
raising its tail to strike. It can sting if it glowworms are best seen in the dark and
perceives your finger as a threat or a are found on the forest floor or on the
meal. The sting is reputed to be like the forest edge in leaf litter. It is the females
sting of a bee but, as with bees, some that glow. The light is yellow to greenish
people can be allergic to the venom.
in tint and can be almost the size of a
The scorpion is most common dime at its largest or a nail head more
in the coastal forest zone from British commonly. If you pick up the glowing
Columbia down to the San Francisco object, you will end up holding a rather
Bay area. The only place I have seen plump worm-like creature curled in a
it is under a rotting log. I was looking circle. The male and female glowworm
for dampwood termites to feed one larva both emit light. The fleshy female
of my son’s lizards and this scorpion adult glowworm has luminescent bands
seemed to have the same idea. We left around her body separated by bands of
on good terms. Decaying logs in areas of dark color that don’t glow. The glowing
high rainfall are their preferred habitat. bands attract males. The
female
never turns from a larva
into anything dramatically
different. She continues
as a larviform adult,
May 15 marked the FCC’s deadline to 9-1-1 would be useful in some situations
eating, mating and
requiring mobile carriers to implement (such as providing additional accessibility to
laying eggs that also
changes that will allow consumers to text emergency services for our speech and hearing
glow as they mature.
to 9-1-1; however, this technology is not impaired communities.) 9-1-1 (Public Safety
The male, however, is
currently available in Oregon. If you send a Answering Points) PSAPs and the State 9-1-
much smaller. He goes
text to 9-1-1 today, you’ll receive a ‘bounce 1 program are currently planning to upgrade
through a complete
back’ message indicating texting is not Oregon’s 9-1-1 infrastructure. When text to
available and asking you to make a voice call 9-1-1 becomes available in Oregon, it will be
metamorphosis into a
to 9-1-1.
on a statewide basis.
small flying glowless
Emergency
communications
For now, remember: It’s Voice First,
beetle, somewhat torpedo
professionals recognize that the ability to text in Oregon.
Texting to 9-1-1
NOW RECRUITING
current EMTs and
EMT students for volunteer
positions in Vernonia
shaped, with large fan-like
antennae for detecting the alluring
pheromones of the female. But as
a male, once he finds the female,
he mates. It isn’t clear that he ever
feeds on anything as an adult. Just
searches, flies, mates, and dies.
Like the scorpion above, the
glowworms need an insect rich
environment for their food.
They love millipedes, which
themselves make their living in a
decaying, biologically abundant space.
The larvae and the adult females both
prey on millipedes by first climbing
their back eating the millipede’s head
from behind. Then they inject enzymes
that liquefy the hapless millipede’s flesh
and which they then suck out through
hollow mandibles, one segment at a time
working toward the tail. All that is left at
the end is the sucked out, disconnected
millipede rings. The larvae burrow, the
adult females, not so much. Look for the
glow in the spring, summer, and early
fall after rain before first light. I have
seen them quite a few times and I get
calls periodically about them.
Plant an extra row for the food bank,
senior center, or community meals
programs. Cash donations to buy food
are also greatly appreciated.
The Extension Service offers its
programs and materials equally to all
people.
Free newsletter
The Oregon State University
Extension office in Columbia County
publishes a monthly newsletter on
gardening and farming topics (called
County Living) written/edited by yours
truly. All you need to do is ask for it and
it will be mailed to you. Call 503 397-
3462 to be put on the list. Alternatively,
you can find it on the web at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/
columbia/ and click on newsletters.
Contact information for the Extension
office
Oregon State University Extension
Service – Columbia County
505 N. Columbia River Highway (across
from the Legacy clinic)
St. Helens, OR 97051
503-397-3462
Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu
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