We learn in different ways and these apps appeal to the type of learner who learns by doing – or a kinesthetic learner. Instead of reading or listening to facts, you LIVE the facts!

In most of these apps, you move through a world by tapping or dragging your finger. Often you can play these games without the ability to read, making them appealing to younger children.

Here are my kids’ favorite apps of this type:

• BeBee the Bee - This was my son’s favorite app of ALL the apps we tested. You are Bebee flying around gathering pollen and nectar. When you see a flower, you tap above it and pollinate the flower. You also have to avoid obstacles such as other bees, thorns and dragonflies. My son was already familiar with the concept of pollination so I don’t know if he really learned a lot by playing this game, but he kept asking to play it because he enjoys games where he moves through a world gathering points. My daughter enjoyed this game as well. There is a free version of this app and you can unlock more levels for $1.99 or $2.99.

BeBee the Bee app

• Great Migrations HD – In this app, you learn about migrations of species such as monarchs, salmon, zebras and red crabs. You start with monarchs. One somewhat humorous aspect of this app is that if you have your sound on, the whole time it is playing some very dramatic scary music, like you might hear at the most dramatic moment of a movie. While migrations are definitely dramatic, that gets tiring and in fact, at one point, Nora got so stressed when her monarchs started to die that she said, “I just can’t do this!” I suggested we turn off the sound and then she enjoyed the game very much. She would take the role of the lead monarch, and she would experiment with the wind patterns, predators such as spiders and other obstacles to move her monarch friends to safety. She really enjoyed this game. This app costs $0.99.

Great Migrations app

• Isopod: The Roly Poly Science Game  – You are a “roly poly,” one of those tiny bugs that rolls into a ball when threatened. To play, you hold your iPad in two hands and slowly manipulate it back and forth as if the roly poly was a marble on the surface of the iPad, and you were trying to roll it back and forth. You have goals to bump into some types of insects to win, and avoid others to lose. The insects in the game are realistically drawn and their real Latin names are given. The predator/prey relationships are shown, although some insects have special powers like giving you more health. I found this game exciting because I don’t normally use an iPad this way, and it took practice. My son liked it more than my daughter. Both my kids love bugs, but it would not be a good choice if you are scared of spiders or find it creepy to listen to them chomping on insects. This app costs $1.99.

Isopod: The Roly Poly Science Game app

• Pocket Frogs – This was my daughter’s favorite app of all the ones we tested. It took us a minute to figure this out, but then she was collecting frogs, breeding them and making eggs in her frog nursery. She was completely excited about learning about frogs and managing her froggy world. The sound that the frogs make when they hop around in the pond is completely adorable, and this is coming from a parent who listened to it for a very long time. As Nora got more advanced with the game, she was strategizing which frogs to breed to create the cutest frog possible. This is a free app.

Pocket Frogs app

• Wild Kratts Creature Power – My son is a huge Wild Kratts fan. A few years ago, he became so interested that he and his dad designed costumes like the ones in this show out of cardboard and ribbon, so he could be a cheetah and have super powers. So I was quite sure the app would be a huge hit for him. Sure enough, he loved it. Even though it is not designed for iPad yet, we downloaded it to the iPad and it just didn’t fill the screen. But that didn’t stop Russell. By putting on his creature power suits, he could live like a bee, raccoon and elephant. This app costs $2.99.

Wild Kratts Creatures App – Bee

One feature he loved was that I could take his photo with the iPad and his face would be put into a graphic so it looked like he was wearing one of the power suits.

Wild Kratts Creatures App – My son’s face with the bee body

Which Wildlife and Nature Apps Does Your Family Enjoy?

We’d love to hear about your experiences with these apps or others. Of course nothing connects children with nature and wildlife more than time outside, so be sure to balance your screen time and green time today.

Also, I want to put in a plug for National Wildlife Federation’s award-winning kids’ magazines, because my kids love them. When you subscribe to our magazines, it helps National Wildlife Federation continue our work of engaging children to care about nature! Subscribe to Ranger Rick and Ranger Rick Jr. magazines today!

And be sure to check out National Wildlife Federation’s animal and nature apps for kids!

Photo by Flickr member treegoat

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Music of Nature’s Website

Here are a few resources that I’ve found myself using–but please, if you know of others, share them in the comments!

Bird Songs

• eNature has a section on the site called “Bird Audio” that allows you to select different calls to play. They also offer various free bird call ring tones. Once you’ve studied all these it may be fun to take their bird call quiz… I’m too chicken (ha!).
• Birdjam not only offers up free songs to listen to, but also has playlists for certain habitats, as well as apps you can download for a small fee. I love the idea of bird call playlists by habitat!
• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers free bird call noises and downloads with an exchange of an email address. They are always sending helpful information, so it’s a worthy trade.

for wildlife?

Frog Calls

These suckers are a little tricky to track down. I’ve found it useful to search your area for “frog calls” based on state or region and not just the generic search. This works with bird calls too… Also—if you’re already interested in frog calls and identification, I highly recommend getting involved with Frog Call USA (if you’re in the U.S., that is).

• Cleveland Museum of Natural History has Ohio’s frogs and toads
• U.S. Geological Survey’s Midwest Region has downloadable calls
• The Western Soundscape Archive has one of the most comprehensive lists of amphibians.
• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology also has an impressive amphibian downloadable list for what it’s worth.
• I heavily rely on Virginia Herpetological Society’s amazing website for ID/calls so finding your local chapter may be the way to go!

Insects Noises

• Music of Nature – Master species insect list. (Hat tip to About Insects for reminding me of this.)
• Nature Songs has a few of the generic songs.
• Bug bytes by the USDA would be a bit of a better resource if it was more user friendly.

While I haven’t tried a “frog call channel” on Pandora, I will say there are a few albums of nature sounds on Spotify if you look hard enough. A few of the compilations worth searching for on Spotify are:

• “Sounds of North American Frogs” (keeping in mind this collection came together in 1958 so the scientific names are sadly incorrect in a few cases)
• “Wild Tones Bird Calls”
• “Song birds: Parks and Gardens” – or another variation 

I have been unable to locate insects songs on Spotify, but hopefully some will be available soon. I’ve also been silly and made animal playlists by themes (one of my favorites is “Reptiles and Amphibians”) with songs that include a species in their title.

Do you listen to wildlife sounds? What sites do you use?

Damselfly—thin body, eyes set apart, wings held together while perching

Impromptu Exploration

“Why would someone leave their trash here?” my 7-year-old asked when we arrived, pointing to a plastic container in the water. We fished it out but decided quickly that the litter had a higher purpose: It was a tool for parent and child explorers.

My son was the designated scooper, repeatedly gathering cupfuls of water. Those that included aquatic critters left him gleeful. The tadpoles eluded us (too swift!), but we enjoyed close-up views of water striders and other wee creatures in our hour spent observing. One so fascinated us that we took it home to ID it: a damselfly nymph, according to the books and websites we referenced.

After returning the nymph to the stream to complete the aquatic portion of its life cycle, we paused to admire the adult damselflies and dragonflies as they perched and flew by, and we talked about the differences between them. We also promised each other we’d be back to explore another day—our hideout in plain view. The location isn’t safeguarded, but our memories are.

What’s the Difference? Damselflies vs. Dragonflies

Dragonfly—stout body, eyes close together, wings open while perching

Fictional dragons are large compared to their fair maiden, or damsel, counterparts—and the same goes for these close cousins of the insect world.

• Damselflies usually have thin bodies, while dragonflies tend to be stouter.

• When perching, damselflies hold their wings together or partially spread, while dragonflies typically rest with their wings open.

• Among the other differences: Dragonfly eyes meet at or near the top of the head, while damselfly eyes are set apart.

We regularly see both types of odonates when we’re out and about. Do they visit your neighborhood too? I hope so. They’re lovely to behold.

Find out how to attract these aerial acrobats to your garden.

Photo of Baltimore Oriole by Hagit Berkovich

Unfortunately, my plants can’t recover so quickly from an insect invasion. Fortunately, here are four birds that you can attract to your backyard to keep bugs at bay naturally.

Purple Martin: Attracting these mosquito-eating members of the swallow family can be as simple as providing a bird box. In the Eastern United States, purple martins nest almost exclusively in nest boxes, while west of the Rockies they often nest in tree cavities and building crevices.

House Wren: These birds range throughout most of the lower 48 states during parts of the year. House wrens aren’t picky about nesting sites and may nest in nest boxes, building crevices or even mailboxes. Include low-lying shrubs (such as American beautyberry) or brush piles in your yard for cover, nesting materials and food to attract them.

Photo of Common Nighthawk by Brian Meyer

Baltimore Oriole: These songbirds range from the central Midwest to the Northeast and nest in hanging pouches in deciduous trees. Because they eat fruit and nectar in addition to insects, you can attract them by planting blackberry, serviceberry and cherry for food, as well as elm, sycamore, tupelo and other shade trees as nesting spots.

When you go above and beyond for the birds in your neighborhood, they’ll thank you by providing free pest control and even a beautiful song or two.

Plus, when you certify your yard as an official Certified Wildlife Habitat® site, National Wildlife Federation will thank you with additional benefits.

Today National Wildlife Federation had our first appearance on the Dr. Oz Show.  

The show theme was “surviving summer” and as NWF Naturalist I joined Dr. Oz’s “Dream Team” to give viewers some tips on enjoying the great outdoors this summer while avoiding getting bitten or stung by some of the insects and other critters that sometimes “bug” us.

Specifically, we talked about bees, wasps, mosquitoes and ticks.  If you missed it, here’s a run-down of what I talked about in the segment.

Keep Perspective
The first thing is to put things in perspective. You have far more to worry about healthwise from constantly cooping your family up indoors and being sedentary, or from spraying toxic chemicals everywhere, than you ever would from the potential of being stung or bitten by insects or ticks.

Remember, these are important animals.  Bees, some wasps and to a degree mosquitoes are important pollinators–two thirds of all the food we eat is the result of  animal pollinators (mostly bees); so no insects means no food.

Photo by Lou Gold via Flickr Creative Commons.

One more bit of perspective: there are over 4,000 bee species in North America (the honey bee is an import from Europe), the majority of which are solitary and don’t sting, and all of which pollinate wild plants that other wildlife rely on for food.

Remember this next time you are tempted to squash or spray a bee when you’re outside.

Avoiding Stings
Now, for the tips on avoiding getting stung by bees and wasps.  It’s literally about just staying out of their way.   The best way to ensure getting stung by a bee or wasp is to swat at it.  These animals don’t want to sting you. Bees die when they sting. If you threaten them, however, they are sure to sting you.  If you leave them along, they won’t.  It’s pretty simple.

Bee and coneflower

Many wasp species are omnivorous and will try to snatch a bite of your food if you’re eating outside, so simply cover your food until it’s time to eat to minimize this.

Avoiding Mosquito Bites
In terms of avoiding mosquito bites, first and foremost you want to eliminate standing stagnant water, where the insects lay their eggs and which they use as a nursery for their aquatic larvae. Some mosquito species can breed in as little as an inch of water, so check your yard thoroughly. Drainage dishes under flower pots, toys and play equipment, debris piles, and the biggie, clogged gutters that hold standing water, should all be thoroughly drained.

Mosquito larvae take five to seven days to complete metamorphosis into winged adults, so empty birdbaths every few days and fill with fresh water (something you should do anyway so the birds have clean water) and if you have a water garden, use a pump to keep the water surface moving and it will minimize any mosquito breeding.

See this guy? He actually doesn't mind global warming all that much. ( flickr | smccann )

If you choose to use repellants, formulas with up to 30% DEET have been shown to be effective, just don’t get it in your eyes or mouth and wash it off when you go indoors.  If you don’t like the idea of chemicals, go for a natural repellant with lemon eucalyptus, which is also effective if you apply it frequently.

Mosquitoes are weak flyers, so use fans if you’re eating outdoors and blow the buggers away.  And never use a bug zapper.  Traditional zappers use light to attract insects, and mosquitoes are attracted primarily by the chemical and moisture trails exuded by  their victims–not light.  Bug zappers typically kill non-target insects.

Avoiding Ticks
Of all the animals featured on the Dr. Oz Show segment, ticks are probably the one you need to worry most about, simply because they can and do transmit diseases such as Lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever to people.

The first thing is to avoid these tiny arachnids (ticks aren’t insects but are related to spiders).  If you live a tick-heavy area, avoid walking through tall, grassy vegetation.  Ticks wait at the tops of plant stems and latch on to hosts as they walk by (they don’t drop out of trees).  Wear long sleeves and tuck your pants into your shoes.  Again, DEET-based sprays can be effective repellents.

Most importantly, make it a habit to regular check for ticks after you or your kids have been outside.  Teach your kids to check themselves.  Some species are very tiny so be thorough.

If you find a tick, remove it immediately. NEVER douse it with vaseline or alcohol and don’t try to burn it off.  These methods will kill the tick but also cause it to regurgitate into the open wound, making it more likely to spread disease.

Instead, simply pluck the tick out with tweezers or just your fingers, and then burn it.  Don’t worry if the head breaks off, it won’t burrow further into your flesh or grow a new tick, contrary to urban legend.  Just disinfect the bite and monitor it.  If the bite gets irritated, and especially if a red bulls-eye rash appears, go immediately to a doctor.

Most tick born illnesses are easily treated if they are caught early.

Watch Exclusive Video
Make sure to check out this web-exclusive video called “Don’t Bug Out” that I did for the Dr. Oz Show website to learn about a few other insects and spiders we didn’t have time to talk about on the show.

]]> http://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/nwf-on-dr-oz-shows-dream-team/feed/ 1 http://blog.nwf.org/2011/02/stink-bugs-stink-bugs-everywhere/ http://blog.nwf.org/2011/02/stink-bugs-stink-bugs-everywhere/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:46:48 +0000 Danielle Brigida http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/?p=14017 Read more >]]>

This stink bug landed on me as I was writing this post.

The name says it all. Stink bugs.

Some stink bugs species are native to North America and their populations are kept in check by their natural predators.   That’s no big deal.  But, the brown-marmorated stink bug is a recent invader, having first been discovered in eastern Pennsylvania in the late 1990’s, and it is a big deal!

Native to China, Japan and surrounding countries, some brown marmorated stink bugs somehow hitched a ride to the U.S.  Absent their native predators, the brown marmorated stink bug population is exploding, and its range rapidly spreading across the country.

Now, these true bugs are not only adding odor to our lives, but are infesting households in shocking numbers.

National Wildlife Federation’s very own Doug Inkley has been observing the issue and is concerned that we’re only going to see more invasive species thriving with large populations.

The stink bugs in particular are hard to eradicate because of their tendency to live in the walls.

Pesticides and Stink Bugs

Doug discourages the use of pesticides when treating a stink bug problem for two main reasons:

1. Stink bugs live indoors, where pesticide use is not only harmful to their health, but also to the humans and pets of the house.
2. It is very difficult to get a dose of pesticide on them because they hide deep within walls.

The Best Way to Remove Stink Bugs

Doug's stink bug infestation

The best way to treat stink bugs is to keep them out of the house in the first place. Find out where they are coming from and block any entryway they use. Be prepared to do a lot of caulking.

Inkley had to go to extreme measures, spending $10,000 to replace all the windows in his home, which were old. The stink bugs were somehow finding their way around the window frames.

Once they do get into the walls, it is even more challenging. In his own household, Doug has “been literally removing indoor window molding, pulling out baseboard heaters and tearing out floor molding to remove these buggers and block up their entryways.”

“This weekend I vacuumed up more than 8,000 stink bugs in my attic, to add to the now more than 4,000 I’ve removed from my living space since the beginning of January,” he said.

“My battle is far from over as Sunday afternoon after all the work to get rid of them, another 100 found their way into my first floor living space. I think it is far more than a nuisance.”

Doug’s suggestion is to vacuum up the stink bugs and take note of where they enter or where you find concentrated numbers. From there you can hopefully discern where they are coming from.

Home and Garden Invaders

The invasion of our living spaces isn’t the only problem these bugs pose.

According to Doug, “This invasive species is a serious threat to crops.” Even in his own garden, the tomatoes last year rotted on the vine because the stink bugs pierced the ripening tomatoes to feed on plant juices, which allowed bacteria to get in and cause the rotting.

The sad part of all this is that it could have been avoided. Inkley says that “As a nation, we are doing a terrible job at keeping potentially harmful non-native species from entering the United States, and it’s costing us billions. Pythons are taking over the Everglades, Asian carp are threatening the Great Lakes, zebra mussels have already invaded the Great Lakes where they are causing numerous problems, red fire ants from South American now run wild in the southeastern U.S., and the list goes on and on.”

Inkley says we need better control at our borders because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Watch Doug being interviewed by 9 News Now >>

Related Links

• More about invasive species
• More on stink bugs from the University of Florida
• National Wildlife Federation’s Work to Stop Invasive Species
• “They Came From Climate Change” – a National Wildlife Federation horror flick about invasive species

I had done a bad job of staying in touch with her in recent years, and I don’t have any especially good reasons for that other than work and smothering adulthood. Neither is an acceptable excuse for not visiting or picking up the phone once in a while. I should have made the time. Honestly, I became a pretty bad grandson.

I know that sounds grim. But I’m writing this under the Wildlife Promise banner because of the few conversations we did have in recent years—in fact, because of the last conversation I had with her when I visited this past weekend.

Over the years, as we drifted apart and Grandma’s cognitive sharpness faded, she started to say pretty much the same thing every time I called for a milestone birthday or other special occasion. It went something like this:

“I’ll always remember you out in the dirt, playing with the bugs.”

Almost verbatim, that was the main thing. The conversations grew shorter and shorter, to the point that that single sentence was often the only thing of substance she said other than ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye.’ Over time, it became the main thing that she remembered about me, and eventually the main thing that I remembered about my time with her.

Maybe that was by design, how she preferred to see me in her mind’s eye: not as the somewhat sullen young adult who had proven notoriously bad at sticking to routine phone calls, but as the little kid who spent a big part of every visit trying to (temporarily) capture grasshoppers and ladybugs in the lot behind her plain apartment building near Reading, PA. This memory became doubly important when she was no longer able to spend time outdoors herself. She missed that most of all.

(Grandma also had cable TV, and I’ll admit that was a pretty big draw on its own. It gave me a chance to watch documentaries about sharks and snakes whenever I visited…and I never once had to futz around with rabbit ears.)

I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but it’s clear now that my ‘being out there’ brought Grandma a lot of joy—at least as much as it brought me. I think she knew how important it was, even then, a bit before the ‘indoor childhood’ epoch. (Grandparents are wise like that.)

I’m glad she pictured me that way as she grew older, on my knees with nature instead of sitting in front of a computer all day. It made her happy.

In Grandma’s honor, I think I’ll look for some good bugs when it gets a little warmer outside (beaucoup stink bugs to come, I hear). I’d ask that you do the same, and encourage a kid you know to do it too. Just be sure to catch and release.

Visit our outdoor activities page for more ideas.

Ready for its close-up, this praying mantis looms large over a group of blissfully unaware humans in the background. 17-year-old Kevin Skrzynski noticed the insect while on vacation in Connecticut. The mantis sat on Skrzynski's shoulder for several minutes, allowing the photographer to get face-to-face. And what a face!

Each week, National Wildlife editors select one image of North American wildlife to share on the blog. To see more wildlife photos and to share your own, visit the PhotoZone Facebook page.