For my second community based learning service project, I decided to go to Pony Pasture to pick up trash. Unfortunately for my mission, fortunately for Pony Pasture, there was little trash to be found. This was not due to a lack of visitors; I passed many people and dogs on the trails enjoying the beautiful spring weather, though I know the park draws much larger crowds on summer weekends. I attributed the lack of litter to people’s appreciation for the beauty of the area. Either visitors to the park are not littering out of respect for and pride of the area or other volunteers are doing a great job of keeping the area clean. I was happy to do my small part to keep the park looking nice.
While I was searching the labyrinth of trails deep into the woods, the myriad of inchworms struck me more than the little trash I found. I caught myself standing in the same place on the path for minutes, mesmerized by the miniature critters doing backbends on their invisible trapezes. The sunlight highlighted their threads every so often, revealing the trick to their magical dance. I have been thinking about the inchworms a lot recently. I have been caught doing a bit of a bizarre dance myself in attempts of avoiding walking into them on paths around campus. I have found them all over my clothes, in my hair, under my chin, and even read about them in facebook statuses. I decided to do a little research as to why there are so many inchworms this year. I originally thought that there are more now this spring because they had an easier time surviving the mild winter. According to an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch (http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/apr/03/6/tdmain01-inchworm-infestation-returns-ar-1813814/) the mild winter didn’t cause the increase in numbers, but it did make the inchworms, or cankerworms as they are also called, come out several weeks earlier than usual. Richmond experiences a natural boom in inchworm population every 10 to 20 years for unknown reasons. Not everyone was excited about the inchworms as I was on my walk around Pony Pasture, though. Many area residents are begging for extension agents in Hanover and Chesterfield counties to eradicate the harmless creatures. Luckily for them, the inchworms will disappear into the ground again in a few weeks. For those of us who are fascinated by the inchworms’ odd ritual dance, we have next spring to look forward to.