Treasures in Acorns
A full-grown oak tree will have thousands of acorns on it and we may wonder what happens to all of them. Besides the few that sprout into new trees a great number are eaten by birds and some by animals, all the way from mice and squirrels to deer and bears. Altogether more than 80 different creatures like this tasty food.
Besides squirrels and chipmunks, woodpeckers are perhaps the greatest stockpilers. Where these birds nest it is not uncommon to find the bark of a tree drilled with hundreds of half-inch or larger holes, with one or two acorns stuck in each one. They also do this to wooden power-line poles, from the ground up to the wires, stuffing acorns in them.
But insects eat more acorns than those that animals and birds eat. Some insects bore through the shell to get at the nut and others wait until the nut decays for their portion. The most active of these is the half-inch long acorn weevil, which attacks acorns while on the tree. It has tiny sharp teeth at the end of a long snout which it uses to cut through the tough shell. The tasty bits of food are enjoyed and it doesn’t stop until its snout is completely inside. Then it moves to another spot or two and repeats the drilling, eventually laying one egg in each hole before moving on to another nut.
Soon a larva hatches out in each hole and for several weeks feeds on the nut that surrounds it, until the acorn drops off the tree. Hitting the ground signals the larva to come out, and it immediately burrows several inches into the ground where it may remain for as much as five years. During that time it changes from larva to a mature weevil and soon flies to an overhead acorn to repeat what those before it have done for centuries of time.
But weevils are not the only insects that depend on acorns. Crack open one that’s lying on the ground and you may find a red-winged filbert worm moth inside it, or beetles, small ants, sow bugs, wireworms, tiny snails, caterpillars or other creatures that have made the empty shell, left behind by the weevil, into a comfortable temporary home.
We may not understand why so many insects are in the world, but each is a part of God’s creation and has a purpose in being here. As the opening Bible verse expresses, our ways and thoughts are not the same as the Creator’s, but we should thank Him that His ways and thoughts have been toward us in loving-kindness. He showed this so wonderfully when He died on Calvary’s cross to take away the sins of all who will call on Him and accept Him as a loving Saviour. Are you among those who have happily done this?
ML 06/03/1990