Jackie Davis

What is the status of purple loosestrife and zebra mussels? We don’t hear about them nearly as much anymore. Does that mean we “solved” them? Or that the environment has somehow just gotten used to them?—Lillian Valence, Huntsville, Ont. Sadly, neither. Both invasives remain ongoing problems in the province, says Lauren Rogers of the Invasive Species Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. They’ve both been here for a long time.

A year ago, we had a crib dock installed at our cottage. Our installer suggested that we consider sealing the horizontal surface with a preservative. Is that a good idea? And how often should it be done?—Jeff Moore, West Nipissing, Ont. Assuming that the dock is made of pressure-treated lumber (most crib docks are), “there’s no need to apply a wood preservative to the surface after installation,” says Jana Proctor of Timber Specialties in Campbellville, Ont.

In late spring, we had hundreds of these float by our cottage dock. They look like some kind of shell that something has hatched from. We have never seen them before in all our years here at the cottage. What the heck are they?—Don Judson, Stony Lake, Ont. Those are the shed “skins” (exoskeletons) of mayflies, specifically burrowing mayflies, says Wynne Reichheld, a biological sciences MSc student at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. “All mayflies start their lives in the water,” they explain.