Here are five tips to have an eco-friendlier Halloween:

1. Parties: When throwing a Halloween party, make it a zero-waste party! Avoid using single-use plastics such as cups, plates and cutlery. This will significantly cut back on unnecessary waste. Use regular kitchenware or opt for biodegradable options.
2. Pumpkins: Buy your pumpkin from your local farmers’ market! When carving your pumpkins, try your hand at composting the rest of the organic matter, or put it to good use! Who doesn’t love pumpkin pie or roasted pumpkin seeds?
3. Costumes: Instead of buying new, shop at your local thrift store, borrow from a friend or make your own pieces from old clothing and textiles! Not only will this save resources, but it will also save you money as well!
4. Candy: Many of the treats that we see in the grocery stores come wrapped in large amounts of plastic packaging. However, there are many alternatives to this problem:

• • If you don’t mind spending time packaging your own candy, you can purchase your treats in bulk! Package them in small reusable jars or mini paper bags.
  • Chocolate lovers can purchase fair-trade chocolate bars.
  • Bake your own treats! Everyone loves homemade goodies, especially Halloween-themed desserts such as cookies, cupcakes and candy apples!

5. Decorations:

• • Make sure to reuse as many decorations as you can from year to year. Try not to get sucked in by new or flashy items. Besides, Halloween only happens one day out of the year!
  • Get crafty! Turn on your creativity, gather some art supplies and make your own decorations from various household or outdoor items (branches, leaves, cardboard, ribbon, tin cans, etc.)

Have a happy – and sustainable – Halloween!

Share your spook-tacular shot and use the hashtag #umSpookySeason for a chance to win a $25 gift card from the Campus Bookstore!

RULES AND REGULATIONS

This Instagram Photo Contest (#umSpookySeason) runs from 9 a.m. CST on Monday, October 21, 2019 to midnight CST on Monday, November 4, 2019 on www.instagram.com/umstudent.

To be entered to win, follow @umstudent on Instagram, post a photo or video of something spooky or Halloween related, and use the contest hashtag. PRIVATE Instagram accounts must be PUBLIC during the contest in order to qualify for entry.

Images depicting dangerous behaviour or the consumption of alcohol or illegal substances will not be eligible. All other entries posted during the contest period will be considered and one winner will be chosen. You may enter as many times as you like. The winning photo’s account owner will receive a gift card from the U of M Bookstore valued at $25.

The winning entry will be chosen by the Marketing and Communications Office and will be selected based on composition, creativity, quality and adherence to the theme. The winner will be notified by Instagram direct message and then announced publicly on the account.

Prize must be picked up from the Student Life office in UMSU University Centre during regular business hours.

Contest is open to all residents of Manitoba, and the prize must be picked up at the U of M Fort Garry campus. By tagging #umSpringDays, you are agreeing to allow the U of M to share your photo(s) on our social media accounts and on our news site, UM Today.

Your photo(s) will not be used for commercial purposes. This contest is in no way sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram, Inc.

By entering, entrants confirm they are 13+ years of age, release Instagram of responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.

And it’s real.

University of Manitoba biologist Dr. Margaret Docker in the Faculty of Science has been studying this group of ancient vertebrates for more than 30 years. When asked why she is attracted to such a creature, she says, “Well, I’ve always been a bit of an apologist for the underdog.”

But this creature is not a dog. It’s the silver lamprey, one of three species of the fish that are native to Manitoba. It’s a vicious parasite, feeding on the blood of fish such as pike and sturgeon that are sometimes caught with scars of a lamprey’s feast, or even with one still attached by its numerous rows of razor-sharp teeth.

“Anglers in Manitoba are probably familiar with them, especially in the Winnipeg River system,” Docker says. “But they are not really a problem species here, since they take a relatively small amount of blood from large fish.”

“If I had a choice between being eaten outright by a walleye or having my blood sucked by a lamprey, I’d choose the lamprey,” Dr. Margaret Docker advises.

Another species, the sea lamprey, however, is a serious problem in the Great Lakes, where commercial fisheries have been working with both American and Canadian governments on a sea lamprey control program that is that largest vertebrate pest control program in North America. Barrier control dams have been built to prevent mature lampreys from entering streams to spawn, and lampricides have been created that selectively kill lamprey larvae in the streams.

Lampreys and another group of jawless fish appropriately known as hagfishes are very ancient, taxonomically speaking. They diverged from other vertebrates about 500 million years ago and are considered to be what our vertebrate ancestors looked like early in evolution.

In Manitoba, however, lampreys are less of an issue, despite their appearance and characteristics. The silver lamprey in Manitoba grows to about 30 centimetres in length. Its business end features many teeth; in fact, its tongue has teeth, too. Its saliva has anticoagulant and immunosuppressant chemicals, as well as anaesthetic properties so that a victim may not know a lamprey is attached.

“They are very efficient blood feeders,” says Docker. “They are a very low risk to people because they generally don’t attach to humans. It takes a while for them to really latch on, but we’ve heard of cases of long distance swimmers in the Great Lakes having issues with them.”

Margaret Docker receiving a “kiss” from a lamprey.

Docker’s research at the University of Manitoba is about pest management of the sea lamprey in the Great Lakes and conservation of the native species.

Docker notes: “The three species in Manitoba are benign and not really a problem. They have co-evolved with other fish here. They’re not all bad.”

“But ‘know thine enemy,’” she advises.

And yes, Docker admits that “knowing” lampreys involves a certain ritual for lamprey biologists: a lamprey’s kiss.

She’s done it, and her grad students have done it.

“If I had a choice between being eaten outright by a walleye or having my blood sucked by a lamprey, I’d choose the lamprey,” she advises.

But it’s not for the squeamish.

Salmon with sea lamprey injury. // Credit: Ted Lawrence.

In no particular order, these places have the ability to send shivers down your spine:

1. Archives and Special Collections (1)

Eileen Sykes’ Ouija Board

The Eileen Sykes Fonds includes a well-used Ouija board. Sykes herself experimented at séances, sometimes using an Ouija Board, intermittently from 1946 to 1986, and she kept detailed notes on her experiences. And, as part of the collection of her materials donated to the Archives, her own well-used Ouija Board is squirrelled away for safe keeping.

2. Archives and Special Collections (2)

Also in archives is the T.G. Hamilton Fonds, a large collection of manuscripts, correspondence and photographs of spiritual apparitions. Who knows what other enchanted items may be stored away?

3. The Tunnels

There is that dimly lit tunnel between Elizabeth Dafoe Library and Duff Roblin. Even the bravest student has been frightened in the tunnel between Frank Kennedy and Architecture 2 thanks to the groaning heating and cooling pipes (if you were in a Final Destination movie, something gruesome would surely happen in that tunnel).

4. The Dentistry Museum

Artifacts at the dentistry museum

Most people dread going to the dentist, but imagine what a visit would have been like without the comforts of modern medicine. The College of Dentistry has a collection of frightening tools and equipment used by dentists in days past. After all, what’s scarier than going to the dentist?

5. The Gritty Grotto

It was spooky when it was open. Can you imagine what that abandoned dungeon looks like now?

6. The Art Barn

Some students and staff claim to have seen the ghostly apparition of a former art professor, sitting quietly before a large canvas in an unoccupied room.

7. Delta Marsh Station

On the shores of Lake Manitoba, the ghost at this former research station even has a name: Murray. Many students and staff have claimed to have experienced odd phenomena there, such as hearing chains rattling, windows and doors opening and closing of their own accord, and lights appearing in buildings that are unoccupied. Murray is said to have been a former caretaker of the station, whose ghost still maintains a watch on the premises, though whether Murray has moved on since the station was closed is unknown.

8. ARTlab

On the site where ARTlab now stands, Alumni House, the former “Practices House” of the Faculty of Home Economics, had a reputation of haunting. Staff there claimed to have heard footsteps on old wooden staircases when the building was otherwise empty, and “cold spots” had been reported moving about the upper floors.

9. Ed Leith Cretaceous Menagerie

What’s scarier that gigantic prehistoric creatures? These massive monsters located in the Wallace Building are sure to frighten and fascinate. Stop by and take a look around!

10. More Hauntings

Other buildings where eerie events have been claimed include Human Ecology, Chancellor’s Hall, Taché Hall and the Fitzgerald Building.

“We have a very unique collection that chronicles historic scientific research into paranormal phenomena,” says Shelley Sweeney, head, archives & special collections of the University of Manitoba Libraries. She is referring to the Dr. T.G. Hamilton Fonds, a large collection of manuscripts, correspondence and photographs of spiritual apparitions.

In 1915, Hamilton was president of the Manitoba Medical Association and was elected a member of the provincial legislature. In 1918, soon after his young son’s death, he began to experiment with psychic phenomena. His aim was the scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena such as rappings, psychokinesis, ectoplasms, and materializations under scientific conditions that would minimize any possibility of error. Between 1926 and 1935 he presented 86 lectures and wrote numerous articles published in Canada and abroad. Hamilton’s wife Lillian carried on his paranormal experimentations following his death in 1935.

All positive prints taken from the photographic negatives have been retained with the written records of the experiments which they illustrate. Almost all the glass plate negatives were photographed for archival purposes, and the black and white glossy print collection is also available for researchers today. Much of the material has now been made available online at the archives website.

University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections - Hamilton Family fonds (PC 12, A.79-41)

In addition, the archive contains 22 other collections of material related to psychic and other controversial phenomena. The collections and books were chosen for the value of their information about matters of the occult and paranormal, regardless of the “reality” of the phenomena. Some collections have direct and immediately apparent relevance while others are connected peripherally to psychical research and spiritualism. Also included are links to photograph collections in this area of study.

For example, books and other documents collected by noted Canadian architect Bernard Rasch are preserved here as well. A notable donor to The Winnipeg Foundation, Rasch collected books and other materials on UFO sightings, paranormal phenomena and occult societies. He donated his collection to the University of Manitoba in 2004.

Another notable collection is that of Robert Beamish, a noted Manitoba heart surgeon and physician who taught in the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine, established the department of cardiology at the Manitoba Clinic, was the Founding Director of the Manitoba Heart Foundation and the founding editor of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. He was awarded honourary degrees from Brandon University in 1988 and the University of Manitoba in 1989. He received the Order of Canada in 1990 and the Order of Manitoba in 2000. Beyond his medical research, Beamish had a strong interest in psychical phenomena, and his personal papers included almost 30 years of notes on paranormal issues.

Beyond the archives’ documentation of historical studies regarding paranormal research, there are also some “less tangible” aspects of the paranormal on campus. Some buildings at the University of Manitoba, like many throughout the province, have been said to have “reputations,” and people have claimed to have had paranormal experiences in them.

On the site where ArtLab now stands, Alumni House, the former “Practice House” of the Faculty of Home Economics, had a reputation of haunting. Staff there claimed to have heard footsteps on old wooden staircases when the building was otherwise empty, and “cold spots” had been reported moving about the upper floors.

In the Art Barn, some students and staff claim to have seen the ghostly apparition of a former art professor, sitting quietly before a large canvas in an unoccupied room.

Other buildings where eerie events have been claimed include the Faculty of Human Ecology, Chancellor’s Lodge, Taché Residence and the FitzGerald Building.

But perhaps the best-known ghost at the University of Manitoba wasn’t even in Winnipeg, but at the Delta Marsh Field Station on the shore of Lake Manitoba. It even has a name: Murray.

Many students and staff have claimed to have experienced odd phenomena there, such as hearing chains rattling, windows and doors opening and closing of their own accord, and lights appearing in buildings that are unoccupied. Murray is said to have been a former caretaker of the Station, whose ghost still maintains a watch on the premises, though whether Murray has moved on since the Station was closed is unknown.

So, as we approach Hallowe’en, the University of Manitoba continues to demonstrate it is a source for information – and speculation – not only about what is known, but what is unknown.