[LMB] (chat) Bees! or, Life Imitates Art. Again.

[quietann]

On 7/29/06, Tracy MacShane <trix at queerscience.net> wrote:
>
>
> I'm totally with you there, and I'm happy with wild bees myself. The
> native bee in NZ is a pretty relaxed little beastie.
>
> But the more aggressive kind is not a comfortable thing to have in one's
> backyard... and smoking them out, packing them up and moving them
> elsewhere if their nest is underground would be *challenging*, to say
> the least. It would also require equipment that only a beekeeper would
> be likely to have. And normally they'll only do it if they're going to
> get a new hive out of it. :-(


I live in Massachusetts, where there was massive rainstorms and flooding in
May that seem to have decimated the bee and wasp population.  (We had 14
inches of rain in 3 days, over Mother's Day weekend, followed by several
storms over the next few weeks that dumped 4 to 6 inches each.)  There are
enough of these critters around that my garden plants got pollinated, but
it's disturbing nonetheless.

Also missing this year are dragonflies.  I have netting over my tomatoes to
keep larger critters out, and am used to going out to rescue dragonflies
from under the netting every day.  This year, I've only had one to rescue so
far.

We tend to leave these guys alone unless they are (a) in the house or
setting up a nest where they could get into the house, or (b) very
aggressive.  We had some sort of solitary ground bee 2 summers ago that was
*nasty*.  I could not get within 20 feet of their holes without getting
stung.



-- 
quietann at gmail.com

aka "The Accidental Jewess"