WHERE ARE THE BEES?

[pmcgrady]

I'm going to load up some 12ga...loaded with wild flower seed, cabbage, beet, turnip seed and shoot them off.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I might as well post this here as some place else.
It is a common mistake made by many people.
The paper wasp that looks black and yellow is not a yellow jacket.
Yellow jackets live underground.
These are a type of wasp.
What I have been doing lately is keeping an eye on things I need to use like ladders and such and making sure they dont build a nest there.
If I have them in the garden making a nest I let them do it.
This goes for all wasps.
Knowing how to act around them will keep you from being stung.
Last year I had a red wasp nest in my cucumbers and never got stung.
If one got in my face I would just look back at it and it would move on.
They are just curious about you.
Why am I saying this it is because they pollinate and also eat caterpillars that eat your garden.

For me they do more good than harm and it is time people realized this.
Now if you are going to fall over dead because of an allergic reaction to the sting that is different.

Worth

They also use spiders to pack their larvae chamber to feed the larvae while they grow. The spiders aren't dead just paralyzed. They are fabulous spider control. I have watched a wasp "bother" a spider web getting it to come investigate the "vibrations" and grab and sting the spider taking it back to the nest.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

They also use spiders to pack their larvae chamber to feed the larvae while they grow. The spiders aren't dead just paralyzed. They are fabulous spider control. I have watched a wasp "bother" a spider web getting it to come investigate the "vibrations" and grab and sting the spider taking it back to the nest.

Carolyn they have down here and in other places solitary wasps called cicada hawks and tarantula hawks.
One looks like a huge yellow jacket and the other like a huge red wasp.
And I mean huge.
stingers like 3/4 of and inch long.
I have seen the both drag off cicadas and tarantulas.
Cicada hawk.

Tarantula Hawk.

[AlittleSalt]

Can't wasps do the same thing as bees?

[clkeiper]

I read about those, Worth. We don't have wasps that big up here... But I do know everything is bigger in Tx... I saw those red wasps when I was down there a long time ago... uh no thanks! snakes? same thing (although those indigo snakes were acceptable that I saw down there).. no thanks, we have itty bitty blue racers, rat and garter snakes. Mostly you run across the garter snakes.

But back to the original thread... I did get all three of my hives through the Winter this year. yipee!

[PhilaGardener]

Congratulations on getting your hives through the winter! I hope others are as fortunate.

We have the Cicada Wasps here in SE PA. They dig solitary burrows and in places patrol the lawns in swarms. Glad they seem very selective in their prey, and despite their menacing appearance I don't know anyone who has been stung by one.

[Gardeneer]

When you have things like lavender, clover, .. probably honey bees are not going to pay attention to tomato flowers. But they like tomatillo That is just my observation.

Gardeneer

[loudog]

I'm in west central Ohio and we have the very large cicada killer wasps here too.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Can't wasps do the same thing as bees?

What do you mean? pollinate or insect control? bees make honey, (enough for us to harvest) which no other insects do.
bees pollinate profusely, which I don't think you can depend on wasps to do.
Bees pollinate in order to gather pollen for their hives. they use the pollen to feed the larvae as they develop. wasps use spiders and maybe other protein sources ( I don't know). bees gather the polen in little "baskets" on their legs. they continually groom as they are gathering because they are covered in little hairs which trap the pollen. They push the pollen into the little "hair" baskets on their legs and take it back to the hive. Wasps are pretty much smooth and hairless.
Wasps feed on nectar inadvertently pollinating other flowers..
bees gather the nectar in order to make it into honey.

if this isn't the information you are asking ask again... maybe I am not interpreting your question correctly.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Can't wasps do the same thing as bees?

Originally Posted by clkeiper

What do you mean? pollinate or insect control? bees make honey, (enough for us to harvest) which no other insects do.
bees pollinate profusely, which I don't think you can depend on wasps to do.
Bees pollinate in order to gather pollen for their hives. they use the pollen to feed the larvae as they develop. wasps use spiders and maybe other protein sources ( I don't know). bees gather the polen in little "baskets" on their legs. they continually groom as they are gathering because they are covered in little hairs which trap the pollen. They push the pollen into the little "hair" baskets on their legs and take it back to the hive. Wasps are pretty much smooth and hairless.
Wasps feed on nectar inadvertently pollinating other flowers..
bees gather the nectar in order to make it into honey.

if this isn't the information you are asking ask again... maybe I am not interpreting your question correctly.

I am going to quote both of you all and answer both at the same time due to my observations in the garden.

No wasps cant do the same thing as bees.
What they do do is constantly patrolling my garden plants looking for caterpillars and other things.
I dont want them to get my spiders but they dont seem to be killing them off.

What I do have in my garden is bumble bees.
These are native to the USA honey bees wee brought over.
I also have honey bees but they seem to choose other flowing plants over the stuff I need pollinated.
If one of those plants is blooming at the same time as my cucumbers you can forget it they wont mess with the cucumbers.
This is why I dont plant things they like.
This way they dont have a choice but the melons and cucumbers.
They love the rosemary and crape myrtle.
This last winter I would leave the back door open and the bees would come in and patrol the tomato plants looking around and then fly back out the door.


Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Bumblebees here love our okra, summer squash, and cucumber flowers and especially the morning glories. Three of those grow tall, so there are bumblebees head high - needless to say -I leave them alone. A funny but very painful story happened with a bumblebee here once. Our neighbor's children are our children's age - all 4 are boys, and young boys living out in the woods like to pee wherever they happen to be....until a bumblebee sting happened. Yeah, OWWWCH!

The reason I ask about the wasps is about pollination basically. The little hill we live on was nicknamed yellow jacket hill. It was given that nickname around a hundred years ago. Supposedly where our garden is - is the one area where they were the worst. I don't see nearly as many yellow jackets or even paper wasps here as there used to be. There are a lot of red wasps though.

The red wasps will fly right up to you and land on you. We have lived here since 1992, and none of us have ever been stung by a red wasp. We also have a hollow tree full of European honey bees that don't bother us. They're more like pets than anything else. In winter, I leave a half full can of soft drink out for them to feed on.

[Worth1]

My dad ran a brush hog over an underground yellow jacket nest.
The tractor wouldn't go fast enough.
My dad was really strict about hot rodding, popping wheelies and driving the tractor fast for good reason, they can bounce flip and kill you.
That day I knew something was up when all rules were broken.
There was a huge cloud of them casing him across the field.

Worth

[Cole_Robbie]

They're vicious. My girlfriend mowed over a nest with a push mower last summer. She said she thought at first the mower was kicking rocks into her legs, but those were stings.

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

They're vicious. My girlfriend mowed over a nest with a push mower last summer. She said she thought at first the mower was kicking rocks into her legs, but those were stings.

yep... I accidentally parked the mower tire right on top of a yellow jacket hole... oops. I was getting stung on the legs, too, so I parked and ran as fast as I could only to go back to see that there was a nice cloud of yellow jackets all around the mower.

[brownrexx]

Originally Posted by pmcgrady

Monsanto knows we're the bees went...

I agree with you but no one forces homeowners to spray their lawns or hire lawn care companies so that they can have perfect lawns without a single weed or flower.

I prefer to have weeds, dandelions and lots of bees!