wild bee sex

I've only seen one bee (bumblebee I think) and one butterfly so far. I have tulips in full bloom, and lillies are still growing their stalks. No signs of the wildflowers yet. Mourning Doves and Goldfinches are here every day, as all larger birds. I had a vulture perched on my porch for a full morning - wish my camera worked!

The bumble bees seemed to recover but did not make it.  Sad. I drilled holes in wood for mason and other bees and there are definitely less masons than usual. Very cool spring.  This year I tried something new, instead of drilling, I poked holes in a block of wet cob. All different sizes. Nothing happened for the longest time but it looks now as if a few of the wasp mimics have moved in.  Some wasp mimics and masons are in one of the blocks of wood too.   I expect some leafcutters later on too.

Really glad that it is working.   The cob thing is a lot easier than holes in wood because you can just make the wet block, stick knitting needles and pieces of wire, and bars in of all different sizes and the bees can choose what they want.  I will be putting in weeds and grasses and vines  too if I can. I have seen tiny bees nesting in hollow old rasberry canes.  Normally, I would have cut the canes and composted them. Bye bye bees! 

On BBC news there was an article about how 3 species of bumble bee have disappeared in England.

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/quirks_20100626_34464.mp3   is  one about the bees. They did not mention bees nesting in the rasberry canes but I have seen them do it.  (They say raspberrys are a favoured flower).

I will do a video about the cob, now that I know that it works.   I think people have got hung up on mason bees.  Much of the info is about producing the perfect nest for the masons.  Lets produce nests for everything!   The good news about that is nature is variable.  You do not need the perfect 8.3 mm hole or whatever.

Just get out that drill, and "drill baby drill" anything from 2 mm to 15 mm will work and everything in between! "Drill em deep" and drill em round.

And get out your knitting needles, pieces of wire and bike spokes and start making cob bee houses and clay bee houses. Put hollow wood and weed stems in your mud pies too. If you could  make mud pies as a kid, you can do it still!

Brian

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1CwnYY64NU is the video about cob holes for the bees and about the raspberry canes as bee habitat and grape vines as bee habitat too.   Maybe some of you will join in and make trial bee habitat during the rest of the year?   Brian

On about the 1st October, it was a hot day and green bees were out in numbers. Fairly large with bright green abdomens. Lots of them were going between a crack between 2 concrete slabs. Maybe to hibernate together?  Not that many flowers left now.  It is interesting because about 10 ft away is the place where the digger bees have their biggest nesting area.  Perhaps something in the soil attracts them?  Easy to burrow or something.   It just illustrates the successional thing again for me. Different species come out depending on the time of year. And all are needed.

On a very serious note, Bayer has being caught redhanded  directing research (and researchers)  away from the clear pesticide link to colony collapse disorder.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.fortune/index.htm

A very strong case of he who pays the piper.

 

 

  I have this huge bush shrub in my yard which grows and spreads like crazy.  Not sure what is exactly, only that it's related to bamboo.  For the most part it's quite annoying as it needs constant chopping to keep it from taking over some paths.  I had been debating trying to get rid of most of it until it flowered this year.   It flowers late and is nothing special in terms of human asthetics but holy heck it's a pollinators banquet.  As I approached it one day a buzzing filled they air.  It was loud!   On closer inspection it was full of insects.  Bumblebees, commercial honeybees, wild honey bees and numerous others that I know are types of bees.  I counted over a dozen different types insects  and a few that I've never seen before.   I've never seen such a variety of flying critters on just one type of plant.  

 I won't be getting rid of it now.   

ebodyknows wrote:

ElizaQ wrote:

  I have this huge bush shrub in my yard which grows and spreads like crazy.  Not sure what is exactly, only that it's related to bamboo. 

Sounds like it could be japanese knotweed.  Great story!

 

 Ugh.  Yep that looks like what it is.  Great.  Now I get to decide between an noxious invasive vs a bee banquet plant.   Looks like it's tons of trouble to eradicate it too.  

6079_Smith_W wrote:

ElizaQ wrote:

ebodyknows wrote:

ElizaQ wrote:

  I have this huge bush shrub in my yard which grows and spreads like crazy.  Not sure what is exactly, only that it's related to bamboo. 

Sounds like it could be japanese knotweed.  Great story!

 

 Ugh.  Yep that looks like what it is.  Great.  Now I get to decide between an noxious invasive vs a bee banquet plant.   Looks like it's tons of trouble to eradicate it too.  

...or replace it with something else that they love.

 

  They love my whole property it's full of seasonal succession of wildflowers already so I guess I won't worry about it that much.  Been doing some more reading about this plant and it looks like unless I go on some sort of full on chemical warfare strategy it's not going anywhere anyways.  Especially since I avoid chemicals anyways and most if not all of the chemical that will get rid of it are now illegal.  So I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and keep it cut back.   Looks like the spring shoots are edible too so I may try snacking on it as well. 

6079_Smith_W wrote:

@ ElizaQ

THat's why I like milkweed. It pops seeds all over the place, but it is easy to control with a hoe, and I am still surprised that I managed to eradicate my sunchoke patch with just a shovel. 

I have not been so lucky with other things, like my west coast nightshade, and it took three years to control my valerian, which I am now careful to top when it goes to seed.

(edit)

and I am not sure if I said so already upthread, but it has been an okay year for bees (all over our sunflowers) but no wasps and only a handful of hornets, which is very strange.

 

This is pretty ironic.  Here you are eradicating sunchokes and controlling valerian where I'm planning a large sunchoke patch for next year and plant valerian all over the place.   :D    Did you ever eat your sunchokes?  They a great perennial veggie that is actually gaining in popularity because it easily multiplies and care for.  Just kind of does it's thing and you get food.  

ElizaQ wrote:

6079_Smith_W wrote:

@ ElizaQ

THat's why I like milkweed. It pops seeds all over the place, but it is easy to control with a hoe, and I am still surprised that I managed to eradicate my sunchoke patch with just a shovel. 

I have not been so lucky with other things, like my west coast nightshade, and it took three years to control my valerian, which I am now careful to top when it goes to seed.

(edit)

and I am not sure if I said so already upthread, but it has been an okay year for bees (all over our sunflowers) but no wasps and only a handful of hornets, which is very strange.

 

This is pretty ironic.  Here you are eradicating sunchokes and controlling valerian where I'm planning a large sunchoke patch for next year and plant valerian all over the place.   :D    Did you ever eat your sunchokes?  They a great perennial veggie that is actually gaining in popularity because it easily multiplies and care for.  Just kind of does it's thing and you get food.  

Oh yes, that's why I put it there, and I like it.

I just re-thought it because I wasn't getting enough food out of it for the space it was taking up, I found the stalks hard to compost, and it is very invasive, and was right in the middle of the best spot in my garden. Plus, I have an urban lot, so space is at a  premium.

And valerian is great, although as I am sure you know it is best against a fence because it has a tendency to blow down, and it spreads like crazy if you let it go to seed, and the roots are hell to get out.

And yes, I have a couple of patches of Joe Pye. Odd that it doesn't spread because it sure makes a lot of seed.

More about Bayer and their assault on science, bees and food production is at

http://www.businessinsider.com/colony-collapse-disorder-still-unsolved-l...

Science if pathetic sometimes.  Everything has to be proved 100% (even though that is not possible in science).  The new nicotine like insecticides were brought in just before the bees started disappearing but there is still no proof that the nerve poison that causes bees to lose their sense of direction is causing the bees to lose their sense of direction!  Even the bayer sponsered bee  expert notices "drunk" behaviour from the bees.

(Which is one characteristic of insects poisoned with this nerve poison).

Are ordinary people that stupid?  If it was a jury, wouldn't Bayer executives be sent to prison on circumstantial evidence?

Wouldn't Bayer be fined for the environmental catastrophy they are causing?    People are afraid to comment because it has not been proven?

Well guess what folks, that is the nature of science. Nothing is ever proven 100% 

Sometimes we will have to accept 90% as proof enough. and we need to act real quick.  Agriculture uses (and likes) these things because they kill insects really well. People need to get off their backsides and lobby now.

jrootham wrote:

The University of Montana and the Army have determined that there are 2 factors involved in colony collapse disorder.

The lead researcher took BAYER money. Other scientists had issues with his results but that didn't stop them putting it in the newspapers.

 They deliberately chose not to look at pesticide links.  And my link noted that the 2 "Factors" predated ccd by at least a decade.

Well, your response shows that you didn't read my link.   Victory for the propagandists.

People from percy Smeiser's organization were telling me about the new insecticide link about 3 years ago.  And the bee keeper organizations are certain about it too.  Germany and France have banned some of the insecticides after sudden catostraphic loss of bees  happened at the same time as the insecticides were introduced.   This is not brain surgery. Some beekeepers refuse to use their bees with certain blueberry farmers due to the insecticides that they use. Because when they did, the bees flew away and never came back.

You fire the gun (introduction of that insecticide), a couple of weeks later, bees fly away and never come back, and there is MYSTERY?

It is plain as day what is causing the CCD.

There is a general bee decline that has been going on for years (This is part of a decline of all insect types).  However the bees flying out and getting lost is due to the neurotoxin in the insecticide.  The company is trying to link the general decline to the new "bee getting lost" decline.  There is no link. Bees getting lost is due to  the effects of the new insecticides.

"In 2006, once thriving bee colonies across America suddenly vanished, leaving behind empty beehives. The bodies of the bees were never found. Scientists soon gave a name to the mysterious phenomenon: colony collapse disorder (CCD)

From 2006 to 2009, over one-third of beekeepers reported colonies collapsing accompanied by a “lack of dead bees," according to a survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA)."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/colony-collapse-disorder-still-unsolved-lead-researcher-had-connections-to-bayer-2010-10#ixzz12JUA67x1

 

For plant information and sources see

North American Native Plant Society

http://www.nanps.org

For local groups and local information click on

resources, then native plant societies

For seed and plant sources, click on

sources, then other sources.

Consider joining nanps.

And don't forget http://www.xerces.org

The book "Butterflies of Canada" has information on preferred food plants for species. Many libraries have it.

In general, wild strains of plants will be better nectar and pollen sources than cultivars. Flower cultivars are selected to put more energy/resources into bigger, longer-lasting, gaudier, more profuse flowers. Something has to give.

 

 

 

http://planbeecentral.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/new-dutch-study-links-imd...

"Imidacloprid is the most widely used insecticide in the world and Bayer´s best-selling pesticide (2009 sales: €606 million). The substance is often used as seed-dressing, especially for maize, sunflower and rapeseed. The beginning of the marketing of imidacloprid coincided with the occurrence of large bee deaths, first in France, later on also in many other European countries, Canada, the US and Brazil.

After huge bee mortality in Germany in 2008 which was shown to be caused by neonicotinoid pesticides the Coalition against Bayer Dangers accused the Bayer management of downplaying the risks of imidacloprid, submitting deficient studies to authorities and thereby accepting huge losses of honey bees in many parts of the world."

"Dr. Henk Tennekes on his results: “The risks of the neonicotinoid insecticides imidacloprid and thiacloprid to arthropods in water and soil may be seriously underestimated. The acceptable limits are based mainly on short-term tests. If long-term studies were to be carried out, far lower concentrations may turn out to be hazardous. This explains why minute quantities of imidacloprid may induce bee decline in the long run.” Because of their high persistence significant quantities of neonicotinoids may remain in the soil for several years. Consequently, untreated plants growing on soil previously exposed to imidacloprid may take up the substance via their roots and become hazardous for bees".

Someone from an organization linked to Percy Smeiser told me that nicotine related chemicals were killing bees about 3 years ago.

Now the proof that they knew it would kill bees but they released it anyway.   I am pretty surprised that nobody beat me to this.

I guess we really do not care about our environment.  I wonder if it is killing us too?

http://animals.change.org/blog/view/wikileaks_uncovers_government_bee_ki...

From the link below

"That's disingenuous at best. Bayer has already admitted that the misapplication of clothianidin was responsible for killing two-thirds of beekeepers' bees in the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany".  Read it again! A chemical that is applied to seeds that get put under the ground killed 2/3 of the beehives  in Baden-Württemberg in spring 2008 but Bayer is claiming that they are not killing bees in the USA.  Thats how quick. 3 months  2/3 of the bees gone from one chemical!  And thats a state that is half the size of Ireland that includes the very large black forest. Thats trees with virtually no agriculture.   And they STILL managed to kill 2/3 of the bees in 3 months! With a seed treatment.

Thanks to wikileaks for the info that the US EPA passed the chemical for USA use without it having passed its tests.

 

http://www.fastcompany.com/1710746/bayer-our-bee-toxic-pesticide-is-actu...

"Scientists said the alarming decline, which could have devastating implications for the pollination of both wild and farmed plants, was likely to be the result of disease and low genetic diversity in bee populations."

 

"Likely" to be.....?

 

Jesus.

Thanks, EQ.   I need that kind of input more and more these days. 

Saw on an American network last night that the Americans are growing more concerned about the disappearance of the bees - and no mention of Bayer whatsoever. I'll try to find a link.

 

ETA: no luck - but found this.

 

excerpt:

 

Bayer v. Beekeepers
by Katherine Eban, October 8, 2010
from Fortune.com: "What a scientist didn't tell The New York Times
about his study on bee deaths"

 

As for the Bayer-Bromenshenk connection, in 2003 a group of 13 North Dakota beekeepers brought a class-action lawsuit against Bayer, alleging that the company's neonicotinoid, Imidacloprid, which had been used in nearby fields, was responsible for the loss of more than 60% of their hives. "My bees were getting drunk," Chris Charles, a beekeeper in Carrington, N.D., and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told me in 2008. "They couldn't walk a white line anymore -- they just hung around outside the hive. They couldn't work."

Charles and the other North Dakota beekeepers hired Bromenshenk as an expert witness. Bayer did not dispute that Imidacloprid was found among the bees and their hives. The company simply argued that the amount had not been enough to kill them.

As the North Dakota lawsuit moved forward, an expert witness for the beekeepers, Dr. Daniel Mayer, a now retired bee expert from Washington State University, traveled to 17 different bee yards in North Dakota and observed dead bees and bees in the throes of what looked like Imidacloprid poisoning, he told me in 2008. He theorized that after foraging in planted fields where the seeds had been treated with Imidacloprid, the bees then brought the pesticide back to the hive, where it built up in the wax combs.

---

Found this today.  An organization has a petition to ban the relevent pesticide now.

Countries with compitent independent environmental protection agencys have banned it as soon as they saw that it was wiping out bees.

America is of course very different.

http://www.change.org/pesticide_action_network_north_america/petitions/v...

Ah, so this did morph into a "disappearing bees issue" eh? Good, here is an article from Huffington Post > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/03/bumble-bee-decline_n_803896.html

It isn't about WHY they are disappearing, it is that many species are declining and mostly for the same simple reasons: human activity, abuse of nature, toxins, etc.

But I will go one step further -

Many people are in denial about the facts, and about the bigger picture, the morality, the threat that the phenomenon of declining species represents.

On the other hand, and in growing numbers, are the people who are abandoning previously held notions about the role of humans on planet earth and the role of nature in human life. We better get this figured out before we lose it all...

 

 It becomes a spiritual journey for many of us to make those connections. Humans depend on nature and natural processes. We are often most content when in nature, away from machinery, etc. We are starting to realise that there is a negative energy attached to machinery and buildings. and that is actually does affect us, and that those effects can accumulate to cause "dis-ease" which often manifests as illness.

When we, if we, make the necessary changes and the bees come back, nature thrives once again, and we develop a "reality based spirituality" that includes the role of nature in humans and the role of humans on planet earth, we will be better off.

 

 

 

 

CCD is probably a combination of factors, with virus and climate change and mites being a challenge to Bee health, but then add in the CHEMICAL TOXINS and the bees are in trouble. Pesticides are the tipping point for CCD.

So, conspiracy time!! The British bee assn has endorsed pesticides for a fee. Cheap. Risking the world's food production for the price of a slice and a tea....

Ho! To Wit: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22769

Quote: "The beekeepers' association's deal with the chemical companies had been running since 2001, and it received £17,500 a year for endorsing four pesticides: Bayer's Decis, BASF's Contest (also known as Fastac), Syngenta's Hallmark and Belchim's Fury."