Worried about the bees

Have any of you noticed a drastic lack of bees in your garden this year?

I am really worried, because our Privet bushes are in bloom, and usually when I walk by them there is a loud buzz all around them and they are covered in bees - everything from micro-bees to honey bees. This year it seems I am lucky to see 4-5 at the same time on the bush, of any kind of bee, including wild bees.

Same thing around my Borage flowers - notorious for attracting massive amounts of bees.

I have heard for years about the decreased bee population, but all the while I have been having massive amounts of bees in my garden. Not this year.

This is REALLY disturbing.

This message was edited Jul 1, 2010 10:19 AM

That IS troubling. We've had many nests in my neighborhood this year - mostly wasps, I think, though. I did talk to a beekeeper today - he said he's captured several colonies lately. I'm in the process of trying to determine whetherit is wasps or bees that I have living in my shed.

That having been said, I haven't seen many bees around - a few on my Borage. But it's been too cool for much activity. I'm hoping to see more this next month once the warmer weather hits.

Boel, do you have Scrophularia? My bees love it. It's a wonderful plant and not a difficult bog plant, as purported. I have it in full sun in clay and don't even water it now that it's established. I'll send you a piece of it if you're interested.

I have seen less bees for sure this year but at the same time I have more hummingbirds at my feeders then in years before....could be the lack of blooms, sunshine, etc. Nature is quite cyclic it seems and never truly predictable. If this becomes a yearly trend then that is truly worrisome.
I love swamp plants since I have a small stream and bog garden in my yard what variety is your Scrophularia

Oh joy!! Azorina, I think you are right - just a late year! I just walked by my privet bush and was met by the usual chorus of buzzing! And they are on the borage as well.

Still, the micro-bees are not here, but now I think they will be the next to return.

I am so happy! No, I am ecstatic, NO I am delirious with joy. I did not realize just how disturbed I was by the lack of bees.
What a relief to have them back!!!

Katie: Probably wasps you are seeing if you have a lot of nests, but you have been seeing few bees. No shortage of wasps here, that's for sure. They are very active!

You are right to be concerned about the lack of bees. They're declining more every year. People like us who have so much in their gardens to attract them don't notice as much. But they are declining and I guess it'll take a disasterous food shortage for people to realize how their actions affect every little thing.

Julie, I take back what I said on that other thread!!!! lol

It was yellow jackets I had - a huge nest. Yes, the other nests were wasps as well.

It took me two sprayings to finish them off. I noticed today, though, that there are now little bees with red butts flying into the shed . . .

I've seen more bees. I'm sad for the Mason bees, though. I think this year did a number on them as it was so cold.

Hi Katie,

I forgot to thank you for your very kind offer of the Scrophularia. I have no idea of what kind of plant it is - I'll have to read up on it. Would this be an OK time of year to plant, and what does it like - full sun/part shade? How big does it grow?

I should study up on my own when I get a second! Honestly should not be even considering taking on more plants as I am behind in getting the ones I already have in the ground :)

You are so sweet!

Now or later - any time that works for you, Boel. I've found it to be a very easy plant. And it's mostly evergreen - comes off of a kind of hard root or tuber, so it's resilient when you transplant it. I like the colorful foliage. Watching the bees go nuts over it is a bonus!

That's one of my favorites too. So bright.

What color are the flowers?

Tiny tiny blood red flowers.

I've been worried about the bees also. There does seem to be fewer. Though I did see one in the thyme flowers today, there is usually more of an abundance of the little buzzies. I hope the coming warmer weather this week wakes everybody up.

Now I must go look up Scrophularia, a plant I have never before heard of. The leaves are pretty, and I like tiny flowers.

I had lots of bumbles really early this season, and then when the weather cooled down, didn't see much bee activity at all. Was very pleased to see bees everywhere when the sun came out last weekend.

Linda, we have noticed an abnormally high amount of hummer activity at our feeders as well. We were wondering if the lack of blooms because of the cool spring could be the reason ourselves.

We've had more hummers this year. I don't have feeders up, but have a few plants they love.

Now that I have the yellow jackets out of my shed, there is a nest of native bees going in and out. I guess I'll leave them there for the summer. It's not a huge hive and they are pretty gentle.

I have seen more hummers this year too.
And I have normal amounts of bees since it's warmer.

As others have said, many species of bees are in a slow decline, and the cause or causes still aren't really known.

On the plus side of this, because the decline has been observed for more than a few years, it has encouraged more people to put in hives. Everyone I know (personally and online) has had no trouble acquiring colonies. If I owned any property right now, I'd be putting some hives in (it's on my long list of what I want to do once I do own a piece).

Hi Ketta and welcome. I agree with you on the bees. One of my neighbors has had honey bees for several years and they are always in my yard. We have mostly those small bumblebee types.

My neighbor was up today and told me she has had two swarms of honeybees in her trees in the last few days. Both times she called the "bee people" and they came and got them. They were really happy to have them.

While weeding today, I had many buzzy friends.

Patricia, how cool to have bees right next door.

And Linda, that's awesome. I see online that there are many people who will come get a swarm.

I'm amazed lately that I'm finding so many people who don't make a distinction between bees and wasps - they are afraid of and just want to get rid of them.

I agree, and I even leave the wasps be. Plenty of them have nests under the eves of the house. They have never bothered us, I am guessing they are hornets and hornets are not aggressive towards people unless you bother their nest. In fact, most wasps typically ignore people, unless they perceive a threat.

Wasps can also be benefical in the garden.

Good for you, Boel. I wish I could bring myself to do that. My yellow jacket nest was just getting so big and active that it was literally becoming dangerous. I just didn't like the thought that I couldn't work where I needed to without being in danger of being stung. I know quite a few people who have accidentally happened across nests and really paid for it. Yikes!

Maybe I WILL pay for it one day!

I was harvesting under one of the nests last fall and for whatever reason wasps keps literally dropping down from the nest above me. It was a bit un-nerving, I will admit, but they kept being docile and nothing happened.

Oh, Boel, the wasp charmer. I'm not "generally" afraid of them, but that might just push me over the edge. :-)

My husband developed an allergy to wasps and other vespids, and he was able to have an allergist desensitize him to them. That was a good thing because there are a lot of wasps around here and he does get stung occasionally. I picked up a fake paper wasp nest from Gardeners Supply, I think it was, and hung it in our greenhouse, and we haven't had any wasps in there at all this year, so it seems to have worked as a deterrent. I have had to rescue a female cardinal and a Carolina wren, though!

Ooooh, vespids. Another good word. You are increasing my vocabulary with some good stuff.

I'm very interested in this allergist and his desensitization. It makes such intuitive sense.

Years ago desensitization wasn't an option, so we were thrilled when it became available as a treatment. It really works, too!

Hmmm... I will have to inquire about the desensitization and see if it might work for me. I have established an alergy to yellow jackets (and maybe wasps, but fortunately haven't tested that out yet!) over the last few years. I get stung at least once a year because I spend all my time in the woods, and it's not a lot of fun.

Desensitization should work for you. Now when my DH gets stung it barely leaves a mark.

Julie - yellow jackets are wasps - so you may indeed have an allergy to all wasps. I have a couple of friends who never had an allergic reaction to a wasp sting when they were younger, but then had allergic reactions later in life. It's starting to sound like developing an allergy isn't uncommon . . .

Kathy, I think that developing alergies as you age is more common than we realize. I was never alergic to anything that I was aware of as I was a child, and when I hit about 30, I developed a serious alergy to hazelnuts. I ate them like crazy when I was little with no effect... now a tiny bit on one will be a problem. Yellow jackets are bad enough... anything worse, I try to steer very clear of. Fortunately, right now the bee problem is only swelling up like a balloon with quite a bit of pain. I got stung on the head a couple of years ago when I disturbed a nest at the base of a maple in one of my gardens... it swelled up one side of my face fairly comically. One of the guys that works next door came over to ask me a few questions, and after I finally told him what had happened, he said he wasn't going to say anything because he assumed that I had "had some work done....". I wasn't sure if I should be offended or laugh myself silly.

ROFL. That's pretty funny. Did you reply to him, "What's to improve on?"

I think you're right. My friend, Sheryl, had to go to the ER once after having eaten from a bowl of mixed nuts. It turned out that she was deathly allergic to hazelnuts. It turned out that even pollen from the trees bothered her. It was only months before her wedding. They were scheduled to honeymoon in Northern California, known for it's hazelnut trees . . .

And then last year my neighbor, Alison, had to go to the ER after having worked outside and then eating some almonds. She tested negative for an allergy, but the doctor gave her an EPI pen and suggested that she avoid tree nuts . . .

Last summer my brother and his wife were in France and friends of theirs who hosted a bed and breakfast served chicory coffee. They all had to take him to the ER after that . . .

As I write this I'm beginning to think that I should have a cell phone, carry an EPI pen, and stock up on cortisone skin cream and benadryl . . . .

If you have severe allergies and could go into anaphylactic shock, you should definitely carry an EPI pen and train your companions/coworkers/family members etc how to use it. Not fun. Yikes.

That's the crazy thing, Holly. None of the three people I mentioned knew they had any allergies at all. I wonder what dangers lurk for the rest of us?

This message was edited Jul 13, 2010 8:37 AM

With my DH's vespid allergy, he made it through the first bad reaction (he was deep in the woods when it occurred) but it was enough to let him know that he'd better not risk it again. You're right, though, Kathy; sometimes the first inkling is a very bad reaction. It's scary!

A few years back I developed phytophotodermatitis out of the blue - a long lasting and quite unsightly skin rash triggered by certain plant residue that is then exposed to sunshine. My dermotologist advised me to avoid rubbing against plants in the umbelliferae family (the most likely villains) when it is sunny. ? How can I possibly do that? A large number of my herbs and quite a few of our native plants (aka weeds) are of the umbelliferae family. The best I have come up with is to weed in the shade as much as possible.

It's rare, but we have had several children in the school who had such severe allergies to nuts that they could be unable to breathe in a very short time, minutes we were told. They carry EPI pens in little belt pouches at all times, and the entire staff is trained yearly how to use the pens. We were told, if in doubt, use the pen and ask questions later. The parents of several children with life threatening illnesses were instrumental in getting a very tight emergency protocol in place.

Most people have more time to notice a funny feeling in their throat as part of the allergic reaction, and medication they carry can take care of it and/or there is time to get to an emergency room. I've heard the first time around with the reaction can be less severe, and subsequent exposures can be more quickly deadly.

Greenhouse Gal-- Good thing your DH's first reaction wasn't worse...especially being far from help.

Kathy, Isn't it amazing how things can surprise us like that? It's strange how the body changes with time. Mixed nuts has always been a favorite snack for me. My first indication of the hazelnut thing was when I was about 30 or so. Every once in a while, I would pop a handful in my mouth and get the bitter stinging sensation/funny feeling in the back of my mouth. I kept thinking, ick, I got a rotten nut. When it continued to happen, I used process of elimination and found the filberts (hazlenuts) to be the culprit. Now I have to be pretty careful of candies, etc as even little chunks start to cause a more severe reaction. Go figure that just a year or two before, I had let Mom plant two hazlenut trees in my garden... glad I haven't gotten to the pollen part of it yet.

Bonehead, I have snidely said "I am alergic to weeding" in the past, but never really thought it could be possible. What a frustrating problem for a gardener!

Holly, I can imagine how scary it could be working with kids, especially young children who haven't experienced a lot in life yet... lots of surprises possible. Good thing to be ultra prepared!

DH has an EPI pen; I forget what he got it for originally but he used to have serious problems with asthma. Yup, we were very fortunate that he made it out of the woods without succumbing, and that desensitization had become an option by then.

Speaking of nuts, has anyone heard of pine mouth, or pine nut mouth? I had read about non-allergic reactions to some pine nuts on a cooking forum, so when I started noticing a bitter, metallic taste after eating something it didn't take me long to remember those posts. I had had pine nuts a couple of days prior to that, and they were a brand I don't normally buy. Apparently a lot of people have had problems with them; a day or two after ingestion, there is an aftertaste when eating anything else. With some people it lasts for months; for me it only lasted about a week. The only thing I could put in my mouth that didn't trigger the reaction was green tea or chai. The supplier from which I bought the offending pine nuts was out of Clifton, NJ, a name that figured in a lot of the complaints. Pine nuts from Trader Joe's seemed to be culprits, too. No one else who ate them at my house got the reaction, which is often the case. A few months later I used some pine nuts of the brand I usually buy in pesto and I was fine, which was a relief!

What a shame to have an allergy to hazelnuts, though. I love chocolate with hazelnut! How awful to have to swear off Nutella!

I am hoping that anyone with any kind of allergy does carry an epi-pen. Any allergic reaction can become fatal even if previous reactions have been mild.