Worried about the bees

I am happy to report that soon after my three barrel pots and mint pot went into bloom I noticed a lot of bees. I've also noticed some on the deck but I'm not sure they are what have caused the mass pepper and tomato production lol.

I did notice that the aphids on my deck have drastically decreased due to Wasp. We have the paper wrapless wasp, they are above my deck and on our carport. I honestly don't mind, they completely ignore us and I keep my family from bugging them.

Edited: changed paperless to paper wrapless

This message was edited Sep 25, 2010 1:01 PM

Katie you can come to my garden and did up a hundred or more Borage LOL They do reseed like crazy and FAST. They don't seem to travel very far though. I think I will let a bunch of them grow up for awhile and then pull them to use as mulch through the winter.

Patti - thank you for the offer. I'll take you up on that in the spring, if you don't mind. I had a heck of a time finding it this last spring because everybody had pulled it out. :-)

Borage was on my list of plants to get this year and I was quite surprised that I couldn't find it anywhere locally. Hopefully I can order some seeds off the net this spring.

I just read in Discover mag that there is a wasp that injects into spiders a chemical that let's them attach a cocoon to not attach to the adhesive of webs. Now how does that not have intellegent design???

Just a PS on the borage. I had no idea it might be hard to come by so I'll pot up several for whoever might want them in the spring. Like I said, the other thousand will become mulch.

My Helianthus Lemon Queen has been swarming with bees in between rainstorms. It does my heart good to see them!

I got home last night and my garden is full of small, medium, and bumble bees. The sedums were alive with buzzers! Butterflies, wasps, and lots of long legged bugs having a joyous life on my plants. No aphids anywhere. I did note that the wasps were a little aggressive. So I didn't kiss any of them.

I have also noticed lots more bee, bumblebee and butterfly activity in my garden. Guess everything has just been really late this year.

Soferdig- the more of nature I observe the more astounded I become. ;)

Linda I think everyone needs to read "Waldens Pond" and then begin training their mind to function like Thoreau's. Of course we would have to quit working and live off welfare. Nature is a free movie, or a book, or a massage, or an afternoon delight, or a moment of deep pleasure with the motions, sounds, purposes, and colors of nature.

I had to take my son to Mary Bridge and was delighted to see a load of honey bees in the near by flower garden. We walk through it each time we go there.

Love those leaves Sofer. Are you going to put that in the contest?

Tiki, hope your son is doing well.

He is. It was just his regular visit with the neurologist. The garden is his favorite part of the entire trip. He was a bit fearful of the wasps because our little girl kitty was stung several times by one that got indoors.

I read that the four-year decline in European honybees called "Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) or honey bee depopulation syndrome (HBDS)" MAY be due to a simultaneous infection of the colony with TWO bee parasites: one virus and one fungus.
invertebrate iridescent virus type 6 (IIV-6)
and Nosema ceranae (afungus)

In any event, I hope they fiogure out how to reverse it!

"Iridovirus and Microsporidian Linked to Honey Bee Colony Decline".
PLoS ONE 5 (10), published by the Public Library of Science.
by
Leal, Walter S.; Bromenshenk, Jerry J.; Henderson, Colin B.; Wick, Charles H.; Stanford, Michael F.; Zulich, Alan W.; Jabbour, Rabih E.; Deshpande, Samir V. et al. (2010).

The wasp colony by the office door continues to thrive, a bit more heartily than I would like at this point. It must be huge. They have begun to be territorial about that area of the house and I hope this does not create a situation that will require their demise. I would hate to have them live nicely with us all summer, only to fail to behave at the last minute. Some of them dive-bombed my son when he used that door the other day. Today when I opened that door one flew into the house and created a disturbance. So far no stings, but I wish I spoke 'wasp' so I could ask them to settle down.
I'm concerned that they are in such a protected place that they will stay too warm and not die off in a timely way.

Nobody listens to me. Don't leave nests near doorways move them to other locations with a fishnet covered with a plastic bag, then remove the bag at the new location. Also all wasps become aggressive in the fall. No the wasp is getting a bad wrap. My poor buzzers.

The wasp nests in and around my greenhouse are all but deserted now. I have seen one or two wasps crawling around on the nest, but that is almost nil compared to the amount in the summer.
I was stung on the finger about a month ago. The wasp just fell from above the chicken house door and as it went it side swiped my knuckle on one finger and a few seconds later I felt the sting. It fell on down to the ground and died. Weird. The funniest thing though.....after the itching subsided...several days of that....I noticed that finger had no arthritis while the other fingers still did. It's still that way now. I told my husband and he said he had read about using wasp sting venom for arthritis sufferers. Apparently it doesn't last, though. We will see. Actually, mine is not arthritis. It is a left over symptom after braking my shoulder last winter. My fingers on that arm swell up and get stiff when not in use and that has been on-going since the brake. But, now that stung finger doesn't get swollen and stiff like the others. Isn't that weird?

That is weird. Hope it lasts for you.

I have heard of the wasp venom theory, too. Hope that lasts.

Soferdig, I listen to you. But I cannot get to this nest as there is no way to reach it. Now it appears that they are starting to build in a new area on the other side of the door. There is what looks like a swarm of wasps in an area close by. I'm thinking they may have actually enlarged a small hole in the siding because wasps are going in an out of an area that should not have a hole. Soferdig, you are welcome to come try to get this nest. I have enjoyed the work of these wasps all summer and my garden has benefited greatly.
But they are taking over the front of the house in a bad way now.

Yes, I think I have too much of a good thing, too. I am worried about next summer because they produced so many off spring. I read where the new ones will come back next year to start the process all over again. The nests in and around the greenhouse are empty now, so guess they are done for this year. We will see.....

I wish mine were finished for the year. I was thinking I could let them live out the season and perhaps trap the queens when they emerged in the spring to start building again. But today one of them dive-bombed me as I left the house, smacking me in the head. No stinging, but it's only a matter of time when they are getting this territorial. I'm afraid they are going to have to go.. and I hate that. I can't feel good about it. But I also can't let my family get stung.

My comments are not getting loaded. I will move the nest to a safe place with my pipe. I will be in Seattle on 22nd. I will call to schedule time to pipe.

i will take you up on that. And give you a good beer and something to eat. Plus I have the plants you wanted. I'll dmail you my phone number.The wasps are safe until then. Maybe by then the weather will be cold enough that the workers will have died off naturally. We've seen a few dead ones lately and the others are flying more slowly. We're keeping the porch light off so they won't be too warm.

Oh, this is so interesting. Pixie, your wasps ARE getting aggressive!! But, using a pipe to move them, Soferdig? Amazing! As soon as your comments get loaded, hope you can explain that. Maybe even take pictures of the event? That would be wonderful.
And, Pixie, just after I wrote about no more wasps, I looked at the inside nest and there was one solitary wasp barely moving. Geez---it must take huge low temps. for them to give up.

OK guys you must know that I do most of my comments with jest. The 'Pipe' I shall use is nothing more than the Pied piper of Irish history. But moving the nest is easy now because all I need is access to the comb and queen.
This is a photo of my open expanse to the ocean. Fortunately this day last week was calm. I didn't have any turn out in the rough water going there.

I thought you were going to blow tobacco smoke to calm them down while you waltzed them around.

Or maybe a big drainage pipe to enclose the nest.

Or a lead pipe to clobber them with.

Having had two experiences with lots of bites by yellow jackets, and one big, fat lip froma wasp, I don't mess with them, just tiptoe away quietly.

Corey

ADVENTURE is the wholeness of life. Observe and respond to what you want to achieve. (Summary of previous statement: Look at the buggers and run if you have to.) I will bring a big stogie and blow some medicant into their nostrils. Then if successfull if not I shall move to the Rocky Mountain Gardening site. LOL

Anything goes better with a 50-ring double maduro shorty in my face. And that photo exhibits the BEST thing about cigars: you rwally have to slow down and linger to enjoy them. Can't rush through a cigar while hamemring on a Blackberry.

Too bad so many people look at cigars as if they spread Ebola. But, as one character in a Cheers episode admitted:

"Yeah, I knows dey stink. But dey taste GREAT!"

FWIW, my theory is that GOOD cigars stink less than cheap cigars. Or maybe that's just an excuse to divert funds from important things like seeds and soil amendments to luxuries like cigars.

Though Matacan cigars, and many company's seconds, can be both cheap and good. Ever had a "Roly" ... Puros Indios seconds?

Blow one of those at wasps, and they might just follow you home, begging mellowly for another toke!

Corey

I too use tobacco to stop working and sit. I peruse the project and take in the quietness of a good Macanudo or Swisher Sweet. We type A's will die from cardiac issues anyway so might as well enjoy a moment of smoking a couple of times a day.

A good friend used to encourage us to enjoy cigars during get-togethers. But she didn't get the point of stogies. We would settle on the porch - to find that the next activity was planned for 10-15 minutes later!

Oh, well. I learned to bruing a mini-Dutch-dry-cigarillo for such bungee-jump cigar-breaks. Or a 2" stub sealed in something stink-proof, that I could throw away when it became a 1"-stub.

At home, stubs go into a tomato-paste can in my (smelly) car, to be smoked 1/2" per day, until I can't relight them without burning my nose ... and that day, I try to finish it to the pijnt where it bruns my fingertip.

The maduro Macs are Ok, but I like dark mexican tobacco, or else maduros like Punch or Puros Indios. I used to smoke Fuentes, but they became unafffordable. No-Name Holts Facotry Seconds could be GREAT, 5-10 years ago, but they became popular and as pricey as they deserved.

I bought a box of Swisher Sweets some decades ago, but eventually changed to other brands. ivng in New Haven atthe time, I could get cigars wthat were 100% CT wrapper - not just the wrapper, but all of the filler as well! Must have beemn leaves rejected as wrappers in the CT River valley. Cheap and goood.

I worked at a place in NJ where they let me put my cubicle in the machine shop, because no one dared tell the head mechanic he couldn't smoke (chew) his black, twisted Italian cigars as he ran the lath or milling machine. Heaven!

When customers dropped in to see their machines a-building, they would ask where they could go to sneak a smoke. "Right here!" Dom would tell them. "Throw your butts on the floor! Gowan!" Then he would light up one of his stinkers and we would all have a fine time. A few quiche-eating people who paid attention to their health would hold their noses and sneer at us, so there was something for everyone.

I never told them that if they held their breath because of the cigars, it might keep them from sucking up quite as many hydrocarbons from the industrial ink-jet ink and MEK-based solvents, which were DEFINITELY more toxic than second-hand smoke.

Corey

Corey I can agree with all but the last. I think I started smoking because I soooooo enjoyed my Dad lighting up. I use a smoking shirt in AK cause even the fisherman don't like the cigar.

I knew one lady who liked the smell of cigars "becasue her grandfather had smoked them".

My father smoked cigars too. And they killed him young! He had to have heart surgery ... around age 85.
And he was cut down in his prime, (at 94), by that evil weed. (NJ humor)

Actually, when he went for the quadruple bypass, (3 arteries blocked 100% and one blocked 90%), at 85, Mom tried to get the doctor to tell him to stop drinking his one martini per day (he had a HUGE glass for the purpose).

The doctor asked if his habits had changed, and Mom admitted that he had been drinking martinis as long as she had known him (married a total of 60 years).

The doc's theory was that it had gotten him to age 85-90, so he should keep doing whatever he was doing.

Corey

We all need a vice and one like this lets us have our own space.

I wanna go home and do likewise!

It's like the idea that massive garlic consumption protects you from catching colds.

People stay so far away that they can't cough on you!

Corey

Is that my Aunt Ruby in that photo? Where'd you get a photo of her?

Ah, well, we missed our visit with Steve because his little grand daughter was in surgery today. The walkway is littered with dead wasps because their time is up, whether they smoke, chew, or go around with others who do. So now my husband wants to stick a shop vac into the cavity and suck out the nests. I've convinced him that if we've gone this far to allow the hives to live, we should at least try to rescue the queen! Long live the queen! We will try to access the hive (s) when it warms up a wee bit.
Question is, if we are able to remove it, then what?

It's very cold here today and we woke up to snow on the ground. It's still snowing at 10:45. It's not that real heavy wet stuff, either. It's sticking like mad. Very strange for here on the southern Ore. coast. Kind of mean of Mother Nature, actually.....Think of all the people that need to travel to their Holiday destinations. Glad I am not one of them. So, I should travel out to the greenhouse to check on the wasps to see if they are All gone now or if they feel warm and safe in there. Most have been gone for quite awhile, but there always seems to be one or two walking around on the top of the nest.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.