Tag Archives: bees
Caring about the Other Bees
In my experience, most people like bees. Aside from the occasional bad encounter with a sting, most of us know that bees are good, and a necessary part of our spaceship-earth zoo. Recently, we’ve heard about honey bee die-offs due to a variety of problems. These stories are almost always about domesticated European honey bees, not native and wild bees. These problems are largely cultural and have to do with sanitary bee management, not so much with ecological issues. Bees are important to agriculture and will be well… Read More →
A day in the life of a mint
Growing plants is so much more interesting when you get to know your garden’s wildlife. Few of us will ever take the time to spend an entire day watching all the insects, spiders, birds, and reptiles attracted to our backyard garden. But if we did, we would probably be amazed at all the critters calling our yards “home.” Fortunately for us impatient folk, retired entomologist David Cappaert has done just that. Last summer, after noticing an unusual abundance of insect life attracted to just one kind of plant… Read More →
Powwowing about pollinators
Pollinator protection has become almost trendy recently. One of the spin offs of the honey bee controversy over CCD, is that the spotlight has come to rest not just on honey bees, but on all insects that pollinate plants. And this is a good thing. Today nearly everyone at some point is taught in school, or via Discovery Channel, that bees pollinate flowers; but I’ll wager that relatively few understand what this really means to all of us. Pollination is the biological process by which female plant parts are… Read More →
National Pollinator Week coming soon
National Pollinator Week this year is June 16-22. Here’s to hoping 2014 will be looking up for honey bees and other native pollinators. Last year during National Pollinator Week a pesticide misapplication led to a highly publicized bee kill in Wilsonville, OR. But this year we’ll start with some good news. Honey bee colony winter survival was up slightly this year, though still below expected survival levels prior to the advent of colony collapse disorder (CCD). In celebration of the week, I thought I would share with you some… Read More →
Waiting for the bees
As the season tilts toward spring in Texas I begin to look forward to the increase in insect activity. Not the pest activity, like mosquitoes and fire ants, but the vast majority of insects that are either harmless or who actively benefit us in one or more ways. Bumble bees are among those creatures which are mostly beneficial to people, though many of us have little appreciation for the gifts they give. In fact, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Michael Warriner, it’s been 100 years since… Read More →