Throwback Friday

 In yesterday's Throwback Thursday post, I showed the difference between a bumblebee and a carpenter bee. There was some discussion about a bee vs. a wasp, so today I am rerunning a post that I did about that. This one is from May 2015.

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A Second Look Update--Bees

Smaller bee with larger ones to the side

I admit that, as far as bees go, I have very limited knowledge. To me, anything that buzzes and looks like it could sting is a bee. But as most of you know, not everything that looks like that is a bee. Some of them are wasps. And no matter how many times I try to learn the differences between the two, I don't remember for very long what they are. So here it goes again.

A papery, yellow jacket wasp's nest that I found
in the ground while I was weeding.
Yes, I did get stung.

Bees and wasps come from the same Order, Hymenoptera. After that, they differ in their Family, Genus, and Species. (Remember the taxonomy classifications for biology?) If you can get close enough to look at them, there are some physical differences. Bees are hairy, and wasps are smooth. Bees usually have a fatter and rounder abdomen than wasps. And if the buzzing insect is chasing you, it's probably a wasp. Wasps are more aggressive than bees. Find a papery nest in the ground; it belongs to a wasp. Bees make waxy hives. All bees are social insects, but not all wasps are. Some are solitary. Bees eat nectar, but wasps usually eat other insects, unless, of course, you have a can of soda around. 

And the list goes on. There are over 20,000 different species of bees and over 100,000 different kinds of wasps, so if I'm playing the odds, wasps should be my first guess when I'm trying to identify one or the other.

Even though I refamiliarized myself with some basic bee and wasp knowledge, I was at a loss to explain what I saw about a month ago during a Second Look. I saw a smaller bee/wasp attach itself to the bottom of a different kind of bee/wasp. So it was time to go for help. The first place I turned was my bee expert--a friend who raises honey bees. I sent her pictures and asked her what was going on. She had no idea, so she sent them to her local county extension agent. The extension agent had no idea what was going on, either, so she sent them to an entomology professor she knew at a large university. He didn't have a good answer, so he showed the pictures to all of his colleagues. And none of them could give a good explanation of what they saw. 

Smaller bee attached to the bottom of larger bee

However, here is the information that they did provide for what they saw in the pictures above.

The responses I have gathered from my colleagues agree that this type of interaction with carpenter bees* is unusual. Bees sometimes get in territorial disputes, but this doesn't appear to be the case in the pic.  Everyone agrees that the bee on the carpenter bee is probably not doing any harm.  Based on what they could tell from the photo and the host plant they are on, they believe the other bee is in the genus Osmia (e.g., blue orchard bee).  Why they are interacting like this is unclear. 

So I didn't get a definitive answer to my question, but I did learn a lot while looking for an answer. Now, let's see how long I can remember it. :)

*I called the big bees bumble bees in the original post, but they're not. They are carpenter bees as evidenced by their smooth abdomen. If they had been bumble bees, this area would have been hairy. Live and learn.

But Wait There's More:
--Did you know that male bees don't sting? The stinger is a modification of an ovipositer--an egg layer, so male bees have never had one to modify. This may be common knowledge for those of you in the know, but it was fascinating news to me.
--A good paint job is a good deterrent to the carpenter bees.

Sources:
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Bee_vs_Wasp

http://animals.pawnation.com/there-kind-bee-doesnt-sting-10377.html

http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bees/

And some others that disappeared when my computer crashed. :(

Throwback Thursday

 Today, we're going back to June 2015, when I showed the difference between bumble bees and carpenter bees. I have since also learned that the carpenter bees usually show up earlier in the season than bumble bees, and they like the wooden bench on the front porch. Some day, the bench is going to fall down with all of the holes in it. As soon as we plug up one hole, a new one is drilled.

So, here's the throwback to June 18, 2015, which BTW was also on a Thursday. 

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More about Bees

I have explained before that I don't have much knowledge about bees or wasps, but I'm very slowly learning. This week, I was finally able to document one of the differences between carpenter bees and bumble bees. Before this year, big, yellow, and black striped bees were all bumble bees to me. As it turns out, I learned that carpenter bees look similar to bumble bees; however, carpenter bees are larger and have smoother abdomens, while bumble bees have furry abdomens. And from my experience, bumble bees move a lot faster and more often from bloom to bloom. So for a few weeks now, I thought I had been seeing bumble bees instead of carpenter bees, but they wouldn't hold still long enough to know for sure. Yesterday, I finally got a picture that confirmed my suspicions.

Notice the fuzzy abdomen of the bumblebee on the left and the smooth abdomen of the carpenter bee on the right.

So my knowledge is slowly increasing. Who knows? Maybe soon I will be able to reliably tell a bee from a wasp at first sight. Or maybe not. :)

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Until next time...

Around the Yard this Week

 We are under the heat dome like much of the country, without any rain, so we are trying to keep things watered enough to survive. Some recently planted things are struggling but haven't given up yet. But despite the heat, and maybe because of it, there are things blooming around the yard. Here are a few things I saw recently.

The bumble bees love the lamb's ear blooms.

And the spirea around the corner.

However, there are only honey bees on the hydrangea. 

This is the mum I took out of the trash at work and planted last fall.
 It's a little confused and blooming a few months early.

In the same bed as the mums, I transplanted several black-eye susans and cone flowers. Something is enjoying them and has eaten the tops off of many of them.
However, there are still some that show promise of blooming.

The butterfly bush is in bloom. However, I've only seen a few butterflies so far.

A new color of yellow daylily is blooming.

And around the corner, the orange ones starting to bloom just today.

Purple sage.

Look carefully. There are 4 zinnia plants in the picture. Despite the diatomaceous earth around them, they are still being devoured by earwigs. However, the diatomaceous earth has slowed down the demise. The first dozen I planted were gone in one day. These have been out for almost a week. The neighbor has had to plant her vegetable garden twice because of earwigs.

Hydrangea. Wally and Theo got me a hanging basket that contained 6 hydrangea plants. I have transplanted them around the yard to see if I can get them to thrive. So far, they are all hanging on but have definitely suffered in the transplant process. This one had all of its leaves and much of its stem eaten by a rabbit (?). However, I was pleased when I saw new growth. 

Until next time...

Here we go again.

Well, gosh, darn it. My attempt to post more frequently is not going as well as I had hoped. In fact, I'd say no change so far. But after posting regularly on this blog for 8 years, I'd say it's pretty remarkable that I am even still doing it. Especially since there is no theme to guide the posts. Well, it's either remarkable or I don't know when to quit. But I'm going to give it a go again. : )

Here's another time Annie was not happy
after a trip to the vet.

Last week was filled with appointments and meetings plus the ever-present work. We are moving ahead on the porch that we want to replace our rotting deck with and had another meeting with the architect. Now we are starting to contact contractors. The cats had to go to the vet where she found both of Annie's ears infected. Let's just say Annie is NOT fond of the drops she needs twice a day. I hosted my book club where we discussed a very interesting book (more on that another day).  And we're still figuring out what to do with our good crop of pears. And yadda, yadda, yadda or if you prefer, blah, blah, blah. You know, just a lot more of the same.


Now onto the subject of the day:

Bumble bees vs. Carpenter bees

It wasn't that many years ago when I didn't know that carpenter bees and bumble bees weren't the same thing. I just called every big bee that was gold and black a bumblebee. Well, doing my Second Looks taught me differently. I learned that bumblebees are fuzzy on the end and carpenter bees are smooth and shiny on the end. (I know entomologists are out there screaming with my over simplification, but you gotta start somewhere.) See below. These pictures were taken a couple of years ago at my old house.

Bumblebee on the left and carpenter bee on the right. Notice fuzzy vs. shiny.

Carpenter bees may not always desirable to have around. Notice the round holes on the fence board above the woodpecker. Those were made by carpenter bees and our fence is full of them. They can do the same thing to your house. However, they are good pollinators just like other bees.

Here's your quiz. Look carefully. Is this a bumblebee or a carpenter bee on this Mexican sunflower.
(Hint: Is it shiny?)

Until next time, Happy Trails to you ....

A Second Look--October 12, 2017

or Busy Bees and Other 6-legged Creatures

Fall is officially here according to the calendar and the weather is slowly following along. Overall, we've had warmer than usual temperatures which is okay by me because I'm still trying to catch up on yard work that needs to be done before everything goes dormant. The leaves of some trees are starting to change and others are going straight to the turn brown and drop stage because of lack of rain this fall. With fewer things in bloom now, the bees seem more concentrated on the fall blooming flowers. One of the things I noticed earlier here in the new yard were fewer bees. Now I wonder if I was comparing different seasons in my mind and not realizing it.

Without further ado, here are a few things I saw recently during a Second Look.

We inherited some very healthy mums outside our backdoor and they are giving quite a show.

The bees are enjoying the mums.

As are the moths...

And the flies.

The patio tomatoes are still giving us tomatoes for salads in the evening.

The osteospermum continue to bloom.

As do the ever-faithful marigolds. The bees like them, too. 

But I do not like the European Hornets that are eating the bark off our lilac bushes.

Yesterday morning was dark and dreary and I found this bumblebee sleeping on a purple sage plant.

And close by, I saw a cricket. I'm wondering if this is the one that sounds so loud at night.

Many trees are still green, but some are starting to change colors.

The leaves have already fallen off this pear tree revealing an interesting bird's nest. It's very messy which suggests a sparrow built it, but it doesn't have the coarser material that I've usually seen in sparrows' nests. I'm still waiting on Aunt Martha for an ID.

More about Bees

I have explained before that I don't have much knowledge about bees or wasps, but I'm very slowly learning. This week, I was finally able to document one of the differences between carpenter bees and bumble bees. Before this year big, yellow and black striped bees were all bumble bees to me. As it turns out, I learned that carpenter bees look similar to bumble bees, however carpenter bees are larger and have smoother abdomens while bumble bees have furry abdomens. And from my experience, bumbles bees move a lot faster and more often from bloom to bloom. So for a few weeks now, I thought I have been seeing bumble bees instead of carpenter bees, but they wouldn't hold still long enough to know for sure. Yesterday, I finally got a picture that confirmed my suspicions.

Notice the fuzzy abdomen of the bumble bee on the left and the smooth abdomen of the carpenter bee on the right.

So my knowledge is slowly increasing. Who knows? Maybe soon I will be able to reliably tell a bee from a wasp on first sight. Or maybe not. :)

A Second Look Update--Bees

What are those bees doing?

I admit that as far as bees go, I have very limited knowledge. To me anything that buzzes and looks like it could sting is a bee. But as most of you know, not everything that looks like that is a bee. Some of them are wasps. And no matter how many times I try to learn the differences between the two, I don't remember for very long what they are. So here it goes again.

A papery, yellow jacket wasp's nest that I found
in the ground while I was weeding.
Yes, I did get stung.

Bees and wasps come from the same Order, Hymenoptera. After that, they differ in their Family, Genus, and Species. (Remember the taxonomy classifications for biology?) If you can get close enough to look at them, there are some physical differences. Bees are hairy and wasps are smooth. Bees usually have a fatter and rounder abdomen than wasps. And if the buzzing insect is chasing you, it's probably a wasp. Wasps are more aggressive than bees. Find a papery nest in the ground, it belongs to a wasp. Bees make waxy hives. All bees are social insects, but not all wasps are. Some are solitary. Bees eat nectar, but wasps usually eat other insects, unless of course you have a can of soda around. And the list goes on. There are over 20,000 different species of bees and over 100,000 different kinds of wasps, so if I'm playing the odds, wasp should be my first guess when I'm trying to identify one or the other.

Even though I refamiliarized myself with some basic bee and wasp knowledge, I was at a loss to explain what I saw about a month ago during a Second Look. I saw a smaller bee/wasp attach itself to the bottom of a different kind of bee/wasp. So it was time to go for help. The first place I turned was my bee expert--a friend who raises honey bees. I sent her pictures and asked her what was going on. She had no idea, so she sent them to her local county extension agent. The extension agent had no idea what was going on either so she sent them to an entomology professor she knew at large university. He didn't have a good answer, so he showed the pictures to all of his colleagues. And none of them could give a good explanation of what they saw. 

Smaller bee with larger ones to the side

Smaller bee attached to the bottom of larger bee

However, here is the information that they did provide for what they saw in the pictures above.

The responses I have gathered from my colleagues agree that this type of interaction with carpenter bees* is unusual. Bees sometimes get in territorial disputes, but this doesn't appear to be the case in the pic.  Everyone agrees that the bee on the carpenter bee is probably not doing any harm.  Based on what they could tell from the photo, and the host plant they are on, they believe the other bee is in the genus Osmia (e.g. blue orchard bee).  Why they are interacting like this is unclear. 

So I didn't get a definitive answer to my question, but I did learn a lot while looking for an answer. Now, lets see how long I can remember it. :)

*I called the big bees bumble bees in the original post, but they're not. They are carpenter bees as evidenced by their smooth abdomen. If they had been bumble bees, this area would have been hairy. Live and learn.

But Wait There's More:
--Did you know that male bees don't sting? The stinger is a modification of an ovipositer--an egg layer, so male bees have never had one to modify. This may be common knowledge for those of you in the know, but it was fascinating news to me.

--A good paint job is a good deterrent to the carpenter bees.


Sources:
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Bee_vs_Wasp

http://animals.pawnation.com/there-kind-bee-doesnt-sting-10377.html

http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bees/

And some others that disappeared when my computer crashed. :(