{"id":2802,"date":"2013-08-18T19:48:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T00:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/?p=2802"},"modified":"2013-08-31T16:51:57","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T21:51:57","slug":"bees-wasps-and-other-pollinators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/?p=2802","title":{"rendered":"Bees, Wasps and Other Pollinators"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"OLYMPUS<\/a>

Bee Wolf on Rattlesnake Master<\/p><\/div>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>

Grass-carrying wasp on Boneset<\/p><\/div>\n

What do you know about bees and wasps? I would assume probably as little as myself. For most of my adult life, I believed that all bees\/wasps stung (not true). The only bees\/wasps I knew were the common ones that did sting, like bald-faced hornets, yellow jackets, bumblebees and others. Over the summer, I have been photographing and identifying several of our common native bees and wasps.<\/p>\n

But thanks to Heather Holm at www.restoringthelandscape.com\/, I have been learning about pollinators. She has 4 beautiful downloadable posters on bees and wasps at her website.<\/p>\n

Although I am just beginning my “pollinator experience”, I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me. I can spend an hour standing in the same spot entranced by what I am seeing. The experience connects me with nature in a wonderful new way.\u00a0 It also helps to have a good macro lens on your camera to catch some of the action.<\/p>\n

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\"Great<\/a>

Great Black Wasp on Mountain Mint<\/p><\/div>\n

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Another thing I have learned is that very few of the native bees\/wasps sting. Even the large Great Black Wasp, does not sting. That really changed things for me because I am severely allergic to bees and I carry a bee kit with me. If I do get stung, I put some clay or crushed plantain on the wound within a minute and usually I will have no reaction.<\/p>\n

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\"Great<\/a>

Great Golden Digger Wasp on Dogbane.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Great<\/a>

Great Golden Digger Bee on Stiff Goldenrod<\/p><\/div>\n

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In past three weeks I have observed that specific flowers attract wasps. Some of those include:\u00a0Rattlesnake Master, Dogbane, Mountain Mint, Boneset and Field Goldenrod. It was during the peak flowering time of each species that I saw the heaviest concentration of pollinators. I did not see what bees and wasps were attracted to in June and have not seen what plants will attract insects in September.<\/p>\n

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\"Sand<\/a>

Sand Wasp on Mountain Mint<\/p><\/div>\n

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It has been a good beginning. I am looking forward to continuing to learning about these beautiful and unique creatures.<\/p>\n

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\"Long-Horned<\/a>

Leaf-cutter bee on Echinacea<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Long-Horned<\/a>

Carder bee on butterfly weed<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Bee<\/a>

Bee Fly on Black-eyed Susan<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Thick-headed<\/a>

Thick-headed Fly on Rattlesnake Master<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Honey<\/a>

Honey bee on Hoary Vervain<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bumblebee<\/a>

Bumblebee sp. on Monarda.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Tiphiid<\/a>

Tiphiid Wasp on Rattlesnake Master<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tiphiid<\/a>

Tiphiid Wasp and Great Black Wasp<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Paper<\/a>

Paper Wasp (photo by Mike Farrell)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cuckoo<\/a>

Cuckoo Bee<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Bald-faced<\/a>

Bald-faced Hornet on Stiff Goldenrod<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Yellow<\/a>

Yellow Jacket<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you know about bees and wasps? I would assume probably as little as myself. For most of my adult life, I believed that all bees\/wasps stung (not true). The only bees\/wasps I knew were the common ones that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecting-to-nature","category-insects","category-summer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2802"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2847,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions\/2847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}