AHHHHHH!!! BEES!!!!

mopar_guy said:

Rapeseed and Canola are two different crops. Rapeseed has a different mix of fatty acids and is not approved for human consumption, but it is used as a coating in the production of certain plastics. Canola is an edible crop.

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I don't know what you mean for different crops. If for Rapeseed we mean Brassica napus it is allowed for human consumption provided it does not exceed a certain percentage of erucic acid, which according to Wikipedia in the EU is 5%. Canola is just a Canadian commercial denomination of oil obtained from certain varieties of rapeseed. Rapeseed oil produced outside of Canada I presume cannot be sold as Canola, which doesn't mean Canada is the only country to produce edible rapeseed oil.

Flowers blooming all over the place here, but no bumblebees or honeybees. Last summer there were lots, but in midsummer I noticed a dieoff of bumblebees. I found a dozen or so scattered in our driveway and along the walks here.

It is so sad. All I see are flies, mosquitoes, sweatbeezs, hornets and wasps. We had a lot of butterflies here this year as they released several thousand courtesy of a local environmental group. These were all Red Admirals.

PE

More info on canola in the US:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/soybeans-oil-crops/canola.aspx

Photo Engineer said:

Flowers blooming all over the place here, but no bumblebees or honeybees. Last summer there were lots, but in midsummer I noticed a dieoff of bumblebees. I found a dozen or so scattered in our driveway and along the walks here.

It is so sad. All I see are flies, mosquitoes, sweatbeezs, hornets and wasps. We had a lot of butterflies here this year as they released several thousand courtesy of a local environmental group. These were all Red Admirals.

PE

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Many of the bees you think of as bumblebees are probably carpenter bees. At any rate, most of the big fat bees that should, some say, be able to fly are carpenters.

We just had a major die off of carpenter bees and we know what did it. We did. Bayer sells a couple of systematic insecticides whose active ingredient is imidicloprid. We've used one of them for years on our Tropical Milkweeds (Asclepias curassavica). Unlike the native milkweeds we keep, A. curassavica doesn't go dormant in fall. Like the others, it acquires aphids in the fall, and we've lost plants to them. Bayer's wonder stuff solved that problem. It also solved the scale insects on our sand cherries. So last year when a couple of our Japanese Hollies were infested with small sap-sucking insects we treated them with the stuff. Problem solved. But when the hollies bloomed and the carpenter bees came to feast on the nectar and gather the pollen many many of them died shortly after they tried to fly away from the plants. Dozens every day until the hollies have finished blooming. Our local carpenter bee population seems to be rebounding.

Re insect pests, we once went on a picnic/fish collecting trip to the Rio Frijoles (or was it the Rio Frijolito?) where it crosses pipeline road. This is in the former Canal Zone. There was a honeybee hive under the bridge -- a high trestle -- over the stream. Africanized honeybees. Something about us, we don't know what, bothered them. They attacked my wife first, then everyone in the party. We had to leave.

We call the big fuzzy black and yellow bees "bumblebees" as they seem so awkward when "waling" or flying. They love our Rhododendron flowers in June and the Azalea in May-June. They are friendly and will land on your hand and just bumble around. Not like the honeybee. The hornet is most aggressive and will sting for no reason. The honeybee must be provoked, and I have never heard of a bumblebee stinging.

PE

Ron, many of the bees you call bumblebees are probably carpenter bees.

I'm not arguing Dan, just explaining.

PE

Hairy = Bumblebee;
Not Hairy (bold) = Carpenter bee;

Carpenter bees are only blackish;
Bumblebees can be blackish or yellow-striped or whatever.

To know if the big buzzing black insect is a carpenter bee or a bumblebee as far as I know it's the "fur" which is decisive. Not an entomologist, the mileage of your bee can vary.

Lots of fur! Black and yellow stripes!

You all can argue about color differences. Wikipedia says they are all black and yellow.

PE

You're not explaining, Ron, you're arguing. Here's an explanation: http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/divisions/pi/pdf/beeswaspshornetsbrocure.pdf

I believe PE is correct and he is referring to the Bombus pennsylvanicus. Ref: Dead Link Removed

Bene Nota:PE is not referring to the infamous magenta carpenters bees! :nudge: :nudge:

Jee the names of some those insects are really nice:
Bombus fraternus (fraternal)
Bombus perplexus (perplexed?! maybe the classifier was perplexed in classifying it)
Bombus vagans (going round, wandering)
Bombus frigidus (cold or even "frigid")

PS Bombus pennsylvanicus cannot be confused with a carpenter bee because the latter would have a totally black abdomen, besides being "hairless". PE observed lots of fur, yellow and black, so they must have been bumblebees.

All I said was that mine were black and yellow and fuzzy! I don't care what they are really, but from childhood I was taught to cal them bumblebees.

All I care about is their absence!

PE

Sirius Glass said:

I believe PE is correct and he is referring to the Bombus pennsylvanicus. Ref: Dead Link Removed

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I notice from that site that one of the bees native to here is called Bombus crotchii.

Great. Flying crotch bombs.