"Beeing" In The Right Spot!

  Early this afternoon, I found it far to stifling to sit inside so I escaped the confines of the Little Bayou House.  Outside, I could breathe!  After taking a few deep, lung-filling breaths, I fiddled around in the garden.  It felt good being out in the sunshine and cooling breezes.  While I am not one to complain about being home day after day, I do need my outdoor time!  What am I saying??  I stay on the Bayou about 99% of my time.  It is here that I feel safe, at peace and welcome.  I cannot say that about too many places.

  After tending to the tiny seedling tomato plants, I figured that I would sit on the steps and enjoy the view for a while.  These steps are directly in line with the pier so the scenery is quite exquisite!  It was not long, however, before my eyes were directed toward my feet.  Buzzing about the ground below me were a good number of bees...or wasps...or...something.  Time to investigate!

  In total, there were about 30 insects within a few feet.  Some were tiny but one large bee...wasp caught my eye.  A scoliid type wasp was crawling about on the board path as if searching for something.  She went from board to dirt and back again.  This wasp did not bother any of the tiny bees but found a small hole and immediately started digging.  I took the opportunity to photograph her up close and personal!  While I was busy photographing the wasp, the other insects kept right on digging their nesting sites.  Not once did any of them attempt to sting me.  In fact, the whole lot of them seemed perfectly oblivious of my presence.  

  Scoliid wasps have a rather unique..albeit morbid...way of laying eggs.  Instead of digging nesting site holes and providing paralyzed insects for their future kids, the Scoliid Wasp merely hunts for a beetle larva hole, digs it larger until she can fit, stings the larva to paralyze it and then lays her egg on its rear.  The larva remains alive but cannot move.  The wasp egg hatches and the wasp larva starts eating its beetle larva host.  If other wasp eggs are in the same larva,  the first one to hatch eats all of the other eggs before starting to dine upon the beetle larva.  Survival of the fittest...or first, in this case.

  I must admit that spending an hour or so watching bees and wasps gave me the fresh air and escape I needed.  Tomorrow, the yard work continues so the brain will not feel trapped.  Mother Nature can often find cures for our doldrums.  The entertainment is endless.