Busy Building!

    Along about noontime, I glanced out the front window just in time to see something zip to the left.  Ok, so that was a big bee!  Shoes on, camera in hand and glasses..I need my glasses!  I had to go find a bee!  The search did not take long because the bee was busy building a home.  There, on my gatepost, was a nice sized hole and there, going in that hole, was the bee.  She was poking stuff into the hole.  This was obviously a female that had gnawed out a tunnel in the post and then gnawed individual rooms.  In these cells, she laid in a stock of pollen and regurgitated nectar.  She then laid eggs in the different cells of the tunnel before sealing them off from the rest of the tunnel.  The sealing is done with plant fibers and soft wood from her gnawing.  This was her intentions for the day.  It was time to seal the main entrance to her nest.

  

  These tunnels can sometimes be up to 5 feet long and have many, many side cells.  The female bee does all the work.  Several generations of bees might use the same tunnel with a female adding to the tunnel system each year.  The tunnels are also used as overwintering spots for bees.  They will again lay in a stock of pollen and seal themselves in once the weather turns cold.  Many of the adult bees will die during the winter but those who survive will gnaw their way out during spring and start the process anew.

  The bee that has claimed my fencepost is a Southern Carpenter Bee.  These bees are not as fuzzy and cute as some of the other bees.  Some resemble Bumble Bees but mine lacks the bright yellow fuzziness.  In fact, this one looks downright intimidating!  The females are not apt to sting.  She can and will if you grab her but she is far too busy to be concerned about a mere human.  That said, the male does not have a stinger but he sure can get himself in a tizzy and act like a big bully if he thinks you are getting to close.  But that is all he does...nothing else...at all.   So Carpenter Bees are not a threat to anything but the wood in your house and, well, any gateposts that just happen to be handy.  I guess it is time to remedy a problem before it gets any worse.

They Can Have The Rest

  For the past few weeks, it has been a twice daily chore to pick the figs.  The two large trees outdid themselves and produced buckets full of the fine fruit.  Now the shelves are stocked for the winter with home-canned goodies!  It has been quite the job to, not only pick the figs, but to can them.  Now, however, the job is done!  While there are still several pickings left on the trees, I have no desire to continue.  While the chore is tiring, that is not the reason behind my decision.  This morning's visit to the trees was somewhat unsettling.  With all of the recent rains, it seems that fruit flies have hatched in abundance.  Both trees were literally covered with the critters!  While a good many were seeking refuge under the wide leaves, the remaining figs were being infested!  Nope.  Not happening.  I refuse to bring the fruits into the house as the flies would come as well.  Nope...no way...not happening.

  Fruit flies are nasty little critters.  They can infest a place by the thousands in a matter of days and are a pain to eliminate.  It is best to never let them get started in the first place.  It is a known fact that the flies are attracted to ripening fruit and veggies so the best bet is to keep a good watch on anything you may have in the kitchen.  A couple of fruit flies does not seem like much but when you consider they can lay about 500 eggs (no lie) at a time, it is easy to see how two can turn into a huge problem rather quickly.  

  I do have two good things to tell you about these little buggers.  First...they do not bite! Yay!  At least, they are not like gnats!  Second, they only live about two weeks.  Again, Yay!  Except that is a short lived bit of jubilation as they breed rampantly and the eggs only take about a day to hatch.  Better set some fruit fly traps!

It was alive right before....

  Son gets tickled at some news reporters who make weird statements in their broadcasts.  As sad as it may seem, the one phrase that almost irritates him is the oft repeated description of someone who perished in an accident.  Over the years, numerous reporters have made the proclamation "He/She was alive right before he/she died!"  Most listeners never catch the glitch as they are more stunned to hear the news of the accident.  When you think about it, though, the statement is quite stupid.  Duh, everyone is alive right before they die.  What are these newscasters thinking?  The person may not have been healthy/wealthy/poor/local/happy/sober/or whatever but they were definitely alive.  

  Late this afternoon, the poorly worded statement popped into my head as Mark and I wandered through the garden picking tomatoes. When we came to the squash, I just had to make the proclamation!  "Oh, no!  My squash plant was alive right before it died!"  Mark looked at me as if I was loco.  Well, I guess talking like that deserved the puzzled stare. heehee!  The fact was, I knew the squash plant was going to perish. They all are.  The plants were huge and bearing tons of squash but since I refuse to dump chemicals on the garden, they became infested with squash bug larvae. These critters can ruin more gardens and I never remember to check under the leaves for the bright yellow eggs.   Had I done so and squished them, my plants would still be with us.  Instead, the seemingly healthy looking plants we saw at daybreak, toppled to the ground at dusk.  Dead, kaput, gone. The eggs hatched, the larvae made their way into the stalks and killed the plants from the inside.  Actually, I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened because I saw the telltale signs that the stalks were already infested.  There was not much I could do to prevent their death.  My oversight a couple of weeks ago, allowed the bugs to do their thing.  Had I found the eggs, this would have been prevented.

  Still, the silly phrase ran through my head and blurted out of my mouth causing poor Mark to question the sanity of his wife.  It is funny how things work like that.