my bad... but those holes also lead to rot etc there have been times i could actually HEAR them chewing
Posted on 03/03/2013 7:15:47 AM PST by Renfield
While neonicotiniods can and will kill bees, bees are not interested in Corn as it is wind pollinated. Also there are other problems with miticides and mites in hives along with a parasitic wasp.
My grandmother gave me the same warning about watermellon seeds......
LOL. Same here!
Actually, watermelon seeds can be dangerous. They cause the kidneys to stop working temporarily if you eat enough. In the old days, pregnant women with kidney problems were given watermelon seed tea to bypass the kidneys. They were an old time remedy.
Apple seeds contain arsenic, too. I suppose that's why eating fruit seeds isn't a big part of the American cuisine.
my bad... but those holes also lead to rot etc there have been times i could actually HEAR them chewing
I just don't recall seeing too many carpenter bees as a child. I was into bugs, I would have been fascinated with them, the way they bore those almost perfectly round, half inch holes everywhere on exposed wood such as wooden decks and porches.
Now, you get chased by them anywhere they nest, they return to their favored bore hole places year after year if you don't spray for them. The way they hover in place, spinning to face any movement, zooming off to bombard any insect that comes near, especially other carpenter bees, the aerial battles tha ensue, it's something else to watch.
I recall their presence becoming very noticeable starting in the early nineties here. Yes, you can hear them boring holes. That's what I went looking to find, the source of that sound.
Waiting for somebody like Thomas Friedman to say it’s due to climate change - the cause of everything bad.
I don’t think they sting too often, I think the males might be stingless. I just grab an old badminton racquet and go to town, then spray the holes. I have noticed an increase as well, we call them ‘borer bees.’
Freegards
Never been stung by one that I’m aware, but they’ll chase you if you’re near their nests. Stand still, they’ll zoom up and study your face, then go back to hovering on guard.
The main annoyance other than the damage to wood is getting them in an overhead trellis or porch roof with exposed rafters, they’ll rain sawdust down on you in surprising amounts while they bore.
I wouldn’t want to get bitten by something that can bore into wood like that, whether they can sting or not. I bet they could draw blood.
I have never even heard of anyone being stung by one. I looked online and the females have a painful sting, but the males are supposedly the ones who dive-bomb you and they don’t have stingers. I just whack them with a raqcuet, it works well, they hover right in front of you. I read on line that if you throw a similar sized pebble past them they will chase it, I’ll have to try it this spring. I think they must have a good bite, I have seen them chase off cicada killers, the really big hornet looking things.
The yellow jackets and bald faced hornets are the really mean ones, at least that I have observed.
I lived in Decatur Georgia. While lying in my bed one night I heard the little suckers gnawing away on my facade. I used to take my tennis racket out on the porch and blast them whenever they would hover....would up spraying anyway since they had literally taken over my garage building.
Yeah, holes could lead to other damage.
Ciao
Ed
I guess I’m just a live and let live kind of guy, even with bugs unless they’re poisonous, or bite/sting. If it wasn’t for the wood damage to houses and outbuildings, I’d just let them do their thing, under the assumption that they serve a purpose in nature.
They do remember people, a coworker swatted one away from her face, sending it flying into the side of an A/C unit, pa-tinnggg. It sat there stunned for a few minutes looking crosseyed, then flew off. Now, every time she’s out there it hassles her.
I have no idea what their lifespan is, but they’ll go into a sort of suspended animation when the temp drops below fifty or so, hanging onto a brick wall or whatever. They’ll slowly revive when the sun hits them and temps get up into the sixties. Sort of strange, really.
i still do the same thing thing with a racquet ball racquet 8^)
Oh, same here. If it wasn’t for the damage I’d leave them be as well, they are good for flowers. I wish they would stick to wood in the forest. I have seen them even chase around flycatchers.
Freegards
I’m aware of the role of neonicotinoid pesticides in colony collapse disorder, and find it interesting that lately I’ve seen a number of articles on bee disappearance, that have made no mention of those pesticides. Monsanto and Bayer are fighting desperately to keep the public from finding out about neonicotinoids. Monsanto went so far as to buy Bee Logic, the principal bee research outfit, in order to quash investigation into the role of those pesticides in CCD (and those pesticides are now used as coatings on nearly all of the GMO crop seeds).
I had a problem with them once. They made a nest in the exterior door facing. I waited until it went in and plugged the hole.
It was very angrily buzzing but eventually died.
Fifty caliber is about right for the hole size at my house too
surprised they didn't chew their way out... i have rough-cut lumber siding varying from one-two inches thick on my house, i find piles of sawdust on the ground all summer long
Some critters can’t eat GM corn.
“Some critters can’t eat GM corn.”
Bumblebees don’t eat corn.
In January, I found honeybees feeding inside my bird feeder. I use black oil sunflower seeds and I think they were feeding off the oil on the seeds. Never seen that before.
Not in my neck of the woods.
Usually more of them around than I could shake a stick at!
They live in the ground around here, I’ve been doing alot of start-gardening, will probably see them any day now.
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