"A corridor for pollinating #insects
can be successfully grown within urban constraints. We plant for native #bees and wasps, beetles, butterflies, moths, flies and more.
"Increasing insects is the start. Then come the birds. I want blue wrens, but we need insects first, then we can plant what small #birds need, we can look at people’s front yards, we can build on the foundation."
I have an energy impairment so i am always on the lookout for chill, seated projects you can do in brief sessions. Lately I've been trying to identify my various yard #bumblebees .
I think this one is Bombus mixtus, the fuzzy-horned bumblebee. Their butt stripes go yellow-black-orange, they seem to be passionate about pollinating raspberries, and last year they nested under our #compost heap.
These Bee ID Cards from the BC Native Bee Society have been the most helpful #bumblebee field guides so far. I love focused guides for small regions, rather than wading through an encyclopedia of North American Insects.
Please don't let anyone intimidate you out of gardening. Or make you feel like your efforts aren't good enough, or that you're not knowledgeable or wealthy enough to even try.
Last year I posted a collage of butterflies I'd recorded in my garden. And I said that gardening doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive. Wildlife will appreciate any attempts you make to provide them a home.
I got a "well actually..." reply cutting me down & implying I was being elitist.
It has bothered me ever since.
To me, "gardening" just means growing stuff. It doesn't matter if it's just a few flowers on a patio, or if your "flower pots" are scavenged from a recycle bin, or if your "soil" is just dirt scraped up from somewhere.
The butterflies literally will not care if your marigolds came from Walmart.
Snobbery is a human thing. Please don't let it stop you from gardening in whatever way or capacity you want.
:boost_requested: I am looking for a support native pollinators/biodiversity/etc sticker and maybe shirt that actually has entirely US native wildlife (even better, eastern side better yet southeast region). Everything on Etsy has a honeybee on it and Im tired of looking. And just a monarch or main bit being a monarch is too tropey. Help! Boost away! #art#artists#artodon#artistsofmastodon#biodiversity#pollinators
May 20 is World Bee Day. There are ~ 20,000 different bee species in the world. Here in Ontario we have at least 400 native bees (none of which are the honeybees, which are from Europe). Bees are key to pollination. According to the UN nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops. Further, worldwide ~35% of invertebrate #pollinators, especially bees & face extinction.
I just found out it's World Bee Day! In celebration, here's a trio of pictures from 2020: a rather pollen-covered eastern carpenter bee (𝘟𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘢 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢) enjoying a rose of Sharon (𝘏𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘴).
A #paperWasp queen made a nest under the lid of the storage bench in my communityGarden plot. We’ll be gently opening and closing it from now on. They’re docile, and avid #pollinators, so I think we can share the storage bench. We’ll see…
🐝✨👀🙂
The #paperWasp queen was studying me while I took some photos this evening. I’m still thinking about making her own wasp house, like a small version of a birdhouse. I gotta do it soon though before her helpers emerge. 😉🫶🐝💕
Entomologists, #paperWasp people, I have a question.
I want to relocate the small paperWasp nest with the queen to the wooden waspHouse we made. She made a nest under the small plastic storage bench lid. It’s been awkward every time I open the lid.
What’s the best way to re-attach it to the waspHouse? Thank you for your ideas and insights.
I’ve done it before (pls see the video above), using a twist tie, but as the nest got heavier, it failed to support the weight.
May will start to bring spring flowers in more profusion, though this particular one is not yet blooming here. It's pretty ubiquitous here, once it takes hold, as you can read in the linked post on my site. Enjoy this, as the bees obviously do!
Went out to feed the birds this a.m. & saw something "mounted" to a back porch support beam. Closer inspection revealed it was a very large #moth. My ID app suggests Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) with an average wingspan of 6". It was just chilling during the a.m. storms. I hoped it would open up but it just stayed motionless. It was quite dark so the pics aren't the best. Antennae are very cool!
(05/02/24)