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#1 | |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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Took a couple of pictures of these squash bees this morning. Hard to get a good picture so deep are the big blooms.
Squash bees are ground nesters so be on the lookout. http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=16595 Quote:
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#2 | |
Great Horned Owl
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Northeastern MA
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"Know thyself." Oracle at Delphi |
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#3 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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Squash bees do not emerge until July. They live and breed while the summer squash,winter squash and pumpkins as well as gourds including a few wild vines like coyote gourd continue to bloom. Which even with one vine is a long time. The squash bees collect pollen and provision the eggs they lay then die. As long as each female lays a few eggs the next years squash bees are assured. Remember that unlike hive bees every single female lays eggs . There are no worker bees to go for supplies. Each female does it all for her own nest.
Great videos (Not mine) of squash bees and the sometimes called sunflower bee Melissodes. a picture from our garden today of a melissodes. This bee was moving so fast I could not get a clear shot...lol |
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#4 |
WG Hospitality & UAOKA recipient
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Pennsylvania
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What does the male do?
__________________
"If suburbia were landscaped with meadows, prairies, thickets or forests, or combinations of these, then the water would sparkle, fish would be good to eat again, birds would sing and human spirits would soar." ~ Lorrie Otto ~ A Native Backyard Blog ~ |
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#5 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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Drinks (nectar) and mates with the females. Thats it. Oh yes he sleeps in the blossoms while the female stays in the nest when not foraging.
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#6 | |
WG Hospitality & UAOKA recipient
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Pennsylvania
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Thanks for not saying "typical man". ![]()
__________________
"If suburbia were landscaped with meadows, prairies, thickets or forests, or combinations of these, then the water would sparkle, fish would be good to eat again, birds would sing and human spirits would soar." ~ Lorrie Otto ~ A Native Backyard Blog ~ |
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#7 | |
Great Horned Owl
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Northeastern MA
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Incredible videos. Makes one really appreciate what youtube has done for the world of information acquisition. So, I imagine the males are congregating waiting to fertilize the females who are yet to arrive, and then their jobs are done?? (My kind of work ![]() So, as I do have a couple of winter squash plants going, and as they have formed squash from the flowers, I must have had this species here? In the absence of these bees, are their other pollinators who would do the job??
__________________
"Know thyself." Oracle at Delphi |
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#8 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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Honey bees can do the job as do bumbles.But squash bees are most efficient at the job.The pollen in squash is large heavy grains that honey bees stuggle with. Look into squash blossoms early morning or open a few closed blossoms in late afternoon to maybe find a dozing male.
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#9 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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A few really good links for native bee information
http://www.xerces.org/download/pdf/PA_Pocket_Guide.pdf http://www.xerces.org/download/pdf/P...es%20Guide.pdf http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/upl...-benefits1.pdf third link has good pictures and info Most common other than bumble east of country. Andrena cragini Andrena daeckei Andrena duplicata Andrena helianthiformis Andrena ignota Andrena irrasus Andrena lamelliterga Andrena mendica Andrena peckhami Andrena wilmattae Caupolicana electa Centris errans Coelioxys bisoncornua Colletes andrewsi Colletes ciliatus Colletes longifacies Colletes titusensis Epeolus banksi Epeolus canadensis Epeolus carolinus Epeolus floridensis Epeolus lanhami Epeolus vernalis Hesperapis oraria Hylaeus flammipes Hylaeus formosus Hylaeus volusiensis Lasioglossum alachuense Lasioglossum stuartense Macropis patellata Macropis steironematis Megachile bahamensis Megachile ingenua Megachile integrella Megachile oenotherae Melissodes fimbriata Melissodes manipularis Melissodes pilleata Nomada aquilarum Nomada augustiana Nomada micheneri Nomada seneciophila Nomada vincta Osmia hyperborea Osmia illinoensis Osmia svenssoni Perdita floridensis Perdita graenicheri Perdita krombeini Perdita mitchelli Perdita nubila Perdita obscurata Perdita townesi Pseudopanurgus helianthi Pseudopanurgus pauper Sphecodes crawfordi Sphecodes exaltus Sphecodes galerus Sphecodes nigricorpus Sphecodes paraplesius Sphecodes smilacinae Sphecodes trentonensis Stelis permaculata Trachusa crassipes Trachusa dorsalis Triepeolus micropygius Triepeolus mitchelli Triepeolus monardae Triepeolus nigrihirtus Triepeolus quadrifasciatus atlanticus Triepeolus rufithorax Xeromelecta interrupta Lasioglossum dubitatum Lasioglossum wheeleri |
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#10 | |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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Watch these videos they are fun.
Sweat Bee: pictures, information, classification and more Quote:
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Tags |
bee, job, native, native bees, pollination, pumpkins, solitary, solitary bees, squash, squash bees |
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