Re: Fw: Bee's swarming

Yellow jackets can indeed be a bit irritating at time.  Not so much in
the spring and summer, but as our summers are usually quite dry here in
the Pac NW, they can get downright fierce in the autumn.  (The dry
weather causes their food supply to dwindle over time and, after the
first frost, most of their normal food supply is gone.)

Yellow jackets eat nectar but they are not very good pollinators as they
have no body hairs to trap the pollen.  We have few summer flowers
because of the dry weather so they don't have that food source by
mid-August.  

But their main source of food is flies, caterpillars and spiders.  These
all but disappear after the first frost, leaving huge populations of
hungry yellow jackets in autumn.  Sometimes our autumns can be quite
warm and the yellow jackets are out in force.  I've heard of hunters
losing an entire deer carcass to them.

We do, indeed, have a large number of native bees as well.

Steve  (Maritime...)

rosenlund wrote:
> 
> Interesting stories.... head full of bees... wow..
> 
> Do domestic honeybees chase off yellow jackets or is it the other way
> around. I'm allergic (highly sensitive really) to honeybees, but they
> are of course much more friendly then them nasty yellow jackets.  Our
> old home (just 30 minutes away) had lots of yellow jackets, even
> about our dozen fruit trees.
> 
> My father raised honeybees as a kid in 4-H, but he is deadly allergic
> to honey bee stings as well as my brother.  Neither of us fear bees
> though.  My son at 4 years of age called me outside one day to show
> me a ''trick''... waited for a Bumble bee to land on a flower and
> carefully petted it... it was just darling... I did have to get after
> him for ''trapping'' them into the foxglove blooms. Children!
> 
> Here at our new home in Douglas Fir Forest land of Pacific Northwest,
> I was very surprised at all the mason bees and Bumble bees we have.
> They love my flowers and old roses. Only a few yellow jackets and
> honeybees. Would an introduction of honeybees (only a few small fruit
> trees in my new garden and a dozen or so old homestead fruit trees
> within a mile or so)  chase off the lovely Bumble Bees?
> 
> Basically, what's the ''pecking order" (if any) of these four bees?
> Aren't Yellow Jackets pests or do they pollinate?
> 
> Dried Rose Geranium or Lemon Geraniums leaves soaked in fresh honey
> is most yummy.
> 
> Sincerely,
> ~Carleen~
> Keeper of Sheep & Old Roses
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