I'm trying solve the mystery of my rather large number of "bee pods" in my garden this year. I have never had so many, (most years I have none) and this year they are almost all on plants in a particular part of the garden - not randomly distributed. Furthermore, there are plants where every bloom stalk has a pod, sometimes more than one.

In the past when I have has bee pods, they've always been empty. So, I just broke open an immature pod that was a goner anyway because the stalk had broken off. It looked to me as if there were a line of tiny white immature seeds inside. I have no way of knowing if they would have matured into anything.

This year in my garden I have often seen a tiny iridescent fly that I don't recall noticing before (though that doesn't mean it wasn't there). I found this on the web, and this seems to be it:
https://ohioline.osu.edu/facts...

They are pollinators! Last year, my sweet peppers were amazing. I thought it was the alfalfa tea, but maybe these guys were involved.

Well it's possible and an interesting concept because we always just assume the bees did it I usually just have a couple of bee pods a year and have lots of Iris plants. But mine usually do have seeds.

I have 10 pods this year, only 2 of which are on blooms that I deliberately fertilized. But they are on 3 plants, all near each other. On another thread, @janwax mentioned having 8 pods and she has way more iris than I do.

Hover flies are good pollinators, look a lot like a bee, but gravitate more toward flowers that have a somewhat stinky smell. For nstance I have a white seedling mum with small flowers almost like chamomile that the hover flies absolutely love! For years I thought these insects were some sort of wild honey bee, but then a friend told me what they were.