okay need that eww icon again!!
(Something about mantises...)

She looks so very satisfied...

and so--er--full!

Shudder! I had to read all the comments before it sunk in - that's the same mantis that we saw earlier...

Waspsville



(in flight)


Best for last -->



Bumble bee


Mantis

I guess you'll be finding a mantis egg case around there pretty soon; probably on a nearby woody plant.

That's really an impressive assortment of wasps J!

Thanks Dirt

The wasps are not aggressive but the wind sways the goldenrods so much, a cluster of flowers full of wasps can get in my face. It's been pretty windy all week.

I was just on Facebook and the Florida Native Plant Society had a post about how good Goldenrods are for pollinators and it made me think of Jack's photos. And they again pointed out that Goldenrods do not cause allergies. Maybe if you snorted the pollen? I got my allergy shots today and I took a Zyrtec this morning and a Benadryl a few minutes ago. Doc says the mold counts are very high due to our wet weather. And we have an El Nino winter coming which means more wet weather. I'm going to start wearing a dust mask like my Dad wears when he's woodturning. It keeps out particles smaller than 1 micron! I'm tired of all this sneezing!

J that last wasp photo is terrific!

Thought some of you may like this. http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/09/...

Yes, it's true that many people think goldenrod causes alergies but it does-not. I think it's the ragweed that very often grows along side the goldenrod that causes much of the allergy problems. Ragweed flowers at the same time as goldenrod but is left unnoticed in the background while goldenrod shows off it's yellow blooms.

It's Folklore Friday at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and today is all about bees! From their Facebook post:

Folklore Friday: Bees pollinate a third of everything we eat and play a vital role in sustaining the planet’s ecosystems. At Corkscrew they make their hives in the hollows of the cypress, and usually go unnoticed unless pointed out by our naturalists. In addition to providing honey, bees are thought to have magical properties. The Greeks believed that a baby whose lips were touched by a bee would become a great poet or speaker. Ancient Egyptian pharaohs used the honeybee as a royal symbol. In Celtic mythology, bees were regarded as beings of great wisdom and as spirit messengers between worlds.

Other beliefs were that if the bees heard you quarrelling or swearing they would leave so you must talk to them in a gentle manner. It was a bad omen if a swarm settled on a dead branch for it meant death for someone in the bee keeper’s family or for the person who witnessed it. If a bee lands on your hand, it means money is coming your way. A single bee entering your house was a sign of good luck, usually in the form of wealth. Bees are, in some cultures, associated with purity because the worker bees that produce honey never mate. Honey was treated as a magical substance and used in many rituals. Mead, an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, was considered to have prophetic powers and was called ‘nectar of the Gods’. A bee may visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just one pound of honey. Thus, bees are associated with hard work and diligence. That is where the phrase “Busy as a bee” comes from. Author J.K. Rowling named Professor Albus Dumbledore for an archaic English word related to bees. She says that when writing, she imagined the headmaster of Hogwarts "wandering around the castle humming to himself," and so chose to associate his name with bees.

dang, I knew it, I should be wealthy

Ronnie that's an awesome link! I do like it and I checked out the Gardening and Landscaping practices for nesting natives and looked up a bunch of bees and got lost for a while like usual
Interesting that it is a 'local publication', for me anyway, and it validated the lazy wildness I have going on as good for nesting natives! Right on--any excuse to justify my gardening imperfections is good enough for me

I did spy a little mud nest the other day under a slightly overhung rock

not the greatest picture...but I had been gently warned while weeding at the base of the rock that I was too close to someone's nest so I had backed away...I didn't actually get to see who was dive-bombing my head

Just saw 3 Monarchs fluttering through my yard. One was fluttering on the ground with part of his wing bitten off (dang mantis)--saved by that nasty milkweed taste, I'm sure. I helped him onto the aster, where he stayed a while and nectared, and then flew off.

Neat picture, Dirt!

Yay Catmint!

Catmint20906 said:Just saw 3 Monarchs fluttering through my yard. One was fluttering on the ground with part of his wing bitten off (dang mantis)--saved by that nasty milkweed taste, I'm sure. I helped him onto the aster, where he stayed a while and nectared, and then flew off.

Cool pic Dirt

2 different mantis today, one is our old friend...

Bees + Flies

Bees







Bee & Fly



Flies