I was going to reply on the old thread, but decided I should copy and paste into the new. Not sure what is the best practice here when quoting stuff from the old thread?
dirtdorphins said:Morgan, I had to laugh while reading your last post--yes, the wildly successful 'invaders' really do breed prolifically, adapt to all kinds of challenges and perform better in the overall competition for resources don't they 
Unfortunate that they are so often such nasty things, 
Japanese beetles, ugh
and where in the world did the roaches and rats come from???
I didn't even know for the longest time that our beloved honeybees were the invaders
and of course, hands down, most of what I see are the ever present mobs of H. sapiens
nativeplantlover said:I too only see Cabbage Whites Sad , but as far as wasps go -there's loads of variety here and they prefer the Broad-Leaved Mountain Mint. The Japanese beetles had a heyday for a few weeks then they petered out. Here there's actually more Bumble bees than any other bee, next the sweat type bees. and like you there's waaay too many sparrows but lots of Blue Jays, Cardinals, Chickadees, Goldfinches, Wrens, and a few Hummingbirds too. I live in a small town in Lancaster County, PA
I have been lucky enough to have never seen a rat or cockroach yet. Maybe I am far enough from the city to be safe from them! I do see periodic swarms of pigeons though.
How could I forget about the honey bees! I have lots of them too, but luckily I also have lots of other bees. I've been studying the bumble bees more and have my little identification key to help me. It seems like early in the season I see mostly the Two-spotted Bumblebee (Bombus bimaculatus) and Brown-belted Bumblebee (Bombus griseocollis), then by August it's almost entirely the Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens). I've seen four other Bombus species here, but not as often. I had one sighting a year ago of the Rusty-patched Bumblebee (Bombus affinis) which is listed as "critically imperiled" here. That's what got me starting looking more closely at all the bumble bees. I started some mountain mint from seed this year and it's just starting to bud now. I'm hoping the bees like it a lot.
Unfortunately I haven't seen much insect wise this past week since it's been a lot cooler and rainy. I've been seeing some good birds though. Saw some warblers, several species of good sparrows, and my first Eastern Towhee in ten years!
