What’s hopping on my bottom board?
Tracey, a beekeeper in Seattle, wrote to say she and her husband noticed “little jumping bugs (wingless) hanging out with dead bees on the bottom board” of her hives and asked if I would look at some photos. She said, “It’s pretty tiny, maybe 1 mm, and it can hop straight up a good 4-8 […] Read more
Are bees insects or animals?
The short answer is yes, bees are both insects and animals. In fact, all insects are animals, and pretty much anything that’s not a plant, fungus, bacterium, virus, or protist is an animal too. I’m dating myself here, but when I attended grade school, everything was either a plant or an animal—those were the only […] Read more
Buy seeds, not ‘cides
While you peruse the seed catalogs in the coming weeks, don’t forget to provide food and habitat for beneficial insects such as lacewings, lady bugs, stink bugs, hover flies, assassin bugs, and parasitic wasps. By attracting beneficials to our gardens, we can get away from using insecticide . . . and avoiding insecticide is the […] Read more
On entoms, pesticides, and human extinction
Except for bees, my study of entoms has been sparse. Today I often wonder why I didn’t study insects—instead of agronomy—when I was an undergraduate. But when I look back at my courses, I remember. I took two entomology courses as an undergraduate, one of which was called “Economic Entomology.” As I remember, it had […] Read more
Another denizen of the apiary
While I was photographing apiary creatures, this one stopped by and landed on a peach tree. I know it’s in the order Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) but that sums up my knowledge. Still, it’s pretty and deserves to have its fifteen minutes of fame.
Pollinators smile and say cheese
I admire folks who can take good insect pictures. Regardless of the equipment you have, they are extremely difficult to do. Yesterday I noticed a tiny bee going in and out of a mason bee condo. She was much smaller and quicker than a mason bee and I really wanted her portrait. I snapped several […] Read more