I've mentioned many times how much I love bees! When Sophie and I went out to check the mail yesterday, we passed by the Bee Balm to check out any visitors. WOAH! I saw bees unlike any that I've seen before (and I studied bees so I've seen a lot!). They are MASSIVE in size. I RAN to get the camera.
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We have Carpenter bees around our home but these are definitely larger. Substantially larger.
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Someone suggested they might be drones. Not a chance! I got really close and they have pointy abdomens, a sure sign of females.
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They are not even remotely aggressive. Thank goodness.
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Their heads and abdomens are very black.....
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......with a lot of dense yellow "fur" near the wings.
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I had to do some research and find out what they were.
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My best guess is the Giant Resin Bee. A bee not native to this area but one that was likely introduced from somewhere in Asia in the mid 90's. North Carolina was the first state to notice their presence. Fascinating! I discovered a brand new bee in our yard. I feel like such a scientist!!!!
(Someone named that plant Bee Balm for a reason!!! It's a bee fest at all times of the day. I love it!)
In other stinging insect news.....
Alain ran in the house this morning and asked me to grab my camera. He'd found a hornet (?) with a massive green glob in its mouth. This was the best picture I could get because I only had my small lens with me. I wish I knew what that green glob was....
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I always have a ton of bees on my basil plant so I snapped a quick shot while I was there. I think this might be that Giant Resin Bee again!
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If by chance there's anyone still reading.....thanks for indulging my love of bees!
I think we have this same bee! Guess what, Richard thinks we have one even bigger, it's insanely huge and we have no idea what it is!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I love bees too and it is my dream to be a beekeeper and harvest their honey!
P.S. Maybe the wasp had that in its mouth to make a nest somewhere? I don't like wasps like I like bees! I have to swat the wasps alway from my hummingbird feeder!
Wow, Audrey, these are fantastic photos! So cool to see these bees in action and learn more about them. We have carpenter bees in Arizona too, but they are about 2" long - no kidding - giant, great big black bees that are super loud when they come flying by.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the green glob on the wasp is pollen. We saw a documentary recently that showed bees up close, and they had yellow fuzzy looking stuff stuck on their bodies and the narrator said it was pollen they'd gathered. I saw it first hand on the bee/sunflowers I took a couple of weeks ago. Gosh, it's just so cool to see stuff like that in your own yard, isn't it?
I'm signed up for a few summer classes through Jeanne Oliver's blog and remember one of the classes on the list was a beekeeping class - I believe the fee is only $10. Just checked it out and it begins tomorrow. Here's the link: http://jeanneoliverdesigns.com/blog/2013/07/12/the-basics-of-beekeeping-begins-on-monday/
Really cool post and awesome photos!