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Navarre,OH

I usually go out to the garden first thing in the morning to either spray or pollinate,etc. but lately its been scary going out there! Got stung two days in a row by bumblebee's!
These things around here are very moody. If they are working and you get too close they chase you away! I guess its kind of hard to walk away with no stings considering there is a swarm of bee's every morning. You get 10 ft from my garden you can hear the buzzing because there are so many bee's. Bumble and honey bee's. Anyone else ever have problems getting chased outta your own garden by your very own little garden helpers? LOL
Also this may be for the bee experts. I have been seeing also alot of bumblebee's looking for flowers in the evening. Thought bee's did their work in the morning not dusk?

7/21/2010 12:59:15 AM

Mingo Co. WV

No they are active from first to last light though they are most active from early middle of the day . I have alot of bees around 7 hives but I have seen what seem like a higher number of bumble bees this year . I do know in honey bees some hives are more aggressive than others .

7/21/2010 1:47:57 AM

British Columbia

If you see bees looking at flowers in the evening around the squash patch it is probably a squash flower bee, or also called hoary squash bee. These are the males looking for a place to sleep. They sleep in the flowers of squash and of course pumpkin plants. The females I believe are also solitary and burrow in logs or the ground. I do not know these bees to sting. Not saying they can't but they are pretty docile little creatures. Unlike the yellow jackets whose nest I disturbed this evening while putting up some fencing!
Sorry about you getting stung but I really like see native bees doing their thing - it means nature is alive and hopefully well.

7/21/2010 1:52:17 AM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

For the past four years running, I have been swarmed with cicada killers. These things are black and yellow, about and inch and a half long, and very nasty looking. However, they don't sting humans. As you stated above, they can be heard before I enter the patch.

7/21/2010 5:28:47 AM

Middle TN

My patch is a bumble bee swarm every morning too. Ive been lucky and havent got stung in the morning pulling blooms but yesterday afternoon I got stung in the neck when I was pulling blooms before they opened. Guess he didnt like me messing with his breakfast! lol
Tammy

7/21/2010 6:41:45 AM

Charlotte, NC

My patch is not that large, but what there is, the bees visit. I have always been afraid of insects that fly and sting...bees, wasps, etc. My new found excitement for pumpkin growing has, however, allowed me to overcome this fear. I'm not sure that would have been as easy in your patch Bilium. Nearing a patch with that buzzing sound would seem awful creepy to me.
In any event, the bees around here ar all three types, honey, bumble, and hoary. If they are nesteld in a bloom and doing their thing, I reach a finger in the bloom and pet the little critters. They mostly show up in numbers in the morning and are gone by mid-afternoon.
You may have bees from a colony that is partly Africanized, but only just. IIRC, bees seem to forget whats going on around them when they are busy doing what they do, which makes it easier to work in the patch, at least for me anyway.

7/21/2010 7:37:27 AM

Navarre,OH

The main reason is there is a bumblebee hive in the ground in the front yard and another way out behind the garden in my neighbors yard. Maybe the nest in the front remembered me from mowing the lawn. LOL Its a royal PIA mowing the lawn with bumblebee's in the ground! Weird never been stung all these times mowing the lawn but two times in a row bending down in the garden. I was divebombed a few dozen times this morning pollinating another marrow. Luckily I left w/o battle scars this time.

7/21/2010 8:51:35 AM

Columbus,ohio

I should know my native pollinaters better considering AI hae 5 hives of honeybees, but I think the ones that dive bomb you are carpenter bees. The ones that fight with each other. It was really funny when the capenter bees where setting out there terotories, and they where chasing around my honey bees one at a time. Even though there where hundreds in the air at a time that I could see.

7/21/2010 10:38:58 AM

Charlotte, NC

those carpenters will chase a pebble through the air. The next time you see one hovering around its territory toss a small pebble or other object close to it and it will try and attack it. My kids had fun for a long time doing this last week while mowing the lawn. They are either supremely territorial, or just plain ole dumb.

7/21/2010 12:34:54 PM