I have bees living on the edge of my pond

[addy1]

Luckily the bush is covered with bumble bees, not those carpenter bees. They find wood they like and they go to town eating it making their nests.

 

[j.w]

I guess we have them (Carpenter bees) here also............of course I had to look it up and learned a bunch about different kinds of bees............ok, ok, you don't have to beg me to post the info.......here it is.
It's really quite interesting.

http://share3.esd105...s.htm#Sand_Wasp

 

[addy1]

Neat site, I didn't know that about the paper wasps, they now are on my protection list.

 

[paulm]

had a nest last year in thewall behind my pond half a gallon of petrol sorted them out very quickly :twisted: :goodnight:

 

[CometKeith]

jw, I loved that list. We had mud wasps a few year ago and our gutter cleaners disturbed their nest. Well now they won't clean our gutter anymore! My recommendation is to get a bull frog. They will naturally control the bees and wasps. Check out this video.

 

[j.w]

Ouch Keith that had to hurt that frog! Gosh I wonder if it could have killed the poor guy?

 

[addy1]

yep it looked like the bee made it, maybe, i am sure that frog had a swollen mouth.

 

[CometKeith]

Ever since i got my frog I have seen the wasp population by our house go way down and I don't think it is a coincidence. A hungry frog will eat almost anything they can get in their mouth. I read that they prefer flies but will also eat bees and wasps. Also it's interesting I tried giving our frog some dead flies that we ended up killing in our house. The frog barely touched them. They only like live prey.

 

[j.w]

I read today that dragonflies catch bees and eat them also.

 

[addy1]

Really jw? interesting, we have tons of dragon flies and tons of bees lol, but have not seen a lot of those nasty yellow jackets.

 

[taherrmann4]

I read today that dragonflies catch bees and eat them also.

It is funny you say that just last night while we were eating dinner my wife noticed about a dozen dragonflies flying like crazy around our Russian sage, there are a ton of bees on them so I wonder if they were picking up a meal. Will have to watch tonight.

 

[pinon ponder]

We have a couple of frogs that hang out at our pond then wander under the roses and other shrubs at night, eating crickets and other bugs, I suppose. They don't seem to care one wit for the wasps cuz I have quite a few buzzing around. I know we have a nest or two so will have to remedy that. In the meantime, I set up a trap from Lowes. It's a plastic cylinder that I fill with diluted maple syrup and hang by the pond. The wasps go in and get stuck in the syrupy liquid and drown. That'll teach them not to sting me.

 

[j.w]

Also read somewhere they will eat the small fry of fish............yikes!

Taken from Wikipjedia:

Dragonflies are valuable predators that eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, ants, and very rarely butterflies. They are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands because their larvae, known as "nymphs", are aquatic.

 

[addy1]

Well if you have a pond with plants you will have dragon flies. They like long tall stems to rest on.

 

[mikeinpgh]

I know I have at least 2 frogs. I only see them at night, but I only see the bees/wasps during the day.LOL I need to get them on the same schedule.
I also see dragonflies quite often.