[NAFEX] Carpenter bees as pollinators
Mathew Waehner
waehner at gmail.com
Sun Apr 25 20:52:30 EDT 2010
I have tons of carpenter bees, and my blueberries are fine .
On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 8:13 PM, Richard Harrison <rharrison922 at yahoo.com>wrote:
> Ginda,
> But bumblebees can sting the %@#&* out of you! I had one attack me on
> my lawn mower once and he "buzzed" on the back of my thumbnail. I could FEEL
> the heat of his stinger. That was terrifying. I don't find carpenter bees
> nearly as terrifying, personally.
>
> Richard
>
> --- On *Sun, 4/25/10, Ginda Fisher <list at ginda.us>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Ginda Fisher <list at ginda.us>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Carpenter bees as pollinators
> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Sunday, April 25, 2010, 6:46 PM
>
>
>
> On Apr 25, 2010, at 8:21 AM, Alan Haigh wrote:
>
> The thing is that the entire population seems to be derived from just about
> 20 feet of 8" by 1" boards that are cosmetic trim on the south side of my
> stucco cement block house.
>
> Other orchards I manage nearby don't have a single carpenter bee working
> their trees and I'm thinking I could encourage them by creating nesting
> sites.
> http://www.ehow.com/how_5099006_build-nest-carpenter-bees.html
>
>
> I'd advise you against building nesting sites for them on your clients'
> property. Aren't most of your clients basically homeowners who like having
> some fruit trees on the property? Anyhow, carpenter bees might be fine for
> commercial orchards, but they have two real problems for home use:
>
> 1) They are really big and scary looking. They don't look soft and fluffy
> like a bumblebee. A friend had carpenter bees, and his whole family was
> terrified of them and wouldn't go outside until they exterminator took care
> of the problem.
>
> 2) They will dig holes in your house. You may not mind sacrificing one
> board of trim to the bees, but lots of people would, and if you have nests
> of them around, they might start a new nest and get into structural wood.
> (And even if that's not very likely, homeowners will worry about it.)
>
> Besides, commercial orchards and massive monoculture agriculture might need
> to specially raise or import pollinators, but I don't think pollination is
> generally a problem for the hobbyist or home orchardist unless he sprays to
> kill insects or something. I know that I don't do anything special to
> encourage pollinators, but I seem to have 3-4 species of bumble bee,
> something that looks like a small black honey bee (with a slightly oddly
> shaped torso) various wasp-y things, and lots of little flies that seem to
> buzz around whatever's in bloom. And all of my fruits seem to have pretty
> decent pollination, except possibly the cornus mas that flowers too early in
> the spring.
>
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>
>
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