North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Hélène Dessureault <interverbis@videotron.ca>]

Like Ginda, we have lots of bumble bees. There are also other types of wild 
pollination insect which I have not identified, one in particular that live 
in a larger group like bees. They are bigger and look a bit like caucasian 
bees and live in the ground, which I noticed for the first time last Spring 
and have not identified. They are more territorial and more aggressive than 
bumble bees. I have not tried their sting. Like Ginda, we keep our 
environment pesticide and herbicide free, because it is a choice to make.

How can one intervene selectively, when we understand so little about what 
is really happening out there...

There use to be domestic bees around, but I have not seen them last year. We 
had a beekeeper keeping bees at our place  for many years but he gave up 
after having his hives destroyed by a very nasty big black bear, desperate 
enough to be indifferent to electric fences.

My pear trees were polinated last Spring by a very tiny insect looking more 
like a little wasp. There were many of them and I could not believe that 
such a small insect could pollinate effectively, but apparently they can do 
the job as I did not see any other. These little wasps were out in colder 
weather than bees and bumble bees.

Hélène, zone 3-4, north of Ottawa






----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ginda Fisher" <list@ginda.us>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] bumble bees


> No, I've never 'raised' bumble bees, but I have lots of wild ones.  I 
> plant
> a variety of things that flower throughout the year, and am very careful 
> to
> avoid spraying anything in bloom.  This seems to work to maintain a good
> population, and I have good fruit set in everything insect-pollinated.
> (currants, strawberries, apricots, blueberries, apples, raspberries.)  in
> the early fall I harvest raspberries as the bumbles work the blossoms.  I
> can pick within inches of the placid bees and have never been stung.  I'm 
> a
> big fan of bumblebees.
> ___
> Ginda
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