Page 1
Page 1
Started By
Message

Showing some love to our native bees

Posted on 4/21/25 at 6:48 pm
Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 6:48 pm
These are some of the native bees I've seen around my place over the past couple years or so.



















































Posted by Tigerlaff
FIGHTING out of the Carencro Sonic
Member since Jan 2010
21485 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 6:57 pm to
Cool thread. Love me a good bee.
Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 7:04 pm to
There are so many of them and they're all so different.
Posted by Mushroom1968
Member since Jun 2023
3611 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 7:21 pm to
Great pictures what kind of bee is this?

Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 7:56 pm to
That's a Pure Green Sweat Bee.

quote:

Augochlora pura is a solitary sweat bee found primarily in the Eastern United States. It is known for its bright green color and its tendency to forage on a variety of plants. Inhabiting rotting logs, this bee can produce up to three generations per year. Both males and females have been observed licking sweat from human skin, most likely seeking salt


Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 8:01 pm to
This one is a Southern Plains Bumble Bee, and it is an endangered species.
Posted by MemphisGuy
Member since Nov 2023
10604 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 9:31 pm to


Looks too much like a yellow jacket. It would have to die.
Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/21/25 at 10:39 pm to
quote:

Looks too much like a yellow jacket. It would have to die.

That is a Black and Yellow Nomad Bee, and I held the flower just below it to get a decent pic because the wind was blowing. It paid me no mind. They're sometimes called cuckoo (like the bird) bees because they are nest parasitoids, targeting the nests of other solitary ground bees. They mainly just target a couple of distinct species. They invade the ground nests and lay their egg inside the egg of the other bee. The nomad bee hatches before the other bee, and consumes it and the provisions left for it.

Everything has a check in Nature, even bees.
Posted by cgrand
HAMMOND
Member since Oct 2009
43086 posts
Posted on 4/22/25 at 6:19 am to
great thread

most people only see honeybees (maybe) because they cultivate a monoculture and use pesticides. The other amazing thing is all the different pollinating wasps and moths.

It really is awesome to watch them all work
Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/22/25 at 10:58 am to
quote:

The other amazing thing is all the different pollinating wasps and moths.

There are so many wasp species, and they're hard to identify. I'm at somewhere between forty or fifty species verified(ish) around my place. Even in this part of the world there are a bunch of species that haven't been identified or described yet, so trying to figure out what they are is pretty much impossible.

I'm at over 130 moth species now.
Posted by ApisMellifera
SWLA
Member since Apr 2023
571 posts
Posted on 4/22/25 at 11:02 am to
What do you use to identify them with? Just compare your pictures with others online or do you use something like iNaturalist?
Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/22/25 at 11:15 am to
I use iNaturalist mostly. Sometimes I use Bugguide.net because those people really know their stuff. iNat can get you close on most things if you take a minute or two to really compare.
Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/26/25 at 12:01 am to
I meant to share this in this thread, but forgot. This is a good overview of the process the EPA uses for pesticide approval and regulations. That process and the practice the EPA follows is problematic for native bees (and other native pollinators in general) because for all insecticide tests and approvals they use the non-native Western/Eurpean Honeybee as a proxy or surrogate for all other native bees.

This podcast episode gives some explanation as to why that is problematic, including the fact that the Western/European Honeybee is drastically different than the large majority of our native bees. Those great differences amount to the potential for drastically different impacts from insecticides. We have minimal, as in nearly no, understanding of how commonly used insecticides impact native bees and other native pollinators.

Anyway, it is worth the time for anyone interested.

Posted by LegendInMyMind
Member since Apr 2019
65856 posts
Posted on 4/26/25 at 12:03 am to
This is another episode, the second episode of their podcast, and is also good. It is more of an overview of native ground nesting bees.

first pageprev pagePage 1 of 1Next pagelast page
refresh

Back to top
logoFollow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News
Follow us on X, Facebook and Instagram to get the latest updates on LSU Football and Recruiting.

FacebookXInstagram