Nature Lesson
My office building has wood trim. About this time each year I’m treated to little lizards preening on the railings of building’s back porch and carpenter bees swooping between me and the holes they’ve made in the trim.
This morning I had the radio on and was half listening to the Lawn and Garden Show, hosted by Walter Reeves, on WSB here in Atlanta. Walter is a garden god as best I can judge by what he knows and I don’t about taxonomy, soil pH and so on.
A caller posed a problem. Her eight year old daughter is running into the house terrified by carpenter bees. What can she do? Walter suggested she “empower” her daughter by giving her a tennis racket and offering her fifty cents for each body she brought in.
My thought, point out that the bees are males and can’t sting her. Let her know that they also swoop to trees and bushes and pollinate them, creating the flowers she sees everywhere this time of year. Might reduce the terror and increase the girl’s appreciation of the little things around her.
6 comments:
Dave - I like your approach, but as I recall, those suckers zoom in for what appears to be a sure kill shot faster than almost anything else known to man. Which can be highly unnerving, no matter what you know about their proclivities and preferences.
Even if you are, say, a 19 year old male. Standing on a ladder 20 feet up, holding a bucket of brown stain right next to a white stucco wall.
Hypothetically.
I can understand how she feels about the carptenter bees. They are really intimidating.
You can Spray them with gasoline and freeze them and then light them on fire! LOL that is what we do in the hicks.
Of course, that might be taken wrong at an office building in the city... LOL... watch out for Dave... he done lost his mind.
Thanks for the shout-out Dave!
As I remember the conversation, the mother said she was aware that the bees were males...but the daughter was unnerved even so. And we discussed whether carpenter bees are good pollinators (they aren't; see http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/pollination/other_pollinating_bees.htm). But still and all...I don't get too worked up about carpenter bee damage...bust 'em if they bother you, leave 'em alone if you don't.
Walter Reeves
I'm thinking Pos told his story, in the short form.
Pos, Red and Mr. Reeves (I sent him a link to the post), my city bees are benign. They less swoop than meander. If they make an assault at me, I know they are going to stop somewhere short of my body.
Finally, Mr. Reeves' caller did indeed say that she knew they were males.
Now I'm going to do a post on the cute lizards, once I find out what the little red thing on their throat, that puffs out is called.
"If something annoys you, kill it." That's a hell of a lesson to teach a child.
Entomology is one of my hobbies. I've studied and enjoyed insects all of my life. I think a much better approach would have been to teach her what wonderful creatures these little guys really are.
(When I have a little extra money, this is one of only a handful of charities I contribute to: Xerces.org.)
I believe the lizard part is a "dewlap".
As opposed to the American "donelap", observed at many business lunch spots, though less often with the general demise of the neck-tie and buttoned collar.
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