A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening pollinators

I read in the paper that gardeners and farmers can expect less bumble bees and other pollinators this year. Has anyone noticed less this season? I am gardening in a new area for me so I can't say but since I have dozens of summer squash I assume something is pollinating it!

Dont know how they can count them?

I am on the farm, I see no difference. No hives here to notice .

I was commenting just the other day that I have seen very few honey bees this year. we have the same number of wasps, dragon flys and hummers, but I can count on one hand the number of honey bee's I've seen. we do have double the butterflies, though. there is a bee man that lives down the street. we try and get some honey from him each year, what ever he has left over after his local distributor sells. hubby talked to him the other day. this year he hasn't had the time to even check out the hives so he doesn't know what he has or doesn't have bee wise or honey wise. I was really wanting to get his take on the bee situation.

There are lots of bee's here.. wasps and yellow jackets also,, I haven't seen hardly any butterfly's this season,, or dragon flys .

That is the Texas story I always hear.
No butterflys......Up here in zone 5 we have all colors of butterflys.
Swallowtails, brown ones. black. white , yellow......all sizes...Guess they love my flowers..

PS so do the dang japanese beetles.....

Dodge: I have heard that placing white geranuims and larkspur around one's plants will keep them away from blackberries--so why wouldn't it work for other plants?/ Worth a try anyway I think.

Well I dont have either one.Wahhhhhh


I have marigolds which are supposed to do that , and the beetles are eating the heck out of mine.
I sprayed with soapy water with alchol, hot pepper........Beetles stayed.

Now what??

I live less than a mile from a bee farm...I haven't noticed a difference

and we have these huigh bettles from some where this year

Yesterday here in Penna. about 12 miles from me. A bee hive was discovered in some ladys Carpet Business Warehouse.......
Showed it on tv.....The one experts said it housed around 80,000 bees and had to be surgerically removed..........LOL
True story.......I seen it .....

SO the moral of the story.....Maybe Pennsylvanis is hogging the bees.

How do your get rid of them?

haven't and they scare the heck out of me everytime I see one they are so big

Hot pepper and soap and alchol didnt do it for me.

Think I will go to the Lowes and Hunt some Neem..............

??????????

I'll have to try and get a picture of one, what do yours look like?

I hear if you put out those "beetle bags" the scent draws them TO you from MILES around.

Yes and the scent draws everone elses beetles too ........It is not good.

I have to get a photo of the beetles.LOL

Here they are.Japanese beetles..



Pennsylvania Japanese Beetles.......yuk

You know I saw a show last year about honey bees colony collapse disorder and they showed how in China they have no honey bees to pollinate the fruit trees and they grow these special pears (I think it was) and so they have to pollinate by hand with long sticks and that raises the price tremendously!
All we need is something else to raise produce/food prices!

I am doing my part, raising flowers.
COme bees come.

Well I have yellow and black something around here. I don't know if they are bees or wasps and I don't really want one to get close enough for my poor eyesight to identify it. I have lots of grasshoppers and butterflies.

fortunately the ticks and spiders hate the smell of eucaliptus and I now have it all over the house. Next payday I'm buying a bunch for underneath the house. Ugh.

have you tried seven dust

Do you mean Sevrin?
Doest do much at all..
b

yep, about all you can do I guess unless you dstand there and plug them off and kill them

see here it says hand picking (I don't have that kind of time myself)
Killing Japanese Beetles
Gardeners have come up with many ways to kill Japanese Beetles. One of the most effective, albeit tedious, ways to get rid of the beetles is to hand pick the adults off plants and kill them. Having a can of soapy water to drop them in when they are removed form the plant is the simplest way to do this. While this might not sound effective it is an excellent method.

Japanese beetles can draw many other adult Japanese Beetles to an area. In fact, the beetles will fly up to five miles to find a mate, look for food, or find a hospitable nursery for its eggs. The pheromone traps found at nurseries can make a bad situation worse by actually attracting more beetles than they trap.

Pesticides are not a good choice for the environment or the person using them. If you are determined to use pesticides against Japanese beetles, check with the garden center in your area. Different pesticides are available in different locations so they will be able to advise you for your particular situation.

An organic control method has been developed and is becoming popular with gardeners in many areas. Milky Spore disease is applied to the ground in your garden. The grubs of the Japanese beetle eat the powdery bacterium and it kills the grub by multiplying in its system. Once the grub is dead and begins to decay the bacterium are released back into the soil and other grubs eat it. This creates an ongoing cycle which can protect your garden from the Japanese beetle.

Since the Milky Spore bacteria are living organisms, they continually regenerate themselves as they feed on the beetle grubs. The bacterium can last for up to ten years and is safe to use around children and pets. It is non-toxic to wildlife. The powder can be found in many garden shops and on the Internet.

Because it interrupts the lifecycle of the beetle, it is not an instant fix. You will need to continue to handpick adult beetles off your plants. For best results spread Milky Spore over your property following the directions on the canister. This should be done in late July or early August. Reapply Milky Spore in the spring.

There are many homemade remedies for killing Japanese beetles. Some of them may work for you. Give them a try and see if you are happy with the results. If not, it is back to old faithful- hand picking

Thanks Belinda..... Even us farmers have to suffer............

Couldnt find Neem yesterday.......So I guess we suffer.

whooo...I feel for you, just could not see me standing there picking them off.

You dumb farmer Belinda.

BY AN ANGEL.!