Give Thanks To Squash Bees

Thanksgiving and Halloween are over, but I forgot 

to show my appreciation for a very special bee! 

 

A critical pollinator, the squash bee is often mistaken for honeybees. Still, there is a difference as squash bees only pollinate plants in the group of herbaceous vegetables in the gourd family, including pumpkins, summer and winter squash, zucchini, and gourds. 

Thanks to the squash bee, we have pumpkins to carve for Halloween and tasty vegetables to eat at Thanksgiving! 

 

The Mason Bee - A Mighty Pollinator!

 

The Mason Bee - A Mighty Pollinator!

When most of us hear the word “bee,” an image of a honeybee or bumblebee comes to mind. However, there are so many other kinds of bees that most people don’t know exist.

There are two distinct groups of bees; some are social, and others are solitary. Honey and bumblebees are social; they live together in large colonies or hives. Other bees, like the mason bee, live solitary lives, building their nests, laying eggs, and stockpiling food for their young in them. So how are mason bees different than honey or bumblebees?

First, they don’t make honey, nor do they sting (unless you squeeze them!). If a mason bee stings you, the sting isn’t painful. Mason bees are super-pollinators because one mason bee can do the work of about seventy-five honeybees! A very impressive bee!

Bees And Blooms

 Bees and Blooms

What plants do bees prefer? Different species of bees prefer different types of flowers. Bees generally prefer plants that produce both nectar and pollen and are attracted to gardens with various flowering plants.

The Pollinator Partnership (www.pollinatorpartnership.org) has a fantastic website to help with plant selections for your garden. Their plant selections are tailored to specific areas of the United States. You get a free guide per your “ecoregion” by entering your zip code. You’ll get a manual with beautiful photos that include 24 pages of native planting information and in full PDF format.

A honeybee on a Blue Daze (Evolvulus species) in my Florida garden. This plant is a rarity as it offers genuine blue flowers! It also blooms non-stop and the sky-blue flowers stand out against its silvery, greyish-green foliage. It is excellent for containers, garden beds or borders where it spills out over edges creating a soft-looking landscape. Check your planting zone for compatibility.

Read and Rhyme!

 Why it is Time to Read and Rhyme!

 

Now a classic fable, Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" was my childhood favorite. Why? Because it was silly, it rhymed, and my dad used to make funny faces whenever he read it to me. The rhyming cadence of the book made it easier for him to alter the rhythm in his voice; it didn't slip into a monotonous one as it did with the boring "Dick and Jane" books.

 

I started to make up my rhymes just for fun and jot them down in my stories as I was learning to write. When I became a teenager, I immediately developed a love of poetry. As an adult, I'd make my kids laugh (or roll their eyes) as I spoke to them in rhymes. I read all of Dr. Seuss's books to them too. 

 

Today's research shows that Dr. Seuss' books served as a gateway to the phonics-based approach to learning how to read. Rhyme is essential for teaching children to read the structures and patterns of both spoken and written language. It also prepares them to make predictions while learning words, giving them crucial decoding skills.

 

Besides, it is fun to read a rhyming book, so I like to write children's books that rhyme. Children should enjoy learning, and they will experience how fun rhyming books are, whether they are read to by you or read it themselves. So, create delightful memories while building your child's self-expression confidence to read. You'll discover teaching children to rhyme is anything but a waste of time! 

Below: A sneak peek at the first page of my rhyming children's book: "Can You See If I'm A Bee?"

Avoid Pesticides

You can use different gardening techniques to prevent insect infestations and avoid the use of pesticides that harm bees and other pollinators.

The best way to avert pest and disease problems in your garden is through appropriate plant selection. Choosing plants that are adapted to the climate and that are not prone to major pest problems helps avoid the use of pesticides. I frequently recommend the use of native plants in landscapes because they are better suited for the environment in which they became naturalized. Native plants are also more beneficial for native pollinators than exotic plants.

If a plant in your garden always has an insect pest attacking it, remove and replace it with something else. In places such as vegetable gardens and annual flower beds which are continually being replanted season after season, rotating crops and annuals is a good solution. Certain insects will die without their host plant, so the insect infestation goes away when crops are rotated. Therefore, vary what you plant in those areas as often as you can.

There are also homemade remedies (the internet is the best resource) that are useful against garden pests. Insecticidal soaps are also effective but must be applied safely to protect pollinators. Spray at dawn or dusk when the pollinators are not present; this gives the spray enough time to dry. The residue that remains on the plant surface is not toxic to pollinators.

The more we learn about pesticides, the more we discover how unhealthy they are for the environment and humans. Research has also shown that pesticides create more problems than they solve. Continually killing pests with insecticides makes them become more resistant to chemicals. It also kills the good insects that prey on pests, breaking nature’s delicate balance. Fostering this balance is what every gardener should strive for in order to keep our world safe for not only ourselves but for our beneficial insects and pollinators.

Wonderful Wildlife Illustrator

A special shout out to Jonathan Woodward, an award-winning wildlife illustrator who shares my love of conservation. Jonathan specializes in working in a traditional cut-paper collage style using recycled magazines.

Thanks, Jonathan, my book wouldn’t have been the same without your wonderful illustrations!

Check out his beautiful illustrations and products: @JonathanWoodwardStudio or jonathanwoodwardstudio.bigcartel.com

 

A Learning Journey About Bees

 A Learning Journey About Bees

Did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bees? Everyone recognizes the honeybee, but would you be able to identify any other bees if you saw them? 

 I couldn’t identify anything but the honey and bumble bee until I did some research on bees while designing an outdoor classroom for an elementary school. A whole new, amazing world was revealed to me. I learned that having so many different species of bees is vital to our environment and food sources and that they are in danger of becoming extinct. I became interested in conserving them and I wanted others to feel the same way; especially children because their future depends on it.

 I decided to share information with the elementary school children about how to identify some of the different bee species. I came up with a simple guessing game for them so that they’d have fun while learning about bees. Just a photograph of each type of bee with the prompt: “Can You See If I’m A Bee?” started their learning journey. It was so popular that I took it a step further by writing a rhyming book that shares the same title.

Join me in learning how to identify bees and teaching children more about them!

                                                              Hello! I'm a Sweat Bee!