Look closely at this bee in a pumpkin flower. You can actually see the pollen on its body. There are two bees in this flower. The yellow object to the left of the bee is the stamen or the pollen structure in the male pumpkin flower.
Below you see a female pumpkin flower with five bees and a male flower with several bees close to the stamen. We don’t know why the bees are congregating in the flowers, but we see this often in the early morning.
Two weeks ago, I was stung by the hill in front of the farm. Last week, Bruce was stung 7 times while working in the same area. We soon discovered that we have an underground hive of ground yellowjackets. Yellowjackets are very aggressive and if one Yellowjacket feels threatened, it will emit a hormone that alerts the other hive members to attack. Each yellowjacket can sting repeatedly and they sometimes bite the victim to hang on while they continue to sting. Needless to say, this hive cannot stay. The two most popular ways to get rid of the hive (according to the internet) are Seven powder applied at the entrance of the hive at night or Dawn dish liquid poured in the hole (with a screen placed over the hole) at night while the insects are sleeping.
Watch the videos below of yellowjackets in the hive.
Below: This is a common Thread-waisted Wasp which also lives in the ground. It is on the flower of a ground artichoke plant (in the same family as Sun flowers). Mud daubers are also in this group of wasp know as Thread-waisted Wasp. Many members of this family actually consume spiders, and do not normally attack humans. However, they are capable of stinging, but their venom is more to paralyze spiders and not for defense. You still do not want to antagonize these wasp.
Below: An Umbrella Paper Wasp is on blueberry plants in the pictures below. This wasp get its name from the fact that it chews scrape wood and then uses the pulp to build a paper-like nest which is shaped like an umbrella. The males die over the winter. These wasp are social creatures and will sting if disturbed.
Below: Camouflage- The first picture below is a species of Robber fly called Trioria interrupta. It is essentially an aerial predator of the insect world. All three pictures below were taken because of how well this insect and lizard are camouflaged to match their surroundings.
