![]() ![]() But one weed was so long, some leaves touched my arm…it started blister 3 days later. I was working in my own garden about 8 days ago, wore gloves and being careful when pulling the poison ivy out. But disclaimer: these were not based on scientific studies, but on beekeeper reports.ġ. We are also lucky that both the honey (one guy in Oregon sells poison oak honey!) and pollen are not toxic to us. Googling for images, I did not see any other photos of honey bees foraging on poison ivy or oak. I went there again today, only 17 C and a bit cool, but again saw at least 2 bees, but more windy today and I was hoping for a really large honey bee photo, but I did not get it. After some shots I waited again, and saw a yellow Italian bee foraging also! My total time under that huge poison ivy tree was 32 min. She was a totally dark bee (perhaps a Carniolan). OK, I was hesitant to leave, then I saw one honey bee finally! At least 2 meters away but my long lens could reach her. After all, I could tell beekeepers that yes, I think honey bees will forage on poison ivy because I saw (and have photos of!) bumbe bees foraging on poison ivy flowers. After what seemed a long while (perhaps only 10 min?) I thought I could retreat. I brought my old Nikon D700 camera with a 180 mm Tamron macro lens so it did better than my 90 mm macro on the Sony A7ii. Then a bumble bee came, and I shot her a few good pics. ![]() All 3 are halictids (family Halictidae, parallel to our honey bee’s family Apidae). ![]() ![]() I first noticed at least 3 types of solitary bees, very tiny (about 1/5 of the size of honey bees) foraging for pollen and perhaps also nectar (I tried to be as close as possible without the leaves touching my face, to see if bees were drinking nectar). People jogging and biking must be thinking I am crazy! It was about 20 degrees C so not hot at all and I stood, quietly under the big “tree” of poison ivy, which actually was surrounding a large oak tree, waiting for my “babees” to come. It was blooming! So yesterday around 3 pm I went to another location (about 100 yards north of the bridge over Red Cedar River, on Dobie, in Okemos MI), because I remembered it had a bigger “tree” of poison ivy and of course, it would be closer to my bees (they are only less than a mile away by straight distance!). Two nights ago I took my wife for a walk and remembered to look at the poison ivy on the way. So it was a rare day yesterday and today that I finally took a break, having finished all 40 colonies. This included checking for swarming cells, adding supers, looking for the queen and marking her and clipping her. So since May 28 I have been keeping bees almost daily, all by myself. Other good bee plants, such as staghorn sumac, and Chinese sumac, are also in the same family.ĭue to the COVID-19 virus, nearly all visitors in my lab were not allowed to work due to the one person per vehicle rule. So, yes, it is a native plant and can be good to insects (see below), but I do not recommend planting it. But the plants do not contain a poison they contain a potent allergen, urushiol. All three plants are nasty in that they cause strong irritations (blisters, itches) that can last 5-10 days. The names are interesting because poison oak is not an oak ( Quercus, family Fagaceae), neither is poison ivy an ivy ( Hedera, family Araliaceae). There are actually several species of Toxicodendron in the US, the one I shot photos of is the most common one, poison ivy, or Eastern poison ivy, T. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |