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StumbleUponPosts Tagged: rose garden
Never Promised Her a Rose Garden
Its stance is firm. Its eyes glow menacingly. Its attitude: "Don't mess with me."
We spotted this katydid on a rose in a UC Davis rose garden. It towered over the honey bees, spotted cucumber beetles, ladybugs, hover flies, and assorted other insects.
The katydid, in the family Tettigonlidae, is also known as a long-horned grasshopper, but entomologists point out it's more closely related to crickets than grasshoppers.
Tettigoniids dine on flowers, leaves, bark and seed, and some feed on other insects.
Now if the katydid were six feet tall...that would scare any trick-or-treater...
Katydid
Menacing Look
Stop and Smell the Roses
Do bees stop and smell the roses?
Maybe. Honey bees gather nectar and pollen from a variety of flowers, including their favorites, the salvias, mints and lavenders. They also forage on wild roses, but usually not on commercially grown roses.
Sometimes, however, you'll see a honey bee tucked in the folds of rose petals or "resting" on a rose. Ah, the sweet smell of roses!
The quote, "Stop and smell the roses," is often attributed to golfer Walter Hagen in the 1956 book "The Walter Hagen Story" but he didn't mention roses. The quote: "You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way."
Do worker bees stop and smell the roses?
For sure, bees are here for only a short while. Worker bees generally live four to six weeks. During the busy season, a 60,000-member colony will lose some 1000 workers a day, says Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty. The queen bee replaces them by laying 1000 to 2000 eggs a day.
All that work to build up the colony...then poof! their lives end.
Well, maybe they stop and rest on the roses.
Hide and Seek
Peek-a-Bee
Close-up
