Fascinating! I’ve never seen those bees.

I haven’t seen any kind of bees here yet. At my last place, their favorite plant in my yard was my Texas Sage (Cenizo). I’m not sure what kind they were, just very small ones. Monarchs loved the sages, too. :)

Bees are "buzzing" at my place..................they love the holly blooms and are very active. As for the leaf cutter bees, Ragna, they completely stripped one of my bougies late last year, and I am not certain it is going to make a come back.

Been are a'buzzing in my blooming cross vine, my yucca, my dames rocket and the agarita. I was separating a flat of pots of echeandia that had been planted with too many seeds right by the cross vine and the bees were circling all around me with their minds totally on the wall of orange flowers. I got buzzed by hummingbirds too.

Bees all over the place here. Especially at the water locations.

Lots of bees here, a few honey, mostly bumble.

Thank you EVERYONE for the bee report! It's good to know that y'all are seeing bees, even it it's bumble bees.

I find it so strange that now and then I see no, or very few, honey bees for months at a time. And then some years there are lots of honey bees. You'd think with all the woods around here there'd be some Africanized honey bees. That's why I'm happy to at least see the little leaf cutter bees.

Carrie, it's interesting that the leaf cutter bees would target one bougie. I hope it recovers.

Now, the leaf-cutter ANTS just stripped three of my roses. I wish they only took nice little circles out like the leaf-cutter bees.

The thought occurred to me that the honey bees might be busy with wild flowers. I hope that's the case.

I had a neighbor that bought a big bag of insecticide to spread on her lawn. I asked her what bug she was having a problem with and she said, "Oh you know, just for whatever bugs might be there." ... sigh :-(

This discussion resonates with me today. The rental co sent someone to pull up the Pampas by the street finally ... before I had a chance to look closer, Mr G stopped me — said there’s a snake head/part body there. I don’t know if it was by accident or on purpose, but it breaks my heart. A good one, too, a King snake. :(

Awwww ... :-(

Roselee: hop in the car, drive to Richmond and help yourself to a few 1,000 bees. Oh, bring a vacuum and a box...

LOL Well Bossy, I dunno' ... Wish I could, but thank you anyway.

Needmoremulch, sorry about those leaf cutter ants. My friend Linda M. says she stuffs a few dryer sheets in the lower branches of roses and it keeps the leaf cutter ants away.

Thanks for the tip! I will give that a shot. I don't want to mess with the mound. It is a cool old thing, no telling how old it is.

the leaf cutters are back here, too. I use poison on them and give the roses a chance to leaf out again, but here they come again. I'm trying that dryer sheet thing!

Linda M said that there is nothing you can do to eliminate them. They don't take a bait and their nests are so large, deep, and with so many chambers that poisons won't penetrate far enough to get the queen. Not convinced I looked around on google and it looks like she was right. They do a tremendous amount of damage in tropical countries, but the only deterrent they've found, and it's just temporary, is to disturb their trails.

Needmoremulch, the nest site at Linda's place was fascinating, like a small city. Scroll five pictures down on this thread if you want to see it. It was several yards across.

By the way, the ant in the sixth photo has completely severed the flower from the stem and is carrying it.

I'd love to see a photo of their mound at your place.

Another thing that Linda M found was that they won't cross over old car tires so anything planted inside is protected.

I'll see if i can find the photo I took a few years ago. No telling how deep it goes. Very cool, but frustrating if your livelihood depends on it, I'm sure!

I couldn't find my pictures from last year, so I took a few new ones. Their mound is at the edge of a grove of old hackberry trees. Most of the year this whole area is completely bare and all you can see is the mound. They keep that grass cut. I guess they don't care for the spring yellow clover. I also took a pic of one of their many holes coming out 100 yards away.