Take your pick, or a combination of them... entomophobia, apiphobia, melissophobia, phonophobia or phobatrivaphobia. The first is an irrational fear of insects, the next two are an irrational fear of bees, next is an irrational fear of sound and the last a "rational" fear of trivia about phobias. LOL Sherry has the right idea... just ignore them. Those being territorial are the males, and they can't sting you anyway. Only the females have a stinger and they have to be seriously provoked and handled before even they will sting you. Just go about your business and gently push them aside if they get in the way and all will be good. Works with bumblebees too. BTW, they do not eat wood. They eat nectar and pollen and are important pollinators for some plants. Another BTW, they are easy to get rid of with carpenter bee traps, but the traps do kill them. The traps are easy to make, or can be bought. Most that are trapped are because of the damage they do to wood structures, not because of a phobia. ;) Larry

I went to the San Francisco Flower Show at the Cow Palace today. There was a booth there on beekeeping. I spoke to the man there about this problem. There are several theories. Weather conditions in the northeast last winter may have contributed to general poor bee health, which left bees more vulnerable than usual to other stresses. He also told me that some scientists have a theory that systemic insecticides could be a contributing factor. Some of them are neurotoxins and may cause the bees to lose the ability to find their way back to the hive. I heard somewhere that the tracheal and Varroa mites mostly affect honey bees, not the bumblebees. I don't remember my source, so I don't know how reliable the information is. I expect, though, that insecticides might affect any and all bees. I'm not happy about what they could do to humans, either. I mentioned germander. The man at the booth said that his bees loved it, too. Rosefolly

Hi all! Hi Mike! I bought a tree form of the Asian wisteria about 4 years ago. It is in a large pot, I root prune it every other year. It is extremely fragrant, smells nice. No cat pee. I cut a few pieces off a couple of years ago and rooted them in water in the winter. They bloomed in spring. In water. I took them to PA for my best friend to plant she wanted a beast to climb about 50 ft of fence. LOL! She loves it. I can't plant my tree in the ground. I couldn't stop it from spreading, it is unreal. I still have it though, and it is doing just fine in a pot. I also bought a Blue Moon wisteria about 5 years ago from a well known online vine nursery, It is still alive, hasn't bloomed, and doesnt grow very much. If it smells like cat pee I'm throwing it in the trash. But, the Asian doesn't, in case anyone wants to know. You can keep it in a pot, just root prune it at least every other year. And remove the pot off the ground about once a month in the growing season so it doesn't root in the ground and spread that way, Or perhaps just place it on cement pavers or a patio. They are beautiful, aren't they?

I cannot tell you how many 'bee'utiful bees we had in the yard today. I've seen every kind of pollinator imaginable! Ox, honey, bumbles of different sizes and colours. Oh, and so very many syrphid flies. I love those guys! Last year we had more wasps, yellow jackets darners and butterflies. Definitely more syrphids this year than last. Seeing as how I am so crazy about bugs, here is one of my favourite sites: http://www.thaibugs.com/thaibugs.htm , but don't waste time at the main page, go straight to the link I put below to see awesome photos of damsel flies and dragon flies. I don't know who this guy or gal is but he takes amazing pics! Try clicking on one of the pictures for and enlarged view of bug-eyed flying things ;) Funny we had tons of assorted thread-waisted wasps last year. I guess the weather really affected the bugs. Well, it is still early in the year so who knows who will show up in my garden this summer. Oh, today was grand! I was staring at my oriental poppy buds trying to mentally encourage them to open up when I noticed: one lady bug juvenile (alligator monster!) one of the tiniest crab spiders ever and a white bud amongst all the orange ones! The buds are just cracked open by about a millimeter so maybe it was part of the sepal...but all the sepals are hard and green. I like the idea of one white blossom amongst the orange. Oh, bugs are one of the best parts of gardening!! Thanks for the photos of your bug, Bonnie. If only that geum was in my yard!! I almost bought one but they said I was too high up :( Maybe I'll get one anyway and just let it die in winter! J. Here is a link that might be useful: Click it!