it has been a week since i put the last round of leaf cutters out so i went out to the bee house to pull the mesh bag out...i did not find much of any sign of bee activity in the house...however since it was infested by ants when i put them out and they may have returned it is not surprising...
there are more than enough alternative sites for bee nesting around back there...the old nurse logs from the dead wild cherry tree are supporting plant life and have myriad holes and nooks a be might find inviting...
when i dumped out the mesh bag i found the balance of the cocoons had hatched...
inevitably though there were some misfires...
and, more distressingly, some outright fatalities...unfortunate but natural...
on the gains side there are silks and ears of maize emerging...
there are ears and silks on the teosinte plants too...
green tomatoes...
and ones that are coming along...
hot banana peppers are multiplying and the kohlrabi is nearly done...
and the jerusalem artichokes are blooming like they do everything else...relentlessly...
i found a live bee ( not a leaf cutter ) and a moth having a sip of nectar...so there's a balance of sorts out there...a microcosm ( there's that word again ) of a wider natural economy we, as a species, seem determined to undermine and upend...how much longer will i find native plants and insects before they are replaced by carolina horse nettle and asian longhorned ticks as native ranges are invaded by alien ( and disease carrying in the case of the ticks...disease gradients move north as well ) species...i wonder.
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