On Saturday I became the proud owner of a hive of native stingless bees, Trigona carbonaria. Damo had done some web-searching and found that Tim Heard, a CSIRO entomologist and native bee specialist, supplies colonies and his brother, Frank, makes specially designed hives for them. Stingless bees and honeybees happily co-exist. Happily Brisbane provides an…
Category: Insects
Wynnum Honey Flora
Honeybee health A honeybee colony housed in an organic garden should radically improve pollination (and fruit set), but flowers in one backyard are insufficient to feed a strong colony of 30 – 80,000 honeybees. There’s no commercial horticulture or agriculture in or near the suburb, so the associated risk of pesticide poisoning is low. The…
Bee Day
It’s bee day. Damo has decided to keep honeybees and I’ve agreed to be his backup. I guess I’ll be a surrogate beekeeper. They’re just settling into their new home on our water tank.
A Beneficial Orgy
Sustainable gardens are safe havens for all sorts of activities, but I’ve never witnessed a scene like this. Last summer they did it amongst my pineapples. Last autumn they were hard at it in my sweet potatoes. This week it’s the cardamom that are the silent, involuntary witnesses. I can’t water these plants without wetting…
Mantis Mealtime
Hedge Grasshopper, Valanga irregularis Brown Praying Mantis, Archimantis latistyla Observed whilst pruning native raspberries last Friday morning.The mantis ate the grasshopper’s thorax and abdomen but left the gut intact…nice to see biological control in action.
