Scoliid Wasps on Goldenrod

While touring New Moon Nursery I couldn't help but notice the alarming amount of Scoliid Wasps on their Goldenrod. I believe this is the cultivar 'Fireworks' but these are only plugs so they're not really representative of the adult plants. But even in flats, you can see a lot of these plants still try to flower.

Scoliid Wasps are parasites of beetle larva, including the nonnative Japanese Beetle. The adult form though is a pollinator that's fond of generalist composites and mint. Goldenrod, Aster, Mints and a few others are all good at attracting them to your yard. And because the larval stage consumes beetle larva they're beneficial to lawn health too.

New Camera

Canon PowerShot SX50 HS 12MP Digital Camera with 2.8-Inch LCD (Black)
Which I bought because it topped the list of a few macro point and shoot though really it seemed to be a narrow margin between that and the next four below it. Sadly it doesn't have any port to plug in a portable flash, (at least not that I've found). 

Also it does NOT come with the USB cord required to get images off of the camera and onto the computer! Thankfully my first camera years ago was a Canon and I still had a cord laying around. 

Raynox DCR-250 Super Macro Snap-On Lens
I also bought this which might have been the better buy because it's almost universally able to attach to any point and shoot camera.  

All of which came at the recommendation by Alex Wild, a professional photographer in the scientific world who teaches classes around the world with emphasis on photographing insects. (Though he's more so a professor at one of the Universities I believe.)

So after a day of shooting here's some of what I came up with.

Beware Wasp & Hornet Queens

Mixed in with the usual garden chores around the home, should be paying close attention to what the wasps are doing. Here a queen yellow jacket is scouting for a spot to start her nest for the year. Discouraging them now can save you the trouble of getting stung later. Should you see them digging in the ground or walking about mulch and leaf litter, simply rustle things up in the area. They're usually good enough to fly off and find somewhere else. I've already discouraged two queens from setting up shop in my yard, though there might still be one in the mulch pile I need to locate.

Along with yellow jackets, keep an eye out for European Hornets which are also scouting around now. Queens are about twice as big as a Boring Bee, and seem to rival the size of a Hummingbird.

While a few wasps aren't bad, they can be devastating to butterfly gardens and will clear out all the caterpillars on your host plants. 

Best of Bees and Wasps 2011

I was a little surprised this year that I've only taken 45 pictures total in this catagory. I did do more videos though.

The year starts off with Honeybees bringing in the usual black yellowish green pollen. I suspect it's from Maple trees.

This tiny wasp here is a parasite of aphids. As I recall I witnessed it injecting eggs into multiple aphids that day but was unable to get pictures of the deed in action. I'm not sure whether I tried doing video but I don't seem to have one on hand.



Bees working an apple tree in April.

Each May our Honeybee hives swarm and land nearby to start out. This brownish blob in the tree here is a swarm of ~40,000 bees. They later took off and I never saw them again.

Even in May and June, Bumblebee hives are still starting up. Here a queen is collecting nectar on some Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata.


Wasps or some Mountain Mint in July. 


More wasps on a stunning specimen of Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata.

An unknown wasp on Swamp Milkweed flowers.

The large white globes of onions provide nectar to lots of bee species.

Colorful Ichneumon wasps emerge in mid to late summer. They're harmless to humans but can often be the cause of bee phobias. Their abdomen contains a long coiled up egg laying syringe (which I forget the name of). When exposed it becomes several times longer than their body, about the length of an average pen, and it's used to drill into trees in search of beetle grubs which are already damaging the tree. Here is a video on youtube showing this aspect off. Some species of Ichneumon wasp specialize in caterpillars, beetles, or mason bees.

Honeybee on Cup Plant flower. Notice how the flowers in the disk are opening from the inside out.

Honeybee on a Cup Plant flower. Notice how the flowers in the disk are opening from the outside in.

Cup Plants are notorious for having flowers that do that even on the same plant, between flowers growing next to one another.

Honeybee on Coneflower.

Bumblebee on Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa.

Bumblebee on Button Bush flowers.

Bumblebee on a sunflower.


Some Honeybees working Liatris microcephala. This was at a nursery I was touring. The overpowering music was great to drown out the sounds of the tour guide talking.

Bee specimens arranged in a cup.

Bee specimens pinned in a box.


Lastly who could forget the massive goldenrod plant I have. The species is Solidago altissima, Tall Goldenrod, and it's a food source to just about anything that's alive for the first frost later to come. It's also a good nectar source for next years queen bumblebees; one is featured in the video at 2:35.

Mountain Mint Madness

About a month ago the honeybees and bumblebees lost interest in the Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum sp. presumably to take nectar from bigger and better things. In their absence some of the more obscure pollinating wasps have taking their place.


A lot of these wasps refuse to stay still for pictures so a short video was needed to capture them in action. The rather colorful stripped scoliid wasp was the only that I couldn't get at least a decent picture of. Others were more cooperative.

Mud Wasp of some sort.

Mud Wasp of some sort.

Mud Wasp of some sort.

Summer Azure of some sort.

Another plant I've seen some of these on was the Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium. Last year I had four of them, but only one has come back. I have seen the longer of the two thin dark mud wasps on other kinds of mint as well. 

Memories of Summer Sweet

Clethra alnifolia (Summer Sweet) is a plant very dear to me. I first saw it growing some years ago in a friend's garden. He's since moved away and the new owners have cut the thing down. I'm glad to say I saw it blooming in it's glory.

My friend was on vacation and I was looking after his garden. I didn't know what the plant was at the time. I entered the garden immediately smelling something incredibly sweet. It was a wonderful smell and I looked around at what on earth it could be. I finally homed in on in more than 30' away from the garden gate as the strange shrub by his garage. By then my jaw had dropped at the extreme array of pollinators working the shrub. Many of these insects I'd never seen before and several to this day I've never seen since. Enormous black wasps that are bulky like a Cicada Killer, on par with that of a Hummingbird flew over the thing. They were not Hummingbird moths... those I could recognize on the plant. A huge array of Scoliid Wasps flocked around the plant among tiny metallic green and gold sweat bees. To my surprise Honey Bees and Bumblebees weren't that common at all.

To this day I've never seen such a diversity on any other plant. I've since planted 6 Clethra alnifolia's (Summer Sweet) and not once seen the cloud of insects I saw that day. Pictured is a red/pink flowering cultivar called "Ruby Spice." The true species has all white flowers. Only 3 of the plants are a size just shy of what my friend had in his yard. But planted in mass should have the same effect right? It's hard to believe red flowers would dull it that much.

Well at any rate, I probably caught a plant in it's most ideal conditions at the peak of blooming. At least the ants seem to like it too.

More Reattlesnake Master

This little inch worm is either very smart or very stupid. On the blooms to Rattlesnake Master is about the last place I'd expect to find a caterpillar. I've seen nothing but assorted wasps pollinating that plant.

At least two are species of Scoliid wasp. This plant is beneficial in how many specialized predatory wasps it attracts alone.




Here's part 3 of the videos I've been doing. Wasps are very easily spooked. So often I'll go out to film the wasps only have have half of them fly off the plant. This time though they were all fairly well behaved.

Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium

A Mud Dauber and Scoliid Wasp working the Rattlesnake Master blooms. This is one of the odder looking natives I planted last fall. I'd read it's pollinated by wasps but had no idea it would actually attract them. I don't normally see Scoliid Wasps until the fall time when Sedum blooms. The Mud Dauber I sometimes see working Raspberries but not often. I see Potter Wasps more commonly working those along with bumblebees.

Wasps of course are very beneficial. Though they are somewhat counterproductive in a butterfly garden. Turns out they're to good at their job. I have loads of violets that are nibbled to bits by caterpillars, and likely hosts to some pretty butterflies. That said I've only been able to see one caterpillar this year and that was picked off shortly after by a paper wasp. When we get outside the realm of common paper wasps and yellow jackets though, we start to find more specialized predators. Many Mud Daubers specialize in hunting spiders. Scoliid Wasps burrow into lawns to inject their eggs in root eating beetle grubs.

The adults feed on nectar like bees do, and it takes certain plants to get their attention. It's the only way to really admire the color patterns. Scoliid Wasps in particular are very pretty.

Some Bugs

This is the best I could do with the Red Admiral migration. It's a shame it wouldn't open it's wings for me as they are very pretty.

Got about 100 pictures of this. At least the butterfly is in this one.

Started seeing Colorado Potato Beetles too. They eat potato plants. There is also the False Potato Beetle laying around which looks almost the exact same with an orange stripe down the middle.

The highlight really is that Mantises have hatched. Predators of good and bad bugs. The trouble is they're in the same boat as lady bugs are. Most of the eggs sold in stores are not a native species. Regardless though they have the benefit of arriving later in the year, grow with age while they slowly reduce in number. 

Spider Wasps are about doing their thing. Paralyzing specific types of spiders to lay their eggs in and bury in their burrows.