This weekend, we got about enough rain the wet the grass ... my buckwheat won't be able to do anything until we get a inch or two of rain. I was down in the bottom this evening where I planted some buckwheat and soybeans and there were about 50 wild turkey in a big gaggle eating any seed they could find on the ground.
Checked bee activity and most hives seem pretty active. I am going to put in hive beetle traps this week and take a peak inside.
Sue Neal and I made a trip to Madisonville on Saturday to meet Claire's parents. It was fun and we traded a lot of family stories. We came back 68/80 from Hopkinsville to see the corn and soybean fields.
Finally, I have seen a couple of cowkiller wasps (Dasymutilla occidentalis also called red velvet ant) this summer. Females are wingless and supposedly have a painful sting. One was on the porch looking around this afternoon ... probably should have killed it but I didn't. But, I did take a picture ... about an inch long.
- From University of Kentucky - Entomology ...
One velvet ant that is commonly submitted for identification is the ‘cow killer.’ The cow killer is the largest of the velvet ants in Kentucky, nearly an inch in length. It earned its name by the reputation of the female’s sting. It is said that the sting is so painful that it could kill a cow.
The female is mostly red with some black, the male is half red and half black with dark wings. Females seek out bumble bee nests and lay eggs inside the wax cups. After bees or wasps have formed cocoons, adult female velvet ants enter the host nest by digging through the soil or breaking through nest walls. The cow killer larvae feed on the bumble bee larvae and pupae and will pupate inside the bumble bee nest. This bumble bee is ultimately killed.
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