It’s officially spring, and I’m starting to see more pollination activity in the garden and on my trail. My garden is ever so slowly expanding with as many Florida-friendly and native plants as I can find or grow myself. Getting native plants is freakin’ difficult!! The big box store garden centers and even the small family-owned nurseries carry only a few native plants, and the worst part is that they don’t identify those plants easily. A nice Florida sticker would be helpful.
Back to my original topic: pollinators. There are so many of them. I’m intrigued by all of them, even the mean ones like some of the stinging wasps and bees. I do my best to keep a safe distance away from them, but sometimes I just find myself in the middle of a small swarm. A couple of weeks ago, I found I was sitting very close ( 2 feet ) away from a muddy nest of Red-marked Pachodynerus wasps (Pachodynerus erynnis).
They had built their little nursery in a large planter where a jade tree lives on my front porch. I was drinking coffee on the porch when I noticed I was surrounded. No one threatened me, but I was sort of in their way. They minded their business and tended to the nursery. I coolly watched, not making any sudden movements. It was hard to get a proper picture of them as they moved so quickly.
I’ve had a variety of wasps in the yard. My wasp tally incudes:
Metric Paper Wasp (polistes metricus)
unidentified Potter wasps (Eumeninae)
Mexican Paper Wasp (Mischocyttarus mexicanus)
Feather-legged Scoliid wasp (Dielis plumipes)
Blue-black Spider Wasps (Genus Anoplius)
Common Thread-waisted Wasp (Ammophila procera)
New World Banded Thynnid Wasps (Genus Myzinum)
Ichneumonid wasps
Southern Paper Wasps (Polistes bellicosus)
Metallic Bluish-green Cuckoo Wasp (Chrysis angolensis).
Red-marked Pachodynerus Wasp (Pachodynerus erynnis)
Buzzing Blossoms 