Pure Green Sweat Bees Love Plant Nectar and Sweat
I love to walk the wild area on the back of my property and up into the state forest that we back up onto. There is almost always something new and interesting to be found out there. I’d say it’s good exercise, too, but I frequently stop so much that it’s not (oops). On this particular afternoon I knew exactly where I was headed (I don’t always). There is a big patch of blackjack flowers back in a clearing in the woods, and I’d seen lots of butterflies there before. Today there were only a few butterflies. I think I was a little too hot for them, but I found several of these beautiful shiny metallic green bees feeding on the flowers.
They were flitting along from flower to flower, but once they started to feed they were pretty intent, and they didn’t mind my getting up close. I followed several of them around for awhile and took a lot of shots, until they started noticing me more and more. In fact, they took to buzzing around my face, and even following me as I moved away from them. That was when I realized exactly why they call them sweat bees. They are attracted to human sweat, and by that time I was very sweaty! I’m allergic to bee and wasp stings (and nobody wants to get stung even if not allergic), so I decided it was time to move on, but I really enjoyed watching them feed and seeing what fantastic pollinators they were. Remember, bees and wasps are so important for pollinating plants and crops, and the entire environment really depends on them for this.
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