One of my absolute favorite bees is the metallic green sweat bee (Agapostemon texanus). How could you not loves the shiny, metallic green sheen that they have, especially on sunny days? They’re small, very nonaggressive bees that feed on nectar, pollen, and human sweat. The first time I encountered them there were several that were buzzing around me after a hot afternoon in the woods. Fortunately, I know not to swat a bees and wasps, and before long, several of them landed and started licking off my sweat. It felt a little ticklish, but was totally cool.

It’s usually a little later in the year before I start seeing metallic green sweat bees (also known as pure green sweat bees), so I was very pleased to see several of them in the blackberry flowers. On this day, I wasn’t sweaty, so they pretty much ignored me and instead worked on collecting and distributing pollen and eating nectar. I’m okay with that because it means we will hopefully have a good harvest of berries in a few weeks.