Fire ants

I almost stepped in this mound of fire ants at the garden today.


We used to not have these pests in Georgia, but they've slowly made their way here from Alabama and Texas.

Fire ants were introduced to the States sometime during the 1930's by hitching rides on freight ships from South America. Eighty years later, the species is widespread throughout the southeastern US.

A well-known predator of this aggressive stinging and biting ant is the South American Phorid fly.

It's halloween right? Ok... So the phorid fly lays its eggs on the thorax of fire ants. The tiny larvae enters the ant's body and wiggles to the ant's head where it feeds on muscle and nervous tissue. Gives me a headache just thinking about it! Eventually the larvae releases an enzyme that breaks down the membrane attaching the ant's head to its body. Yep - the ant's head falls off! Gross huh? The fly larvae remains in the severed head for another two weeks before emerging.

From South American Biological Control Laboratory:




Needless to say, the phorid fly is a friend to gardeners throughout the southeast.

Here's a short Youtube video about the Phorid fly and it's affinity for fire ant brains:

Honeybee hives are at risk from fire ants, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Beekeeping demonstration, September 13, 2009

Last month Cassandra and John offered a beekeeping demonstration at DHS Community Garden. This was the first time I'd ever been so close to so many bees (without quickly running away!) They stepped through disassembly and inspection of the bee box (aivery) and answered our many questions.

Without further adieu...



The strap is to prevent the box from coming apart should a strong wind blow it over.





Preparing to disassemble the box:



Using a hive tool to separate the frames.



This hive was very gentle. Cassandra didn't need much if any smoke to calm the bees down as she carefully took apart their 'home'. The bees didn't seem to mind us one bit.


Offering a few pointers on taking apart a hive...


John samples the honey...





Most of the hive are female (workers). A few males (drones) are kept around, and they do not have the capability to sting.


Taking apart the second level...



Honeybees are actually relatively clean insects. They do not use the bathroom in their hives - they wait till they are away from the box, like on my finger. This drone demonstrates:


Honeybee combs are made of beeswax, which is excreted from the underside of worker bees.




This frame weighed quite a bit...




Reassembling the hive:




And finally, topping off the nectar bowl on the top of the hive:


After closing the hive, dozens of bees fanned their wings near the entrances. Honeybees like to keep their house at a steady temperature and humidity, and they control this by moving air in and out of the box.



That's it for now -- if you'd like more photos from the demo please let me know. (I have 40 more).

2009-10-22 Farmer Adria's Report

First, the gardens are looking good! Great job on getting the top terrace planted - hopefully the seeds will germinate & grow quickly!

So this afternoon I began preparing the last terrace for this season -- the long strip below the square-foot plots and above the bee boxes. As soon as our clover comes in we'll plant that and hope for the best. Some clover is already coming in on the plot furthest away from the road (under the pecan tree).

The rye I planted in the bottom terrace last week is just starting to turn green. The rain we had washed some of the seed into little piles, but there should still be enough there to get plenty of coverage.

I'm pretty excited about learning to keep bees. And maybe a little anxious.. I've only been stung by a honeybee once, but that was enough to learn not to irritate them (like by sitting on one while wearing shorts!).