THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

The past month we've done a lot of things and a couple days I joined our company, the Hampson family on their tours of the island.  The photo above is is not a flower but rather the fruit and bright red bud case of a yellow flower very much like a buttercup that grows on bushes.  We found these bushes in the 2 mile nature trail at Manuka State Wayside near South Point.  Later I found one in a Hilo park but I still don't know it's name.  Anyone?
Thank you, BJ, for finding that this bush is Ochna Serrulata, commonly know as "The Micky Mouse plant", and that it is native to Africa.

This year I netted my broccoli to protect them from birds.  4 or 5 varieties like to eat the flower heads as soon as they start to emerge and they are so persistent at it that last year we rarely got any.  The kind that does the most damage are tiny grey birds with burgundy/brown heads on the males.  They travel in family groups of about 6 except in nesting season.  Wednesday I saw a male flying from the lower edge of our property, through the banana plants, up into our 60' tall mango tree, around an extended branch and up into the thickest part of the top, all while carrying a 10 or 11 inch blade of grass that must have been a load for such a small bird.  Then, much to my surprise, that bird was right back out in 4 or 5 seconds flying right back to where he had come from.  As I had just sat down on the steps for a rest I watched as that bird found another piece of dry grass where I had done some scything, cut it to length, and took off for the nest building site.  Again he emerged from the mango in a few seconds and headed straight back to the dry grass.  As I watched he completed 15 trips in about 12 minutes, for his size about the equivalent of us running up the stairs of a 100 story building carrying a chair I imagine.  I've often found the spherical baskets that these birds weave so here is a picture of one that blew down.  The female must have been in the tree weaving the nest as the male delivered the material.  They are so small and move so continuously that I couldn't get a picture of the birds.  These baskets are much bigger than a nest would need to be but after the fledglings are mature they continue to travel with their parents all day and for maybe a month and they all return to the nest at night.   Again, what's its name? 

Another small and continuously moving critter here is the Hawaiian bumble bee, also known as the carpenter bee.  Being large, black and noisy, they are good at scaring people with bee phobias.  Although they lack hair on their abdomens, the thorax is hairy and they do have pollen baskets on the hind legs like other bees.  Each female nests separately by boring a 1/2" hole into soft dry wood and her mate may hang around to "guard" it but as he has no stinger he can only bluff.  Four holes are visible in the log in this photo with one flying bee. Here in Hawaii, as everywhere else in the last few years, honey bees are in decline due to a confluence of pests and human spread poison.  As about 1/3 of the crops we eat depend on insect pollination it is important to encourage our insect helpers.  

When I saw that a gate I had built with a frame of African Tulip wood had become occupied by carpenter bees I didn't mind them buzzing around me every time I went through it because the females are too busy feeding and boring to bother chasing and the males can't sting at all.  I did realize, however, that the gate would not last for long.  To provide the bees with a good spot to bore into next I cut a 5" diameter dead African Tulip log eight feet long (it is very soft wood so it is preferred by the bees), and hung it by galvanized wires from the eves of my back porch.  This would put them close to the bored-in gate and close to the lilikoi (passion fruit) vines whose flowers are a favorite of the bees.  They also like the flowers of our lima bean that covers the porch of our guest house as seen in the photo below (actually six plants cover about 240 sq. ft. of vertical space).   I hung the log in November and as soon as  we had some warm dry weather in January I noticed "bee dust" floating down from the log.  I am so happy to have more pollinators in our neighborhood especially as the honey bees are almost non-existent now.  Today I googled 'Hawaiian carpenter bees' and was discouraged that nearly all the cites were "how to exterminate" types.  It is tempting to conclude that most people who post on line are idiots, but then we are exceptions, aren't we?  If my method of giving them someplace better to bore into other than the house fails in the future I will be sure to let you know.

We also have a much smaller pollinator that I have cultivated a bit. I am now talking about the leaf cutter bees that I mentioned a year ago when we spotted them carrying leaves into our small bamboo wind chime.  This year I found one stuffing the top tube of a polyethylene lawn edging scrap.  We will never get any honey from either these or the bumble bees but they are well worth encouraging as pollinators and please stop the poison!  


A much smaller insect here has been costing me gasoline.  I think it is a VERY small beetle or weevil that is attracted to boring in my plastic fuel 'cans'.  After both my mixed gas and straight gas cans started leaking careful examination revealed several partial and one clear through hole in each.  The holes were about 1/32nd inch diameter.  A friend suggested that cutting through to the gas must have killed the bore so I gave the whole container a careful examination and on one I found a tiny dead beetle that I needed a magnifying glass to see.  A trip to the University Of Hawaii at Hilo Agriculture extension service identified the beetles on the gas can as Granulate Ambrosia Beetles, a type of tiny weevil. They are about the length of Eisenhower's ear on a dime but only half as wide.  You can view one at: http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/caps/pestInfo/pics/big/Gran_ambrosia3.jpg   However, the entomologist does not believe that they would eat plastic.  I keep telling everyone only they they "bore" into plastic, not that they eat it and their size fits the holes perfectly.
 Not only are fuel 'cans'  and fuel expensive here, real metal gas cans are nearly impossible to find.  Only one local dealer that I found carries a metal can and that is for a special Federal standard to qualify for carrying gas inside a vehicle.  It sells for well over $100 so I guess I'll be buying another plastic one and coating it with insect repellent.  I later did find a more normal metal gas can for $50.
Aloha!