Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Sunshine And Smiles 70620” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The road ahead of me shimmers in the heat of the July sun. A lone cicada drones out from an unseen location in the trees that grow on the banks of Peter’s Creek. His only drive is to find out if he’s the last of the 17 year brood. My foot drags slightly on the hot pavement causing me to kick up a small stone. As the pebble comes to rest what looks like a piece of debris springs into the air revealing papery wings. The wings are dark brown with yellow margins that flash slightly as they oscillate. The buzzing noise they make as they carry the insect is reminiscent of a rattlesnake. The grasshopper’s auditory bluff startled me at first but but I had to laugh as saw him wing his way into the tall grass for cover. I noticed that Ironweed and Joe Pye weed are beginning to reach for the sky and some even have the hard little knots that will soon open and fill the air with a sweet aroma of late Summer and early Fall. A splash from the creek pulls my attention back to the other side of road and for a moment I wondered if the lone cicada had ended gi s season. But no, just then he starts up again. At last my eyes fall onto the hardy little Black-eyed Susans quietly looking up into deep blue of the mid summer sky as if searching for a sign from Heaven of their timing. I draw a little closer to the golden pedals and smile as I snap the shutter and grant immortality to their beauty. And in that moment they seem to smile back.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
Tobook me simply reach out using theContact Pageand we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
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Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Canada Lily 71020a”and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The big blue truck idles it’s way up the gravel road as my eyes search the dappled light for inspiration. Then I saw the bright orange color which at first I mistook for more Orange Lily growing on the edge of the forest. But something was wrong. These orange lilies didn’t look quite right. These bell shaped flowers seem to bow their heads in prayer. The orange lily is a proud invader that always holds its head high. But this source of humble beauty was a native species. This was a Canada Lily.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Orange Lily was a hardy and beautiful plant but doesn’t really do much for wildlife when it escapes the garden. In fact it’s considered an invasive species that squeezes out the native plants. And what’s even worse Orange Lily has no food value for wildlife. There’s not even nectar for butterflies and bees in the Asian Orange Lily. But with the Canada Lily it’s a completely different story.
The gracefully nodding bloom opens to welcome Swallowtail Butterflies and solitary bees. The deer will not touch Orange Lily but they browse so much on Canada Lily that in some states it’s considered a threatened species.
In my previous article on Orang Lily I was amiss to omit Canada Lily. Perhaps one reason why I didn’t think of it was it’s preference for shade and moist soil. Orange Lily does well in full sun and I think that’s why people tend to gravitate towards Orange Lily. Neither can I recommend propagation of wild Canada Lily because in areas where it’s threatened it might be illegal to remove it. However, I did see that several online sources offer either seeds or bulbs. For most of the lilies planting a bulb is probably going to be the easiest method. Because the bulbs are eaten by mice and voles you may need to provide protection for them.
So, if you like the looks of the Orange Lily but want to support the preservation of native species look into Canada Lily. If your land will support it you’ll also be attracting wildlife as well as providing yourself with beautiful flowers.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
Tobook me simply reach out using theContact Pageand we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Graceful Visitor 71020a” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Delicate wings dance gracefully across the quiet country road on a warm breeze. She seems to hover for a moment over the hood of the big blue truck that’s stopped. I couldn’t help but think of her as a living smile happily seeking lives to touch. A messenger of God to bring good cheer at the end of the day. She sails down the sunbeams and comes to rest on the black-eyed Susan. She only hesitates there for a moment before finding the next soul to bless. A moment was all that was needed to be a source of peace and joy.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
Tobook me simply reach out using theContact Pageand we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “A Kiss Of Sunshine 71020a” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Over the past few days I’ve learned quite a bit about the carpenter bees. One little factoid that I’ve left out is that how dependant some flowers are on carpenter bees and bumblebees. These two species are more likely to crawl deep into the flowers than honeybees and thus more pollen is caught in the Bee’s fur to be transferred to the next blossom. Certain flowers are designed to take advantage of carpenter bee’s feeding habits and are so adapted that if the carpenter bees are lost then these flowers are lost as well. Furthermore, some garden plants like eggplant and tomato benefit from the strong vibrations produced in the carpenter bee’s powerful thorax. The vibrations set up a sympathetic resonance that shakes lose more pollen than smaller bees. According to the Honeybee Conservancy the economic value of bee dependant crops in the U.S. is around 29 billion dollars. Native Bees like the carpenter bees are responsible for15% of the harvest.
Image Titled “Carpenter Bee In Flight 71020a”
And yet as valuable as they are when they begin boring holes into your home they become a huge problem. So for the third and final part of Sunshine And Roses I wanted to cover a few mitigation and control methods.
When I first noticed a spike in the carpenter bee population in my area it seemed to correlate with a decline in honeybees. I have not seen any studies on this so I am just guessing here. In researching for this article I learned that the size of a carpenter bee’s brood is proportional to the amount of food she’s able to forage. And even though an individual carpenter bee out performs an individual honeybee by large magnitudes there’s far more honeybees in a healthy hive. Remember that only 15% of overall crop production is done by native bees and carpenter bees are only a fraction of the %15. So I propose that if a person us so inclined that learning how to keep honeybees just might have a control effect on carpenter bees. This would be because they are capable of limiting the available forage and thus the carpenter bees have smaller broods.
Mason bees and leaf cutter bees are also highly competitive rivals for the carpenter bees and they’re pretty much care free. Make or buy a special habitat for these bees and place it areas where bee food grows. The wild varieties will show up and limit food access to the carpenter bees. Plus these types of bees don’t make new holes in wood but instead take over holes that are already there.
The true bumblebees live in underground tunnels. And they actually out perform the carpenter bee on a one on one basis. However, in order to attract bumblebees you need bare ground and they have to like that spot. There are tame bumblebee hives available but there’s a significant risk that they will transmit disease to the wild ones.
Finally there are the more traditional methods of control.
Chemical pesticides such as pyrethrin are used to kill a nest on contact and then the hole is plugged with a dowl rod.
A few sources say to use orange oil to make the wood unpleasant for the carpenter bees. An alternative is peppermint oil. In strong concentration the peppermint is said to overwhelmed the bees sense of smell and make them uncomfortable. However, I seen carpenter bees pollinating mints.
Simply painting wood surfaces with a good paint or stain makes it unsuitable for nesting by the carpenter bee. If it’s a surface that you want to keep natural then a clear coat is better than nothing.
There are traps you can make or buy that uses blocks of wood attached to a bottle. The idea is that the carpenter bee will explore holes drilled in the wood that leads to a clear bottle or jar and can’t find their way out again. These are hung near the home and because there’s already a hole that’s the right size the bees will try to save energy by taking over that hole. Carpenter bees only live for one season but the brood will return to same hole and expand the tunnel. Several years of this will destroy the structure eventually and it makes it vulnerable to fungus.
Regardless of the control methods that’s right for you I do ask you to remember that carpenter bees are part of nature and important to some wildflowers that support the other life in the forest. So leave them some space on the edge of the forest well away from your home. Simply drilling 1/2 inch holes in a stump or block of wood and placing it in the right place will both draw them away from the home and keep them out there working as pollenators.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
Tobook me simply reach out using theContact Pageand we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Feeding Frenzy 71020a” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
As the sun continues to beam down and warm the nectar excitement grows among the swarm. The collective hum of wings is loud enough to be heard from several feet away. As I watch the bees rise and fall throughout the roses it’s intriguing how they seem to have an awareness of where each other is without any air traffic controllers to guide them.
I’ve never been in the military myself but as a kid I was allowed to ride in a C-130 and I had a comment from a friend on Facebook that these carpenter bees were the C-130 of the insect world. If you’ve never been around when a C-130 lands it’s probably one of the noisiest experiences in life. They reverse engines like a ship and that really makes a racket.
Could it be that the noise of a Carpenter Bee’s wings is a navigational aid? A bees antenna contains something called a Johnston’s Organ. Basically it’s an ear that detects vibrations. It’s my understanding that bees don’t hear sounds as much as they feel them. So as other bees are buzzing around them the single bee knows exactly where everyone is even when they can’t see them. Don’t get me wrong, bees have excellent peripheral vision and evidence suggests that they have sharper vision than originally thought. But everyone has a blind spot and it seems that bees can actually fly in the direction where that blind spot should be.
I also need to correct an error that I made in part 1. Bumblebees and carpenter bees are not just two different species but two different genera of bees. Bumblebees live in a familial hive where at best Carpenter Bees form loose colonies at best. Bumblebees are more fury and carpenter bees have almost no hair on their abdomen.
When compared to honeybees an individual carpenter bee can pollinate somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 times more flowers. ( but I would point out that the larger hive numbers go to the honeybees and the hive ratios are problem going to go to the honeybees.)
Like most solitary bees the carpenter bees do not make honey. They do make bee bread which is pollen mixed with a small amount of nectar.
Image Titled “Duel Between The Giants 71120a”
Being solitary bees the carpenter bees do not have a “hive mind”. The concept of “good fences make good neighbors” is alive and well in the carpenter bee world. I witnessed several “duels” between the carpenter bees over marked territory. I’ve seen honeybees work the same flower together with no tension between them but not the solitary carpenter bees. If you watch close bees will groom a flower and then come back to it. When the do this not only do they leave pheromones on the flowers to claim them but in response the flowers sweeten the nectar to encourage them to return. By slipping in to claim a flower that’s already groomed one solitary bee is able to live off of the labor of another and thus conserve energy. However, these duels seemed to be little more than a wrestling match and the deadly stingers are withheld.
Image Titled “Contentment 71020a”.
Generally speaking it always seemed like the bee who was not the bee that groomed the flower gave up easily and the original bee won the right to forage that flower.
Lord willing, I’ll finish up the carpenter bees with part 3 in the next post.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
Tobook me simply reach out using theContact Pageand we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
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