We Grow Houses

...ttractant is species-specific and won’t attract beneficial insects such as bees and butterflies. Public information officer Ken Pellman, on the scene to deal with NBC, assured me that I wouldn’t have any trouble unless I “licked the utility poles” and went on to say that the Naled application would prevent larger applications of pesticides should oriental fruit flys establish large populations down the road. Perhaps. While toxicity concerns are pr...

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Mulch, mulch, mulch!

...ention that it is a good idea to leave some soil bare in a yard for native bees and other insects. Some native bees harvest dirt and mud for their nests, others nest in the ground and need access to the soil. I’m going to do a whole post on native bee habitat later in this series, so you’ll be hearing more about this. In the meantime, just keep in mind the idea of leaving the odd corner or bit of slope un-mulched.) Mulching vegetables: Mulch in th...

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Of paper wasps and scrub jays

...ic, especially if they’re yellow and black striped. After years of keeping bees, we’ve come to learn that many people can’t distinguish a honey bee from a yellow jacket from a wasp–and we won’t even start on the native bees. Yet it pays to be able to do so, because each is quite different, and we can interact peaceably with all of them if we know their ways. Paper wasps, also called umbrella wasps, are those guys who build smallish, open celled ne...

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Saturday Tweets: Artichokes, Rants and Rare Bee Art

...ple (@rootsimple) July 24, 2015 Another great podcast from @GardenForkTV: #bees #weightloss and #BBQ: http://t.co/d2Exgap3op — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 24, 2015 Support #Westwood bike lane #completestreets #greatstreetsLA @lacbc call or email Councilman #PaulKoretz 213.473.7005 [email protected] — Joel Epstein (@thejoelepstein) July 23, 2015 Pictures: Rare Bees Make Flower-Mud "Sandwiches" http://t.co/5LFMWUa3eY via @NatGeo — Root Simpl...

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Why is My Squash Bitter?

...t to save seed and you take the precaution of taping up the flowers, bumblebees and solitary bees can chew their way through the tape to get at the pollen. In short it’s really easy to breed a freak Frankensquash or Frankencucumber, which can actually be toxic. Cynthia, a Root Simple reader in Texas, alerted me to an interesting hazard with bitter out-crossed Cucurbitaceae. According to Tony Glover, regional extension agent at the University of Al...

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