Did you know that only female bees can sting? The bee stinger is a changed form of an egg laying organ called the ovipositor which only female bees posses. Males bees (also known as drones) do not have an ovipositor due to the lack of need to lay eggs. Bee's posses a stinger to defend their hive from danger and will only sting if they feel threatened. Since worker Honey bee stingers are usually barbed, once a bee stings its stinger gets stuck in the threat and often will kill

The end of August is a great time to look for one of our endangered butterfly species, the Mormon Metalmark. This butterfly is quite small, with a wingspan of only about 3cm in length. Mormon Metalmarks are only found in the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys of BC in Canada. If you are looking for them, the best way to start is to find a plant called Snow buckwheat. Snow buckwheat is a larval host plant for Mormon Metalmarks, meaning they need this plant for their cater

Happy World Bee Day! Many people love bees and want to help bees. More recently this help has come in the form of bee hotels/houses. These are meant to provide habitat for many solitary native bees. And it's great that people want to help these little guys out, but just Bee careful using bee houses. It can take more work than one might think to keep the bees happy and healthy. If not cleaned properly, fungus and bacteria can accumulate and make these places a vector for disea

It can fly, walk and swim, and they live all over Canada. While that may sound like a aquatic bird, what we're describing is actually Predaceous Diving beetles. These beetles are commonly seen in many ponds and slow moving streams. While they are proficient swimmers, they can still use their wings to fly between ponds. Like their name suggest, they are dangerous predators to other insects and small fish. They are quite adept in the water, swimming akin to a frog with both bac

We have a couple of invasive tree species here in the Okanagan and Similkameen and one is the frustrating Tree of Heaven. Tree of Heaven is believed to be the fastest growing tree in North America, making it outcompete many of our native species. It is also allelopathic, meaning that it can make the soil around itself toxic to other plants. This tree can easily establish itself into disturbed areas and is quite tricky to get rid of. Cutting the tree can just trigger the plant

Not all invasives can be dealt with in the same way, it is really dependent on the species and how it grows. The most common ways to control invasives are mechanically, chemically, or through bio-controls. Mechanical is through brute force, usually by digging or pulling, and chemically is through the use of pesticides and herbicides. Bio-control are when you introduce a species, usually an insect, that would naturally predate on this plant where it originated from. This requi