[ExI] bees again

[Mike Dougherty]

On 9/6/07, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Mike, the wasp cousins are not the bees but rather the ants.  The ants are
> much more closely related to the wasps than the bees are to either.  Do feel
> free to feel antipathy towards ants and wasps.  Aggressive sons a bitches
> are these.
>
> We might be able to arrange other pollinators besides bees, but we would be
> hard pressed indeed to get another beast that is as little bother to humans
> as the bees.  Flies can be coaxed to cross pollinate flowers to a limited
> extent, but we don't want flocks of flies, ja?  Bees are not aggressive,
> they don't get in your food, they don't spread disease, they are good
> neighbors.

I remember wasps from 25 years ago being mostly content to have some
Hi-C poured on the picnic table in exchange for leaving us alone.

Thanks for the fyi on the ant/wasp connection.  I saw an ant swarm on
the corner of the pavement today - it was a little disturbing to see
about an 8 inch square of roiling small black ants.

Should we be looking more generally at the impact of the smallest
organisms' impact on global ecology?