I noticed it sitting on my vinyl siding and thought it was mating. I looked closer and it was grasping a honeybee. I moved in closer to see what the heck the fly was doing and it flew off. The fly was about 3/4" long; slender and pointy. What insect could that have been?
Long black pointy fly preying on a honeybee. What insect could that have been?
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Yeah, I got those stinking things too. They look like a little helicopter with that thin tail and they kill a lot of honey bees. They are vicious killers.
Here's some pics and descriptions....
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/flies/robber_flies.htm
Here's some pics and descriptions....
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/flies/robber_flies.htm
I had a garden spider next to my hives once that had a small collection of honeybees and grasshoppers. I didn't think of it as a vicious killer but an effective one. I think the same about robber flies, they prey on wasps,dragonflies,hornets,garden pests, etc. Maybe our honeybees would be in greater danger without them keeping other predators in check.
That's exactly what it was. So strange. Nature is amazing.
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Robber flies are cool bugs. Excellent hunters. They get a few honeybees but get all kinds of other insects, too. I have a path mowed through the briar patch leading to my beeyard...they use it as a low-level "flight corridor"...as I'm walking to the hives I'll get several leap-frogging ahead of me.
Dragon flies are another heavy hunter...got them, too. I'd say the dragon flies get more bees than the robber flies, but...I ain't got a scoreboard up.
Spiders seem to like the hives, too, they'll build the occasional web. What spooks me is reaching underneath the hives to pull some weeds or something and my hand to run into a spiderweb...I've killed a couple of blackwidows around the hives. Most were beneath some boards or tin laying on the ground but one has came from beneath a hive. I look before I reach.
Snakes....I haven't had that "pleasure" yet at my hives, though. We get timber rattlers and copperheads in the yard occasionally and the hives are much closer to the woods so I try to stay alert for them.
All these other critters are part of our environment...oh...and I try to remember, too, that the honey bees are the "introduced" species here.
Ed
Dragon flies are another heavy hunter...got them, too. I'd say the dragon flies get more bees than the robber flies, but...I ain't got a scoreboard up.
Spiders seem to like the hives, too, they'll build the occasional web. What spooks me is reaching underneath the hives to pull some weeds or something and my hand to run into a spiderweb...I've killed a couple of blackwidows around the hives. Most were beneath some boards or tin laying on the ground but one has came from beneath a hive. I look before I reach.
Snakes....I haven't had that "pleasure" yet at my hives, though. We get timber rattlers and copperheads in the yard occasionally and the hives are much closer to the woods so I try to stay alert for them.
All these other critters are part of our environment...oh...and I try to remember, too, that the honey bees are the "introduced" species here.
Ed
Intheswamp, sounds like my terrain is similar to yours. I've lifted up a cinder blocks off the rocky ground to find small red scorpions underneath. No snakes in the apiary for me yet either. But yeah, I it's an amazing ecosystem. I try to let most poisonous things live. But not black widows or copperheads! I'll let the ones live that arent propagating where I roam!
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The other day I noticed a Stink Bug (Brown Nymph) on the outside of a box and it had a bee clutched in it's mouth. I knew bout dragonflies and birds but the StingBug was a new one for me!!! Lets say that like a condemed prisioner.....that was it's last meal too!
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