Hobo Jungle

[webenda]

you won that one Wayne, but you can't beat my sock monkey cactus!!!!!

Dang Jon! The dreaded Jumping Monkey cholla (Cylindropuntia fulgida.) I hope they warned you not to get too close to that thing. If it gets you, you will need a pair of pliers to get it out. Sometimes it is easier to push the spines all the way through to remove them.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_cholla

[rogruth]

Wayne,

I have a daughter in the USAF [25 years now] whose first base was at Gila Bend.There was a small museum and tourist info center there that was run by a gentleman who is probably dead now that was a wealth of information about the area.I would go see him almost every day and he would have another place I could visit.This was probably in 1988.He told me that a little ways distance east of Gila Bend was the largest known saguaro but a 4wd vehicle was needed to get to it.I guess I should have rented one and made the trip but I didn't.When I visited a few years later he told me that it was now in an off limits protected area.
Blew my only chance to see it.

For what its worth,southern Arizona is the only other area where I would like to live other than where I am now.

[2railjon]

After years of sharing stories, Wayne and I were finally able to meet! We headed for the high desert!


Wayne then asked if my life insurance was paid up!!!!!!



Wayne gave me a cool dissertation on the meaning of these symbols carved in rock.
I interpeted it as: "Hell it's hot , lets get a cold beer!!!!"

[rogruth]

Wonderful.

[webenda]

Wayne then asked if my life insurance was paid up!!!!!!

Can you read the sign?

The rock pile with petroglyphs is inhabited by rattle snakes.

[rogruth]

Well I meant it was wonderful that the two of you could meet.

[webenda]

Sorry Roger, I was not responding to your comment. I could not read the sign in the photo. The words on the sign are needed to understand why life insurance.

Cactus as far as the eye can see.


Most saguaro blooms are too high up to get a good view.


We found one saguaro arm reaching down with a flower, like it was trying to hand it to us.


After the desert hike we had lunch at The Steak Out. (Forgot to take photos. )

[rogruth]

I have never seen the saguaro in bloom.

[healey36]

Hey Wayne...seeing those flowering cacti makes me want to ask if there are bees in the desert? Do you guys have honey bees? They've been pretty much wiped out here in the east...nobody seems to be able to figure out whats going on. Theories range from mites, pesticides, to cell-phones. I sure miss 'em...we have a couple of apple and peach trees here in the yard and the fruit production has dropped sharply over the last ten years.

Healey

[webenda]

Healy,

The global decline of honey bees has not affected Tucson yet. If it does, the saguaro cactus does not need bees for pollination. White-winged doves and nectar-feeding Leptonycteris bats are just as effective.
Reference: http://libraryportals.org/PCDL/research/8/

The region around Tucson, Arizona is thought to host more kinds of bees than anywhere else in the world. There are at least 45 genera in 7 families, and perhaps as many as 1000 species of bees distributed within the Sonoran Desert bioregion.

Sonoran Desert genera:

Agapostemon, Andrena, Anthidium, Anthophora, Ashmeadiella, Bombus, Centris, Coelioxys, Colletes, Diadasia, Epeolus, Exomalopsis, Halictus, Heteranthidium, Hylaeus, Megachile, Melecta, Melissodes, Nomadopsis, Nomia, Osmia, Panurginus, Peponapis, Perdita, Psithyrus, Sphecodes, Stelis, Svastra, Tetralonia, Triepeolus, Xenoglossa, Xenoglossodes, Xeromelecta, Xylocopa
Reference: http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_bees.php

Recently a new bee, that looks like Apis mellifera (honey bee) except for being long and having black wings, has been visiting our bird bath. Not a new species as I first thought, it is Apis dorsata (Giant Honey Bee).
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gaint ... is_dorsata)_on_Tribulus_terrestris_W_IMG_1020.jpg
Link in above reference does not work. Try this one: Giant Honey Bee

Possible solution for your apple and peach trees--set up an apiary. You can mail order bees for it.
Reference: http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/citybees.htm

[healey36]

Thanks for the links...lots of good info. I live it an old neighborhood in a small town...the houses are pretty close together...keeping bees would probably be frowned upon, lol. I was curious what cross-pollinates out there...it hadn't occurred to me that birds/bats provide that service. We have plenty of bats here, typically small brown bats (not sure of the genus), that clean up a lot of insects. The bats here have there own problems...some sort of fungus is wiping them out.

[webenda]

Neighbors are mentioned in the last reference.

A Fence is important for most backyard beekeepers. A six foot high fence or shrubbery can serve several purposes:

1) Forces the bees flight path above people's heads. Bees normally travel in a straight path to their hive, and a fence raises their flight path up over everyone's head. A fence reduces the chance that a bee will accidentally collide with someone walking nearby.

2) Creates an "out of sight - out of mind" situation. Some people may be overly concerned about bees in the neighborhood. A fence hides most evidence that managed bees are in the neighborhood.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Honey bees winter in the outside ranks of wood in my wood shed in PA; every Spring and early Summer as it warms up walking through there is not for those weak of heart that fear bees. After it gets regularly hot, they seem to disappear for the Summer, but they always seem to return in the later Fall.

Some Winter when I get into those ranks of wood, there will be some "interesting" entertainment.

[webenda]

That is interesting Rufus. I know about hives splitting and swarming to new locations. Beekeepers use "swarm management" to prevent this.

And I know about bees migrating inside trucks. For example every October apiaries full of bees from the Dakotas are taken to almond farms in California.

Did not know they would swarm to wintering headquarters and then fly back to where ever they came from (assumption) in the spring.

You learn more things reading Model Train Journal.

[rogruth]

You learn more things reading Model Train Journal.

My wife doesn't understand this.She thinks it's nothing but trains.