- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"I do! I do! I do!"
Some of us engage in wedding photography.
Not with humans. With insects.
All you need is a bride, a groom and a…hmm…bedroom. That could be a leafy green bedroom in the rose garden where the lady beetles, aka ladybugs, are. Most of the time they're in the kitchen, eating aphids. Sometimes they're not.
Sometimes the activities underway aren't just...well...."integrated pest management activities." Think two ladybugs on a leaf. Two. One is not a "lady." There's this gender thing.
Life is simple in insect wedding photography.
- There's no preacher saying “Let us prey.” The bride and groom are both predators, and aphids are their prey.
- There are no vows. There's no “til death do us part.” Unless the bride and groom are praying mantids and the groom is about to part with his head.
- Love amid the roses? Well, there is “I larva you.” But insects are interested in only two things: reproduction and an all-you-can-eat buffet.
- There's no wedding party. But there is a congregation of favorite aunts (ants) and soldiers (soldier beetles), and assorted uninvited guests, including lacewings, honey bees, syrphid flies and spiders. Some of the guests are eating one another. Oops! Is it too late to hire a wedding planner?
- There's no need to coordinate what the mother of the bride and groom are wearing. They're wearing spots. And a few minutes ago, they flew off in search of more aphids. Sorry, to leave you, dears, but we're hungry.
- There's no wedding cake. Aphids are the fare when you're a ladybug. Mites and scales are fairly delicious, too.
Here's the kicker: the bride and groom will never, ever--never, ever!--complain about how fat, old, tired or wrinkled they look in the photos. They're as cute as well…bugs…and bugs are pretty darn cute.
If you want to pursue insect photography or insect wedding photography, you'll need a macro lens, patience, and the ability to blend into the scene.
Just don't bug the love bugs.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Its stance is firm. Its eyes glow menacingly. Its attitude: "Don't mess with me."
We spotted this katydid on a rose in a UC Davis rose garden. It towered over the honey bees, spotted cucumber beetles, ladybugs, hover flies, and assorted other insects.
The katydid, in the family Tettigonlidae, is also known as a long-horned grasshopper, but entomologists point out it's more closely related to crickets than grasshoppers.
Tettigoniids dine on flowers, leaves, bark and seed, and some feed on other insects.
Now if the katydid were six feet tall...that would scare any trick-or-treater...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Do bees stop and smell the roses?
Maybe. Honey bees gather nectar and pollen from a variety of flowers, including their favorites, the salvias, mints and lavenders. They also forage on wild roses, but usually not on commercially grown roses.
Sometimes, however, you'll see a honey bee tucked in the folds of rose petals or "resting" on a rose. Ah, the sweet smell of roses!
The quote, "Stop and smell the roses," is often attributed to golfer Walter Hagen in the 1956 book "The Walter Hagen Story" but he didn't mention roses. The quote: "You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way."
Do worker bees stop and smell the roses?
For sure, bees are here for only a short while. Worker bees generally live four to six weeks. During the busy season, a 60,000-member colony will lose some 1000 workers a day, says Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty. The queen bee replaces them by laying 1000 to 2000 eggs a day.
All that work to build up the colony...then poof! their lives end.
Well, maybe they stop and rest on the roses.
