BACKYARDS & BEYOND

Few hummingbirds stay all year in the warmer parts of the state, most hummingbird species arrive in April or May and leave by early October. You'll find the most spectacular diversity of hummingbirds during the late summer rainy season, when local nesters overlap with Mexican species following the rains northward as well as northern nesters on their way south into Mexico. It's possible to find up to 15 species of hummingbirds in late summer months, more than you'll find in any other part of the United States.

Honey bees live in large groups (up to 60,000 bees). Single worker bees can fly as far as six miles to collect pollen and nectar from flowers to feed themselves and their offspring. Sometimes they visit hummingbird feeders for sugar water. They also collect water from birdbaths, swimming pools or pet watering dishes. Bees gathering food will sting only if they are trapped in clothing, stepped on or otherwise threatened. Single foraging bees should be left alone.

Butterflies are some of the most beautiful and interesting creatures on Earth. A butterfly garden is an easy way to see more butterflies and to help them, since many natural butterfly habitats have been lost to human activities like building homes, roads and farms. It is easy to increase the number and variety of butterflies in your yard. Simply grow the plants the caterpillars like to eat, and plants that adult butterflies feed on!

Ladybugs are not only good luck to us they are also good luck to our gardens! While ladybugs love aphids, they also need pollen. If they run out of both, they will go somewhere else that does have the things they need to survive. By spraying wheas t in your garden, a combination of whey and yeast. This diet helps to keep them around longer and will stimulate them to lay more eggs. Tests have proven wheast causes ladybugs to lay an average of three times the amount of eggs that they normally would.