It’s been a disappointing couple of days with my tomato plants, although this photo doesn’t really indicate that.
The tomatoes were coming along nicely when something–probably a squirrel– completely stripped one plant of all the green tomatoes, doing a fair amount of damage to the stems in the process.
It tried to do the same thing to this plant but the stems weren’t quite as sturdy. So after breaking 2 off, it gave up and went away.
I think that’s a partial win for me. Hard to say.
So in the process of pruning back all the damage and broken stems, all of a sudden I noticed a smallish black and yellow bee hovering.
I stepped back a moment and it landed on the top of the bamboo stake and entered.
Unlike most other people, I cannot get good photos of bees. All I have here is “bee butt.”
A little sleuthing determined that it’s a type of sweat bee–not the cool metallic green one, but a black one with yellow stripes.
And it’s a tomato pollinator. So, if I can keep the squirrels away, I should have a nice crop with this plant.
Where’s my pesky barking dog when I need her? I thought that no squirrel moved on this property without her knowledge. Apparently I am mistaken.