On Sun, 04 May 2014 20:04:45 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 5/4/2014 7:04 PM, micky wrote:
My new cherry tree NW of Baltimore didn't seem to have many bugs
fertilizing it. Just 4 when I looked, two honey bees and two other
things about half as big and all black.

Is this because of the deaths of so many honey bees?

What were these other things?

I'm not sure they were even big enough to do the accidental fertilizing
that honey bees do.

Do you think this will cause a shortage of fruit on the tree? It had
loads of flowers,

If there isn't much fruit, how do I fertilize the flowers myself next
year? A brush? A toothbrush?


I wonder if an unusually cold winter may have something to do with it? I
think a lot of the bugs aren't around here in Alabamastan after the very
cold winter weather we had. ^_^

There aren't any more stink bugs, afaict, and two bushes in front of my
house which have been dying slowly, finally died completely, and the ivy
that was all around the bed all seemed to die, the first time that any
ivy died.

For next year, if necessary, I know you can buy lady bugs, but I've
never heard of buying honey bees, unless it's a whole hive. I don't
want to be bothered with a whole hive. Plus I suppose it would be
expensive these days. It's still a small tree. If the flowers were
still there, I'd be happy to pollinate them myself. It would have take
no more than 2 hours, I think.



TDD