Wednesday, August 1, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
A newcomer
in my midst
Last week, while up to
my armpits writing up this
season’s golden eagle sur-
vey, the phone rang with my
dear pal, church member
and fellow beekeeper, Eric
Liddell on the other end.
“If you’re not too busy,”
he said, “I just got a call
about a bee swarm, but I
can’t take care of it. Can you
go get ’em?”
That presented a slight
problem. First, I’m no longer
a “beekeeper,” and, second,
I didn’t have my swarm col-
lecting equipment laid out
and ready to go. Usually,
about March 1, I’d get my
tree-limb-cutting tools, a
sturdy cardboard box, lad-
der and an empty Langstroth
hive needed to collect a hon-
eybee swarm.
But so as not to compete
with our native bees, I’ve
set my beekeeping equip-
ment aside. Eric’s a good
pal, however, and a swarm
of bees always needs a
good friend — right then
and there. So I told him I’d
go get the bees, which he
reported were at the City of
Sisters campground.
Oh boy! A swarm of
bees in a campground could
become big trouble looking
for a place to happen. But, as
it turned out, someone in city
hall was one jump ahead of
me and ran out to the camp-
ground and sprayed the so-
called, “swarm” with a can
of Raid.
(One of these days either
Eric or I have to go down to
city hall and share the facts
of life about a domestic bee
swarm with the powers-
that-be. The very last thing
anyone should do is spray
a swarm of honeybees with
Raid!)
Anyway, I went to the
campground and talked
to Jerry Pierce, one of the
campground hosts, who
hauled me to the swarm
site. Now this tale gets
interesting:
The so-called swarm was
gone when I got there, and
from what I was told, it did
not behave at all like a hon-
eybee swarm. Turns out, the
so-called “bees” were actu-
ally small wasps, and they
were hovering in the still
air near a large chunk of
lava rock that was dumped
there when the last Ice Age
was melting all the glacial
ice that occupied the city of
Sisters long ago.
That’s when the host told
me about the Raid attack
on the “swarm.” We looked
for casualties and found one
among the crushed rock on
the edge of the roadway. And
that’s when I discovered the
swarm wasn’t a swarm, but
a bunch of tiny paper wasps
doing something I have
11
PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
Another pollinator, and a newcomer to our midst, the sand wasp.
never heard of or seen in my
90 years of living on Mother
Earth.
When I come upon an
insect mystery the first per-
son I contact is my wonder-
ful pal from the long-ago
OMSI Days, Eric. I met this
young man when he was 12
years old in the early ’60s,
and he was already hooked
on insects, and he’s the same
today.
Here’s what I got back:
“Polistes major does not
occur in Oregon as far as I
know. (I’d misidentified the
dead wasp, which is noth-
ing new for me.) The species
there are Polistes aurifer,
Mischocyttarus flavitarsis....
and Polisted dominula, the
European paper wasp.
“Without seeing an
image, I cannot rule out that
it was some other kind of
wasp, though. Steniolia spp.
sand wasps form sleeping
clusters to spend the night,
so it might have been those.
NOTICE OF RECEIPT OF A BALLOT TITLE
Notice is hereby given that a ballot title for a City-referred measure for inclusion
in the November 6, 2018 general election has been fi led with the City Recorder
of the City of Sisters on Friday, July 27, 2018. Th e ballot title is as follows:
CAPTION: Allows recreational and medical marijuana establishments in
Sisters.
QUESTION: Shall Sisters allow medical marijuana establishments and recre-
ational marijuana establishments in areas subject to the City’s jurisdiction?
SUMMARY: State law allows operation of licensed recreational marijuana
producers, processors, wholesalers, and retailers, and registered medical marijuana
processors and dispensaries. State law provides that a city council may adopt an
ordinance to be referred to the voters of the city to allow (permit) the establish-
ment and operation of recreational marijuana producers, processors, wholesalers,
and/or retailers, medical marijuana processors and/or dispensaries, and/or any
combination thereof. Th e Sisters City Council has referred this measure to the
voters as provided under state law.
Approval of this measure will allow the establishment and operation of medical
marijuana processing sites and dispensaries, and recreational marijuana producers,
processors, wholesalers, and retailers within any area subject to the city’s jurisdiction.
If this measure is approved, the city will be eligible to receive distributions of state
marijuana tax revenues and may, subject to voter approval, impose a local tax or
fee on the recreational sale of marijuana items.
ANY ELECTOR WHO IS DISSATISFIED WITH
THE BALLOT TITLE MAY PETITION THE
CIRCUIT COURT OF DESCHUTES COUNTY TO
REVIEW THE BALLOT TITLE NO LATER THAN
5 PM ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2018.
They are normally solitary so
pose ZERO THREAT what-
soever. Spraying a sleep-
ing cluster can substantially
impact local populations of
those wasps. Other solitary
wasps and bees congregate
in a similar fashion at dusk,
and they are usually only
non-stinging males.”
Please don’t grab up a can
of insecticide and start kill-
ing — before you know who
you’re killing and why. Nine
times out of 10, it’ll turn out
to be a friendly species and
a pollinator vitally important
to the world around you and
me.
Now let me tell you about
sand wasps. They are preda-
tors, and as such they kill
insects that we really don’t
want to put up with, like
aphids and other pestiferous
six-legged critters. Not only
will they not sting you, they
can’t! And the males are
important pollinators.
But for me this was
a whole new world. I’ve
never seen a mass of sleep-
ing sand wasps, which I
have a hunch is what was in
the campground. With that
said, if you or someone you
know see and/or calls you
about a mass of small wasps
hovering near the ground,
especially in the cool, quiet
morning air, please let me
know!
So, I learned not all wasps
will sting you to distraction,
and even after living in this
beautiful Sisters Country for
all these many years, I have
a lot to learn about what’s
going on around me in the
world of insects.