# What are these guys doing in my greenhouse??



## JeanLux (Jun 25, 2008)

Here a few pictures of some potential pollinators I saw today in my greenhouse. Maybe they are just eating, but there are a lot of possible blooms where to take pollen from for an uncontrolled transfer!!  . Now, it is not the first time they are inside, and every year, I have pollinated flowers, bringing up seed pods of an not known parent!! until now, I did not try to work on with one of those capsules. Do you think it would be worth trying or be better not looking forward to possible frustration!!??

Jean

Wasp on Coelogyne pandurata (burfordiense??) blooms: 







unknown insect: 






Fly/Gnat? on Cattleya leaves






on Dendrobium mochatum s back


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## Candace (Jun 25, 2008)

For me, I try to keep all possible pollinators out of the g.h. First, because once a flower is pollinated it fades fast. And next, because of the problem of unknown parentage, like you stated. To me it's easier to pollinate on my own and experiment with the flasking. All of my flasking has been a dismal failure, so I'm going to be sending it out from now on. But, even if one mother flask took there would be a lot of noname plants to deal with. Then growing them out and using bench space... If it were me I'd clip off the unknown pods, give them away maybe, but not waste the time or money of flasking them myself.


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## NYEric (Jun 25, 2008)

Yellow-Jacket, wasp, and 2 flys.


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## Hien (Jun 25, 2008)

I believe the green one is the male fly, and the grey one is the female one.
Usually the green one is chubbier, the grey one is skinnier.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Jun 25, 2008)

The first photo is a yellowjacket wasp. The second is an ichneumon wasp...doesn't sting, but uses that long ovipositor to lay its eggs in wood. The 3rd is a green bottle fly, the 4th is a house fly, both of which I simply refer to as "doo-doo" flies....great for pollinating some Bulbo's or Stapelias........Take care, Eric


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## Yoyo_Jo (Jun 25, 2008)

I really dislike bugs, but I must say your photos of them are awesome!


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## JeanLux (Jun 26, 2008)

Candace said:


> For me, I try to keep all possible pollinators out of the g.h. First, because once a flower is pollinated it fades fast. And next, because of the problem of unknown parentage, like you stated. To me it's easier to pollinate on my own and experiment with the flasking. All of my flasking has been a dismal failure, *so I'm going to be sending it out *from now on. But, even if one mother flask took there would be a lot of noname plants to deal with. Then growing them out and using bench space... If it were me I'd clip off the unknown pods, give them away maybe, but not waste the time or money of flasking them myself.



thanks Candace!

If so, I would give it to a specialized nursery, too!! But only when I was able to control the pollination ,and so, knew the parentage!! Jean


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## JeanLux (Jun 30, 2008)

Another beast on a Cattleya loddigessii flower! Jean


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## NYEric (Jun 30, 2008)

Those are the flies we call sweat bees. they are harmless and you can actually play w/ them.


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## goldenrose (Jul 2, 2008)

NYEric said:


> Those are the flies we call sweat bees. they are harmless and you can actually play w/ them.



 ........ and the reason one would one want to?


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## Rick (Jul 2, 2008)

JeanLux said:


> Another beast on a Cattleya loddigessii flower! Jean



This one looks like a species of hover fly to me. This is from the group of flies that pollinates many of the slipper orchids.

They are actually a beneficial insect in that the adults are looking for aphids to lay their eggs on. The larvae of hover flies eat aphids.

The staminode of many paphs is supposed to look like aphid clusters (rothchildianum) or a single aphid or honeydew drop (barbigerum/villosum) types) that encourage the hover fly females to land and fall into the pouch, thereby facilitating pollination.


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## Rick (Jul 2, 2008)

NYEric said:


> Those are the flies we call sweat bees. they are harmless and you can actually play w/ them.



The things we call sweat bees (as in the sweat off your brow) are small bees(euglossine bees), which are the big pollinators of stanophea types like Gongoras, Stanophea, and Bucket orchids (Coryactis?).

They are real shiny blue green like a bluebottle fly, but even smaller, and they bite!


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## Rick (Jul 2, 2008)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> The first photo is a yellowjacket wasp. The second is an ichneumon wasp...doesn't sting, but uses that long ovipositor to lay its eggs in wood. The 3rd is a green bottle fly, the 4th is a house fly, both of which I simply refer to as "doo-doo" flies....great for pollinating some Bulbo's or Stapelias........Take care, Eric



Doesn't the ichneum wasp bore into wood to lay its eggs in wood grub (beetle) larvae? Its larvae they eat the wood grub.


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