Bee careful

By Aaron Horrell

Autumn is a great time to get outdoors and enjoy the moderate temperatures. As I write this, Southeast Missouri continues to be in a period of drought. Sunny, bright days normally accompany stretches of dry weather. This fall so far has provided many days of near-perfect opportunity to get out and look for interesting things in nature.

My photo here shows the fruit of a native American persimmon tree, sometimes called the sugarplum tree.

The fruit, which is called a persimmon, develops during summer as a small, hard, green fruit that looks similar to a young apple.

As it grows to maturity, a persimmon will turn yellow-orange and eventually ripen to a deep orange color. If you bite into a persimmon that is not ripe, you will get a surprise.

A ripe persimmon usually will have four to eight rather large, hard, flat seeds. The fully ripened fruit has a distinct, wonderful taste. Sometimes persimmons are used in making pudding or cake.

The bees you see here are often mistakenly called bumblebees. The dark bald spots on the backs of the bees, as well as their shiny black abdomens, indicate they are carpenter bees.

Male carpenter bees do not have a stinger, but females do have a stinger. Carpenter bees are much more docile than bumblebees.

They will tolerate your close approach in situations like this when they are feeding.

If you catch a female carpenter bee and restrain it in your hand, you probably will get stung.