Keep Polk County Beautiful - TX

05/06/2026

05/04/2026

A great purple hairstreak (Atlides halesus) feeding on mealy blue sage (Salvia farinacea) yesterday in a garden in Polk County.

04/06/2026

A poster of some of the native bees found in Polk County!

04/03/2026

Pollinators of the Dewberry Patch
Part 4: Moths, Beetles, and Bugs

We saw a few day-flying moths, and a couple nocturnal moths, visiting the dewberry patch. Beetles are considered the original pollinators. They've been pollinating since flowering plants first appeared around 130 million years ago.

04/01/2026

We continued exploring the Big Thicket National Preserve this week, hiking the south end of the Turkey Creek Trail (a 14-mile long trail with multiple trailheads). This trail is less than an hour from Livingston in neighboring Tyler and Hardin counties. Highlights included a hooded warbler, a northern parula, numerous zebra and palamedes swallowtails, wildflowers, and the best bee-mimic fly we have ever seen! Click on the pictures for more information.

03/30/2026

Pollinators of the Dewberry Patch
Part 3: Flies

For several weeks we observed the pollinators visiting a dewberry patch in a Polk County field. We saw dozens of species of pollinators, including a variety of very interesting flies! Most of these flies mimic bees or wasps.

03/25/2026

Pollinators of the Dewberry Patch
Part 2: Butterflies

This multipart series is the result of several weeks of observations of pollinators visiting a dewberry patch in an old field in Polk County. These flowers are an important early spring food source for a variety of pollinators.

03/23/2026

For three weeks, we spent numerous hours observing a roughly 100 sq ft dewberry patch. The flowers are important food sources, and we observed dozens of species of pollinators. Our observations will be a multipart series.

Part 1: Bees of the Dewberry Patch

We observed blueberry digger bees, bumblebees, carpenter bees, cellophane bees, mason bees, mining bees, nomad bees, and sweat bees. Some of these bees are only seen above ground in the spring. They spend the rest of the year developing underground as larvae and pupae, emerging as adults in spring. Texas has over 800 species of native bees! Most bees collect pollen to provide food for their young, but the wasp-looking nomad bees don't collect pollen. They are kleptoparasitic. They lay their eggs in the nests of other bees, stealing their food.