If you hang a yellow tee shirt on the line any pollen beetles in the area will swarm all over it.
Only if it smells of pollen! Insects are rarely fooled - their antenna are tuned to their exact prey plant and are extremely selective and accurate. Some male moths can detect one or two molecules of sex hormone per million two miles away from a female - and she never has a headache when they find her!
Horses are parasitised by an internal bug called Bot Flies - their maggots ( or larval stages ) live in equine guts eating part digested food - to get there they have to find a way of being swallowed as eggs. I've watched Bot Fly females quartering a paddock from downwind - they detect carbon dioxide from the expelled breath of horses - they fly towards the concentration and keep the down sun (they see in ultra violet light so it doesn't have to be very bright) and "count" the legs!!! You will rarely find any wasted eggs, as the female fly only glues them in places where the individual horse or another can lick the spot through nuzzling. That's what several million years of evolution can do.
Very interesting information. I'm loving this forum already with all the wildlife information that is posted
In that case Ma's yellow table cloth and my brother's yellow tee shirts, not to mention the yellow portion of our NDNs son's Norwich City tee shirt must all, quite inexplicably, smell of pollen when straight out of the washing machine.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
In that case Ma's yellow table cloth and my brother's yellow tee shirts, not to mention the yellow portion of our NDNs son's Norwich City tee shirt must all, quite inexplicably, smell of pollen when straight out of the washing machine.
Lol, likewise my yellow t-shirt! When they are swarming I presume there is so much pollen in the air that they struggle to narrow it down. They definitely go to yellow items though
Perhaps it's just an East Anglian phenomenon @Jellyfire
No we definitely had them when I was growing up in Yorkshire, I particularly remember them being attracted to fluorescent clothing back in the 80s when that was all the rage!
If you hang a yellow tee shirt on the line any pollen beetles in the area will swarm all over it.
Only if it smells of pollen! Insects are rarely fooled - their antenna are tuned to their exact prey plant and are extremely selective and accurate. Some male moths can detect one or two molecules of sex hormone per million two miles away from a female - and she never has a headache when they find her!
Well that's partly true but flowers attract insects to an area through olfactory cues then they use vision to zero in on the flowers and colour is a big factor in that. As long as you have attractive smelling flowers in your garden the coloured tee shirt can confuse them when they arrive.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
"Try to wear only dark coloured clothing Anne. Avoid wearing yellow at all costs, and as you say white is almost as bad."
Perhaps it's just an East Anglian phenomenon @Jellyfire
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.