Interesting AI spam problem

[Droege, Sam]

OK

As you saw we got a new spam message from new member Joanne (as in 10 minutes prior).

This is what came across with her request to join:

"I joined this group to learn more about native bee identification and conservation, share knowledge, and engage in discussions on monitoring, survey methods, and other technical aspects with others in the field."

Pretty good, hit all the right marks for joining the group!

Obviously, there is some sly, likely AI induced, trickery going on.  Hollis is much more hardass on this and suggested we ask each new member to talk more about themselves first, but not sure this will be work either given how clever AI is.  So, I think we will let new people in, but their message on "moderated" mode and see how things go. Perhaps they will be some sort of test we can administer (average flight speed of a swallow sort of thing).  

In any case apologies and we hope to catch these things in the future.

Sam

Black Vulture

 

The vulture opened its Parish,

endorsed its black habits,

flew about in search of sinners,

diminutive crimes, robberies,

lamentable cattle thefts,

inspecting everything from above:

fields, homes, dogs, sand,

it sees everything without looking,

flies outstretched, opening

its priestly garb to the sun.

 

The vulture, God's spy,

does not smile at springtime:

it circles round and round, measuring heaven,

solemnly settles on the ground,

and folds up like an umbrella.

       - Pablo Neruda

Keep your Property Half Wild

Cell: 301 433 5390

Alternative email: droe...@gmail.com

 

[Flatbush Gardener]

Yes, Sam, moderating new members is the way to go. I've had to do this with all the groups I manage. It's the only way to prevent these messages from getting out into the group.

The "request to join" text is LLM-generated through the group description!

This listserv serves the bee monitoring community, and postings to it should relate to bee monitoring in the broad sense, which includes, but is not limited to, surveys and inventories, ecological monitoring efforts, bee taxonomy, pollination studies, bee population and community ecology, funding opportunities related to bee monitoring, and sociopolitical issues around bee monitoring and the broader discipline. The goal of the listserv is to facilitate discussion around these topics and serve the interests of the bee monitoring community.

Put that into an LLM, ask it generate "group join request", and voila:

I joined this group to learn more about native bee identification and conservation, share knowledge, and engage in discussions on monitoring, survey methods, and other technical aspects with others in the field.

I've seen so many of these that I can sometimes "smell" the so-called "AI" and just reject the join request.

-----

Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener)

Certified Interpretive Guide, NY Master Naturalist

Web Site/Blog - iNaturalist (Observations) - Flickr (Photos) - Vimeo (Videos) 

  - Social - Signal 

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[BetsyKlinger]

If I’m seeing a large aggregation (hundreds) of colletes nests appearing in Montgomery County, MD this week, is that more likely Colletes inequalis or Colletes thoracicus?

[Flatbush Gardener]

inaequalis is the earlier riser.

Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener)

On Sat, Apr 4, 2026, 8:41 AM 'BetsyKlinger' via beemonitoring <beemon...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

If I’m seeing a large aggregation (hundreds) of colletes nests appearing in Montgomery County, MD this week, is that more likely Colletes inequalis or Colletes thoracicus?

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[Douglas Yanega]

On 4/4/26 5:41 AM, 'BetsyKlinger' via beemonitoring wrote:

If I’m seeing a large aggregation (hundreds) of colletes nests appearing in Montgomery County, MD this week, is that more likely Colletes inequalis or Colletes thoracicus?

Unless my brain is completely shot, inaequalis is a pretty ordinary Colletes with strong pale bands on the abdomen, and thoracicus is a large species with reddish thoracic pile and weak abdominal bands.

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314    phone: 951-827-4315
FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
             https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82