Bumblebee behaviour

Thoughts on a remote or long range flame thrower.

ChrisH, the Bumble bees do not eat or use wood nor do they remove cement or sand so your structure is safe. For next year in the late Winter stop,up the gaps with sealer. The bees use wax and fur from tyheir bodies to make small honey cups to store nectar. They really are no problem and your fear of an attack is groundless. Bumbles have three stances to repel danger, firstly they will lift two legs towards you then if still endangered will rear up against you with legs out, thirdly they will amble away or try to fly off. Stings are mild and only if you trap or stand on it.

Hornets have been mentioned. The memory bank, full, chaotic and prone to error , says that Hornets are a protected species in Germany ... yes?

rgds

Bill

Hmm! interesting, my nephew is a paediatrician and speaking with him some time back about why there are so many people [children in particular] now with allergies - it seems to me there were far fewer when I was young, indeed I don't recall anyone I knew having an allergy -- his reply was that we live in a world that is too clinically clean thus our immune system has little or nothing to do so looks for something it perceives is a threat and attacks it. Somewhat simplistic explanation on my part but I'm sure you will get the idea !

John

Cornish Jack, the Asian hornet is a reportable inhestation due to it's predatory attcks on beehives. They hold siege to the hive and the bees will not leeave the hive so stay home to defend it, I assume they have a sense of fear as well?

The asian Hornet is a brown bodied insect 3 Cm long easily distinguished from the normal yellow jacketed hornet that looks like a biiger wasp.

I see no point in any country that protects asian Hornets as it is an alien invader.

I might add that all insects like Bumbles, Honey bees and Leaf cutters etc are all proteced under the wild life and countryside act.

Edited By Clive Hartland on 23/05/2020 10:02:43

Hi JohnF, I have seen programmes on TV about allergies, and one of them compared adults where some grew up on farms and in the country side to those that grew up in towns where they were less exposed to many common allergies. Those that grew up in towns had a significantly higher amount of allergies compared to the country side and farm people. The assessment seemed to show that we build up our immunity by being exposed to allergens during our childhood years. Can't remember if it was the same programme, but one case in point was a women who's parents keep her kind of "squeaky clean" and always cleaned her up immediately after getting dirty, was never exposed to much wildlife and had never been stung by a wasp. She went on a trip to America and got stung by a wasp while jogging and went into anaphylactic shock and from then on she has to carry an adrenaline injector in case it ever happen again. This doesn't prove the facts, but it does seem you need to be exposed to all manner of things to help us to survive in later life without too many problems.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 23/05/2020 10:46:46

In my garden I have a Espalier Cotoneaster that is about 10' x 10' and is covered with dozens & dozens of small bees. The hum is a glorious sound to hear. They just go about their business day after day and seem to prefer the Cotoneaster to other flowers. The path is right next to the bush but they take no notice of us and we leave them alone. Where they nest I have no idea but am not really bothered as I will never disturb them. My garden has an abundance of flowers that my wife takes great pleasure in growing. Myself I am not into gardening but am appreciative of her efforts. We get quite a few larger bumbles in the garden and are quite happy to sit there and let them potter around us as they will. Neither of us have suffered a bee stink but have had the occasional encounter with a wasp or two.

regards

Clive - thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Not sure they are bumble bees but:

The pics with two bees, the little fella on the left is still alive, just, but keeps trying to roll over onto her back, the one on the right is dead. As you can see from the pics with my rule in them, they are both about 1/2 to 3/4inch long. Found these amongst the lettuce I am growing under the nest entry. Wanted to get a photo of the entry which is usually full of bees coming and going on a sunny day like today, but the sun is in the wrong position for a good photo and there aren't that many bees flying right now, I think the high wind is putting them off.

Not worried they might attack me, just want them to go. Was wondering if these bees were a variety of masonery or charpenter bees, in which case if the latter they may attack the roof beam or roofing boards.

Sounds like I need to wait until winter then block up the entry. I have some wasp nest destroyer which you squirt from 2m away, but I would need to get up close to squirt it through the entry hole if I chose to use this. Or, I could just use some silicon sealant or the like.

Neil. A few years ago I came into my shed and there was a huge hornet sitting on the bench. Popped him into a jam jar and left him on the table outside the shed. The heat killed him. Next day I came in and there was his mate, probably come looking for him, sat in the exact same spot on my bench. He got the same jam jar treatment, Was worried then that all their mates might rock up, but they didn't. We had a nest of bees in the cavity of an extension wall at about the same time, and then saw a hornet showing an interest in the nest - shortly later all the bees in that nest had gone.

Chris

Chris

Big ones are usually queens looking for a nest site.

Neil

Two pics of the bees nest entry, not very good, the sun kept upsetting things, the first:

If you closely you can see a load of bees just outside the entrance, plus a couple in flight, the second:

shows too much contrast at the entrance but a nice one of some of the bees!

Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 23/05/2020 14:58:00

Chris H - I think that they are the Drones (Male bees) as they appear to have big eyes. Clive will probably confirm. They are often chucked out of the hive and starve to death if they are not wanted by the colony. Their only purpose in life is to mate with virgin queens and a queen is only mated once in her lifetime and by perhaps 10 - 15 drones. Apart from that, drones just sit around all day chatting and eating honey, don't do any housework, don't look after the kids.

There is usually only one queen per colony with an active life of 3 - 5 years. At her height, she can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day, reducing substantially during the winter months.

I love bees, but I don't know enough to consider keeping them, also when I looked on line the cost of a hive is pretty steep.

Am I right in thinking I will be helping out by just hanging some of those bamboo looking things up which wild bees will then use?

Ian, there are many types of bee from solitary to the honey bee that live in colonies of up to 80,000. Even honey bees are 'wild' although may be managed by man. You will do no harm in helping nature find a new home, but they won't be honey bees although they will, like bumble bees produce very small quantities of honey and pollen stores.

Thank you speedy, I am not interested in making or taking honey, I just have a fondness for bee's that I can't explain, I will do anything I can to help them out, I have lots in and out of the garden so hopefully a couple of these bamboo type things will help em out.

Honey bee Drones, as said have one peurpose to impregnate the Queen. So they live the life of Rielly being fed and allowed out and in any hive.

It has been established that the Drones congregate in certain areas and circle about and this is where the Queen will head to. As said she will go out several times to mate and each time the the Drone dies but leaves his genitals in the Queen. She comes back and the bees clean her up for the next flight

It has been well researched and happens in the same places each years.

Clive - can you ID my bees for me from the photos I've posted?

Thanks,

Chris

Very interesting bee incident - magical even.

Found a huge, and I mean huge, bumble bee on the window cill in the conservatory last evening. It was still alive so I carefully relocated it to some flower plants outside. It was soon climbing very slowly around the flower head of a French Marigold.

This morning it was still there, and still moving, very slowly. Thinking it might need some energy I mixed a little teaspoon, about a 1/4, of honey with some water, put it on a side plate, put the bee on the plate and watched. It wandered seemingly aimlessly about so I steered it towards the honey solution. Suddenly it realised what was in front of it, the head went down, out came a long what looked like two pronged vee thingy from it's mouth area and out of the bottom of which came a little tongue which lapped at the honey solution for a few minutes. Then satisfied, the prongs were withdraw, a sudden spurt of solution came out its rear end and it trundled off around the plate so I put it back on the marigold flower head. It stayed there for a while and then suddenly next time I looked it had gone .

Never seen the like of that before.

And, not to do with bees, but this morning a song thrush flew down into the garden. To be fair, it took one look at me and flew off again, but that is the first song thrush I've seen in England for years and years, decades even. Wish it would eat more of the snails which are eating my seedlings!

Chris

We have just discovered a nest of Tree Bee's in our bungalow eves.

Having looked them up to find out what species they are, we will leave them to get on with their lives.

Phil

.

Chris,

What you have been privileged to see in action [the Bee’s proboscis] is an astonishingly complex device

This page includes some SEM images showing the exquisite detail : **LINK**

https://annemariemaes.net/scanning-electron-microscope/

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 27/05/2020 13:11:54

OldIron, definitely a Drone bee on the left and likely a worker bee on the right.

Dog went for a Bumble just now and it latched onto the fur around her chpps and she used her left foreleg to get it off, result, a sting on the left foot. Serves her right as she goes for anything that crawls, flys or runs in HER garden.

All OK now after a short walk.

We had a German Shepherd that liked bees, caught them in mid air and went cross eyed when they stung him. If I was quick I could get him to spit it out alive.

BTW don't forget to clean out bee hotels for next year.

Edited By Dave Halford on 27/05/2020 14:14:21