brightspark
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I don't kill bees just wasps . a few jam jars half filled with water and a touch of jam, sorts them
- Thread starter Henrik
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dobbslc
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Me Lord I have written evidence that the defendant woz killing bees!I had a bag of roof insulation in garage the bumblebees had nested in itslit it open and ran like hell there were thousands of them . bought 2 cans of wasp killer .put on overalls gloves and shotblasting helmet and went in and let them have it
God mode restorations
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That fits my quote very well indeed.
Yep... IMHO, 'Bees are great (fuzzy-buzzy type AND Dodge!) - defying the laws of Physics 'cos they CAN'T fly / shouldn't put a grin on your face
Wasps & Hornets, on the other hand aren't in the same league
Ouch!When I was an apprentice doing a rotation in the toolroom we had a big open vapour degreaser tank of heated trichloroethylene and it was funny watching wasps and flies that ventured into the workshop suddenly drop dead when they got to within 8-10 feet of the tank. I was told if I fell into the tank I would probably last about 10 seconds so I steered well clear.
fixerupper
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Yeah ,I have a live and let live thing with wasps and bees , I don't bother them and they don't bother me ..I had a nest in one of my sheds a bit ago ,fascinating to watch them build..
Cobbler
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In the tea room where I worked, they put in a new microwave. Sat having lunch one day, someone was heating a pie or something & there was a gigantic bluebottle buzzing round. It flew in front of the microwave, stopped dead & spiralled down like aeroplane on a war film & lay still on the floor. A minute or two later it was back up like it was only stunned, once round the room & back in front of the microwave, down it went again & stayed down, dead as a doornail. That microwave was brand new & had a leakage test done on it, it showed nothing, I can only assume bluebottles are susceptible to something that the test didn't show, but we were very wary about standing in front of it after that.
Eric the chicken
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During the spring and early summer wasps not only kill aphids but all sorts of other garden pests. They then take the pests that they've killed back to the nest where the pest is fed to the developing grubs that then turn into more wasps. In return for the food the grubs give out a dollop of a sweet secretion. Towards the end of summer the queen wasp ceases laying eggs hence no more grubs. The wasps then start to gather around tea tables picnics etc to try to satisfy there requirement for sweet things. So from gardeners point of view wasps should be left alone in spring and summer but terminated in the autumn.
zeppelin builder
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good job thats usualy a queen skulking around looking for a nesting site a bit of heat wakes them up out of hibernation
Dieselman 63
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I thought the queen stays in the nest whilst scouts go out - that’s certainly the case with bees. Bees communicate by dancing to relay a message. If the hive feels threatened it will leave and create a swarm with the queen in the centre. The scouts then go and look for a new home and if a suitable one is found they will return to the swarm and direct them to the new home - pretty smart. Obviously if you’re keeping bees you do not want this to happen! Fortunately the bees in a swarm are very placid and totally not angry, you can eve pick them up like a football almost and put them back into their hive. It’s amaxing and I didn’t believe it until I saw it.
rtbcomp
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From here https://www.rentokil.ie/blog/wasps-dos-and-donts/
"In the warmer days of spring, queen wasps emerge from their winter hibernation. Their first priority is to find suitable locations to build new nests. As they build the nest, it reaches its maximum size in late summer and early autumn. Each queen lays queen eggs and drone eggs, with each nest holding up to 1,500 new queens."
"In the warmer days of spring, queen wasps emerge from their winter hibernation. Their first priority is to find suitable locations to build new nests. As they build the nest, it reaches its maximum size in late summer and early autumn. Each queen lays queen eggs and drone eggs, with each nest holding up to 1,500 new queens."
JoelC
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Wasps are annoying, bees on the other hand I don’t mind at all.
This time of year - particularly bumblebees are looking for new nest sites, these are the massive bumblebees flying around at this time of year. I will usually go out of my way to not kill bees in the house or garage.
I have bees, I think they are masonary, or brown bumblebees living in a vent in the side of the house, and they don’t cause any issues.
If you get honeybee nests anywhere, find your local beekeeper or beekeeping association and they will usually come and remove them for free.
This time of year - particularly bumblebees are looking for new nest sites, these are the massive bumblebees flying around at this time of year. I will usually go out of my way to not kill bees in the house or garage.
I have bees, I think they are masonary, or brown bumblebees living in a vent in the side of the house, and they don’t cause any issues.
If you get honeybee nests anywhere, find your local beekeeper or beekeeping association and they will usually come and remove them for free.
zeppelin builder
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i got mortar bees in the gable of my w shop
got a wee bit exited when i fired the honda powered compressor up yesterday fumes must have annoyed em usualy harmless
zeppelin builder
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had a few take off out the log basket in dead of winter . bad enough but a wood wasp is even more a terrifying prospect harmless but
like a helicopter and very inquisitive
Dieselman 63
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They are an introduced pest here and have been proven to do nothing but damage the environment. Measures are in place to combat the worst offender, the German wasp! I had a flat mate who was on the extermination research team (she herself was German, ironically). They’ve tried all sorts of stuff, ultrasonic, gas, but I think they’re going to use an infertility thing where males become infertile after they are born, thus dismantling the entire population.
There’s even a link if you don’t believe me!
http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/our-partners/our-regional-partners/wasp-wipeout/
There’s even a link if you don’t believe me!
http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/our-partners/our-regional-partners/wasp-wipeout/
Eric the chicken
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Eric the chicken
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Bees don't swarm when threatened. They attack perceived threats hence beekeeers wear protective equipment.
Swarming is the bee's way of increasing the number of colonies (not the numbers of individual bees in a colony this is done by the queen laying eggs ) During swarming the flying bees and the old queen leave for a new site, as you say found by the 'scouts'. This leaves the younger non flying bees back in the old colony to develop and thereby increasing the number of colonies.
It's a lot more complicated than this. From a beekeeping point of view once your flying bees abscond and you can't control where they end up you've lost half your potential honey crop. Therefore beekeepers try to control swarming by various means.
Now you've got me worried, I'm writing this in Austria on the way to Crete. I'm away for five weeks, will the bees swarm while I'm away? Who knows, only the bees and when I left, they weren't telling!
Swarming is the bee's way of increasing the number of colonies (not the numbers of individual bees in a colony this is done by the queen laying eggs ) During swarming the flying bees and the old queen leave for a new site, as you say found by the 'scouts'. This leaves the younger non flying bees back in the old colony to develop and thereby increasing the number of colonies.
It's a lot more complicated than this. From a beekeeping point of view once your flying bees abscond and you can't control where they end up you've lost half your potential honey crop. Therefore beekeepers try to control swarming by various means.
Now you've got me worried, I'm writing this in Austria on the way to Crete. I'm away for five weeks, will the bees swarm while I'm away? Who knows, only the bees and when I left, they weren't telling!
