Odd Thing Part 2

Looks like you have a bumble bee (Bombus pascuorum or Bombus muscorum probably) nest/hive in your garden. I wouldn't worry about it, they almost never sting humans and are great pollinators for garden plants.

fryup wrote: »

is it possible to buy bumble bee boxes in DIY stores,

would it benefit my garden??.....do they provide honey??

Maybe not DIY Stores but there are plenty of Bee Boxes available. Try on-line with any Nature Groups or suppliers.

Bumble Bees will not provide you with honey (You need a hive of Honey Bees for that!) but are great for pollenating your garden.

fryup wrote: »

will they kill other pests like wasps do??

No. The primary use of bumblebees as a commodity is pollination. This is a seriously important task, arguably one of the most important thing any animal does for human service.

Fruit Fly adults feed on decaying fruit and other decaying food matter. Wasps eat aphids early in the year and fruits later.

Hover Flys do feed on nectar and pollen and pollenate to a small degree, but nothing like Bees.

Other insects pollenate as well, e.g. Moths, but the vast majority of pollenation is carried out by Bees.

You look like you've a nice garden. I know cutting the grass is an enjoyable task and something you have to do to keep the garden neat and nice looking but too much mowing does badly interfere with bees. Fair play trying to avoid the nests.

Bumble bee nests are really quite small. They're not a subterranean labyrinth like certain ant or termite colonies. Thus, if you see 5/6 separate entrances they're either 5/6 different nests or maybe you're just seeing some workers investigating some holes.

I'm open to correction. I've heard of people with much much smaller gardens than you having multiple colonies but I'd assume they'd prefer to spread them out.

No you can't move them (not exactly). well it would be very difficult to. The heart and soul of the bumble bee nest is the Queen. She is the largest bee in the nest and she lays all the eggs. These eggs hatch out as workers (females that don't reproduce(drones)). These workers collect pollen and nectar and housekeep within the nest. Digging the nest out with most likely kill all the developing eggs (they got through a larval stage) and destroy the small amount of honey the workers have created. If mowing/moving hasn't killed the queen, she will relocate and attempt to build a new nest.

If I you want to be as ecologically conscientious as possible you could avoid mowing the area were the the colonies are. Mow around them so to speak. The queen will die by the end of the summer and the nest will be abandoned so you'll have your full lawn back then

I'd expect the nest to be building up fairly steadily now so should see them buzzing in and out now.

Oh Ok, I've reread the thread I think we may be misunderstanding each other.

In the original photo, I assumed this was an entrance to a bumblebee nest. If it is a nest, there should be workers zooming in and out of it every few seconds or at least minutes. The little mound of moss/sand is not indicative on its own of a nest. Bumblebees don't build complex nests out of paper etc. like wasps or wax like honey bees. Bumblebees, depending on the species, just find holes in trees or in the ground and just build away.

So in actual fact, there may not be a nest in the photographs, just an example of a bee looking around for a place to build a nest. The picture with the red circles, I assumed these were examples of places you thought might be bumble bee nests due to the abundance of bees rather than the presence of this sand.

The sting in Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants etc.) is a modification of the ovipositor, an organ to lay eggs. Thus, only females can sting. In the Honey Bee, the sting is barbed, like a little hook. So when it stings it attaches itself to the intruder and damages it on removal. However in the case of humans and presumably most mammals, the skin is 'rubbery', the barb gets stuff and attempts by the Honey bee to detach itself often causes it to rip part of it's lower body off! This is why Honey Bees die after stinging. At least, as far as I know.

Bumble bee stings on the other hand are not barbed and can do not get caught in human skin. Thus they can potentially sting multiple times. I'd imagine the stings of such insects have evolved as defenses against other insects intruding the nest/colony. To the best of my knowledge, the mammals that prey on such insects/honey have either such stuff skin or coating or hair they are not bothered by the stings (e.g. bears, ant eaters).

Bumble bees are a lot less territorial than honey bees and will not 'attack' something that comes in the general vicinity of the nest. If you put your hand inside or attempt to handle them, most likely they will sting you. I don't know much about the toxins in the bee/wasp venom. For most people, getting stung is very irritable. It's painful, your heart rate increases, you can feel a little nauseous and weak. It is usually a surprise. However, after 15 minutes of sitting down in a nice quiet place you'll be fine.

However, some people, no idea about the percentages but enough that it's something everyone should be aware of, are allergic to insect venom and stings cause anaphylaxis. This is basically where you get stung once, your body develops a very strong reaction to it as a defence mechanism gone a bit mad. When you get stung again, the bodies reaction is extreme and you may need hospital treatment.

I worked with bumble bees on research projects for a good few months and got stung about 10 times, so obviously I didn't want to be stung cause it's not pleasant but I was also worried about developing anaphylaxis.