I've sen two bumbling bees this morning -is it a sign?

mike65

Long hot summer on the way?

That's funny, I saw one the other day in town, not a sight I've seen in a good while, usually wasps instead

Alun

I've had a few "bumbling" bumble bees trapped in my conservatory too, and had to rescue them from the resident spiders and release them back into the garden. They started appearing a week or so ago just as the cold weather stopped.

dodderangler

Seeing loads lately and one massive one this morning at my front door. Scared be jayzuz out if me.

Alun

Yes, the 2 or 3 I've had in my conservatory were huge too. I assume they were queens just awoken from hibernation, as they were pretty dozy, even by bumble bee standards.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

They have been out for 2 weeks now. It is quite normal for the first bumble bees to emerge at the start of March. Butterflies are about as well. Just the usual transit towards late spring.

kerry4sam

Elyse Savory Scarecrow wrote: »

They have been out for 2 weeks now. It is quite normal for the first bumble bees to emerge at the start of March. Butterflies are about as well. Just the usual transit towards late spring.

yeah I saw my 1st Bumble-Bee in late February when I was visiting my Late Loving Dads Grave. The lickle bugger kept me company for few too minutes longer than my liking

Obliq

I've seen a few already too. One huge, one tiny. And by tiny I mean smaller than a normal bee. They're so cute - does anyone know if the tiny ones are still called bumblebees? They look the exact same, just in miniature.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Obliq wrote: »

I've seen a few already too. One huge, one tiny. And by tiny I mean smaller than a normal bee. They're so cute - does anyone know if the tiny ones are still called bumblebees? They look the exact same, just in miniature.

There are quite large differences in size between bumble bee species and then between queens, males and workers.
There are some excellent identification charts available online. It's always worth having one to hand as the bees appear in the garden.

solargain

The early ones should be heavy , overwintered queens that mated last September and are now getting ready to build a nest to rear a colony ( approx 500) bumble bees

Kess73

mike65 wrote: »

Long hot summer on the way?

Not a sign, Mike. Is pretty much about the right time of year for their numbers to become more noticeable.

mike65

look I'll take any sign of a good summer even a completely false one. :pac:

flutered

i saw my first one on saturday morning, the week before the garden was alive with ladybirds.

solargain

I will say that I expect to see an outbreak of wasps every where , there are 100's of them hibernating this winter in the joist of the house , under old timbers in the yard , never saw or noticed them so plentiful and every fine day there seems to be one or 2 waking up in the house

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

It's too early to see many wasps yet. For a start they disperse to start new hives and these take time for numbers to build up. And they confine themselves to feeding on aphids and the likes,so don't cross swords with many humans just yet - that's late summer!

SpaceTime

Is it not a sign of a mild (normal) winter?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

:eek:It's not a sign of anything!

It's just normal. It's that time of year again when things appear. They are in normal numbers so nothing unusual. I can accept some outcomes are signs of an incident or event in the past but bee numbers this year do not suggest anything of note. As for predictions in nature of the future.....baah!

solargain

Elyse Savory Scarecrow wrote: »

It's too early to see many wasps yet. For a start they disperse to start new hives and these take time for numbers to build up. And they confine themselves to feeding on aphids and the likes,so don't cross swords with many humans just yet - that's late summer!

Guess I imagining these hibernating queens everywhere so

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

solargain wrote: »

Guess I imagining these hibernating queens everywhere so

That's not what I said. They are still hibernating. That is not unusual. They hibernate in maiden groups pending waking and dispersing. That is what they are doing.
Finding a hibernation location does not mean you will be inundated with wasps. I simply said it is too early to say if we will have a year of large wasp numbers based on the current situation.

Graces7

Had a couple of big bees numbling around before this chill hit and one wasp,

They say the weekend will be milder thankfully.

I thought wasps all except the queen died in autumn? That is the life cycle sites say. I fed them all last back end as they used to mob my market stall for the jam and scare the customers away.

Desmo

Graces7 wrote: »

Had a couple of big bees numbling around before this chill hit and one wasp,

They say the weekend will be milder thankfully.

I thought wasps all except the queen died in autumn? That is the life cycle sites say. I fed them all last back end as they used to mob my market stall for the jam and scare the customers away.

For Bumble Bees, that is certainly true (all die except the new fertilised young queens). For Wasps, I kind of assume it also holds true but do not know for sure.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Desmo wrote: »

For Bumble Bees, that is certainly true (all die except the new fertilised young queens). For Wasps, I kind of assume it also holds true but do not know for sure.

You are perfectly correct. All wasps, except new queens, die in winter. Unless we had an exceptionally dry and mild winter, which we have not had.