Bee identification with photos

brianmc

Oldtree wrote: »

brianmc could you get a collection organised of clear photos of all the different types of bees in Ireland over the next while and we can do an ID photo list here, perhaps with a note of specific easily ID'ed differences for each bee. Perhaps if you could start a new thread and after we have a comprehensive list I will add them in one neat post in the resources thread?

It won't be this week (for me anyway) but perhaps we can find a few rights free images on the web... wikipedia might "loan" us some.

As a useful starting point there are a lot of photos of honey bees in the photos thread here...

If people could volunteer their own photographs of other bees here that would help.



These two pages from the Bumble bee conservation trust in Britain might help with identifying the basic bee families...

Honey bees Vs Bumble bees

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/faqs/honeybees-vs-bumblebees/

Common Bumble bee identification

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/identification/common-bumblebees/



Here's Wikipedia's honey bee... This honey bee is quite young... most of the honey bees you see out foraging will look a touch less hairy than this...

Oldtree

brianmc wrote: »

It won't be this week (for me anyway) but perhaps we can find a few rights free images on the web... wikipedia might "loan" us some.

There is no rush

brianmc

A "Typical" Bumble bee is bigger (fatter) than a honey bee or a wasp and generally has a fluffy more cuddly appearance.

This one is the Buff Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus Terrestris)... but it fits the stereotypical image of a bumble bee that people might find familiar. Buff tailed bumble bees are common throughout Ireland.


Photo stolen from Wikipedia again, photographer: Simon Koopmann

For people who are worried about a nest of Bumble bees in their garden/shed/wherever there are some useful things to know.

• Bumble bees are generally very unlikely to sting.
• Bumble Bees don't form such big colonies as honey bees.
• A bumble bee nest won't be there forever. Bumble bee colonies break up before winter and the new queens go off to hibernate individually and so the nest is abandoned in autumn.
• Some Bumble bee species in Ireland are in serious decline.
• A Bumble bee nest in a wall/under a roof tile/wherever isn't going to do any structural damage or harm.
• Bumble bees don't produce any surplus honey.
• Beekeepers don't keep Bumble bees.
• While a beekeeper may be sympathetic and help you out with moving a nest of bumble bees sometimes, they are not honey bees and the beekeeper will get nothing from it.

brianmc

Wasps... generally have a lot more yellow in them and not a lot of hair.



Wasps are not bees...

People (including beekeepers) are often prejudiced (rightly or wrongly) towards wasps.

Reasons to like (or at least not be bothered by) wasps:

• Wasps are predators that eat aphids and other small insects filling an important role in the ecosystem... they keep your green fly problems under control.
• A wasp's nest isn't going to last forever, like the Bumble bee a queen will come out of hibernation in Spring and start building a nest that will be abandoned in Autumn again.
• Early in the year when they are concentrating on nest building and raising young wasps you won't notice them very much. They're too busy looking for aphids.

Reasons to dislike wasps:

• Wasps are generally more aggressive than other flying, stinging insects.
• A bee can only sting you once. A wasp can sting you multiple times.
• Late in the summer when the wasps nest is in decline, the wasps forage for sugar anywhere they can get it - rubbish bins, your kitchen, your picnic, your sticky, ice cream covered face. This is why people particularly see them as a pest and often the reason they get stung.
• For beekeepers - wasps hunting for sugar (late summer/autumn) will steal honey from beehives and a colony of wasps will keep returning in big numbers to a weaker hive eventually destroying the colony.

brianmc

Perhaps my first three posts aren't quite what Oldtree had in mind in that they start out very, very simply.

There are tens of species of Bumble bee in Ireland, there are subspecies of honey bees and there are quite a few different wasps and hornets. That's not to mention the solitary bees, countless flys, aphids etc. including flies that mimic bees.

As a beekeeper however, the above three posts should be a start to clarifying some of the most common questions we get.

I'm sure people can volunteer photos or posts about subspecies of bees etc. over time.

Oldtree

Its a great start brianmc, thank you

A Wave

Can I suggest pollinators.biodiversityireland.ie/id-guides/ and apps.biodiversityireland.ie/BeesBrowser/ as a starting point, but more photos are always interesting and help learning how to distinguish....

http://pollinators.biodiversityireland.ie/id-guides/

axe2grind

brianmc wrote: »

This one is the Buff Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus Terrestris)... but it fits the stereotypical image of a bumble bee that people might find familiar. Buff tailed bumble bees are common throughout Ireland.

In the interest of accuracy, this could be Bombus lucorum. Worker B. Lucorum and B. Terrestris look the same and are usually referred to as Bombus lucorum agg.

steveone

I had no idea there were hornets here, just wondering, in the garden what would be the best flower to plant that would keep the bees happy?

nekuchi

steveone wrote: »

...just wondering, in the garden what would be the best flower to plant that would keep the bees happy?

There's another thread on this - "Planting your garden especially for bees"
(Can't do a link at the moment but it's about 10 down in the forum)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057235331

my3cents

Also from the National Biodiversity Data Center a pocket Identification guide to Irelands Bumblebees http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/home-page/shop/ .