Bumble Bees in loft/roof

Tom Mann Centuria

As title suggests, we have bumble bees in our roof space. They are getting in through cracks in the cement below the tiles. Just wondering how big the hive might get and if it will become problematic if left unchecked.

Haven't been brave enough to poke my head into the loft yet to see how big any hive is. I'll need to get up there at some point to store stuff and do a bit of wiring but I'll certainly do my best to leave them alone otherwise.

MoashoaM

Bumble bee hives are not very big. https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bumblebee-nests/
I keep a habitat for them outback for my flowers and vegetables. They're quite lovely I find.
Are they noisy?

Tom Mann Centuria

MoashoaM wrote: »

Bumble bee hives are not very big. https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bumblebee-nests/
I keep a habitat for them outback for my flowers and vegetables. They're quite lovely I find.
Are they noisy?

Thanks very much for the link. They're over my lads bedroom and they haven't heard them, you can hear a bit of a buzz when your outside near the entrances but not a lot really. Probably a bee flies in and out every 20 or 30 seconds or so, so not excessive.

Tom Mann Centuria

The bees I have don't look like Tree Bumblebees that the link suggests live in lofts. Maybe mine are just upscale millennial bumblebees who like loft living

Alun

It's worth pointing out that they're not at all agressive and are unlikely to sting you unlike some other bees.

nintendoo

Look after them. They should be harmless unless you stand in the nest or something. We need these guys more now than ever.

Tom Mann Centuria

Yeah, no intention of hindering them. They're not bothering us at all. I was just reassured that the nest/hive wasn't going to become some kind of super structure. Looking at pictures online their nest is about as messy as our house!

Tom Mann Centuria

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

The bees I have don't look like Tree Bumblebees that the link suggests live in lofts. Maybe mine are just upscale millennial bumblebees who like loft living

I contacted the extremely helpful people at the link from this thread and after an Oscar worthy video I recorded and sent them, they think my bees are probably Buff Tailed bumblebees. Shame they aren't Tree Bumblebees because they're rare but still happy to have my useful visitors.

Look out for this video on Nat Geo soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg0I6IdYk9U

New Home

Sundance, watch out!

Lovely.

Tom Mann Centuria

New Home wrote: »

Sundance, watch out!

Lovely.

Haha, thanks. Definitely not time to give up my day job!

New Home

Sure, what else would you bee doing?! (ok, I'll stop now...)

endacl

New Home wrote: »

Sure, what else would you bee doing?! (ok, I'll stop now...)

Deadly buzz.

(I won't!)

New Home

Oh, honey...

Wanderer78

Oh beehave!

New Home

New Home wrote: »

Oh, honey...

You wouldn’t say that when it seeps through the ceiling! We ended up reroofing the house to get rid of them! The hive in the attic was ginormous. The ceiling underneath was black.

New Home

Was it bees or bumblebees?

The black was probably propolis, btw. Not that I don't sympathise, mind you.

Tom Mann Centuria

I'm pretty confident the bees in my loft aren't that productive. I'll find out in a few weeks when I venture up there again. Everything I've seen and read about bumblebees leaves me hopeful anyway.

Wanderer78

Bees are amazing creatures, I'm luckily after getting involved with a beekeeper, was suppose to help him this summer but covid has put a pause on that, actually had to destroy a wasp nest last night, my poor dog was attacked again.

New Home

New Home wrote: »

Was it bees or bumblebees?

The black was probably propolis, btw. Not that I don't sympathise, mind you.

It was most likely bees. The house is almost 100 years old and no felt under roof tiles. We removed all the honeycomb when we reroofed.

Tom Mann Centuria

I've noticed more traffic in and out the last few days, and wider size range, not a clue what that means but I decided to venture up into the loft. Their hive looks like it is under the fibre glass insulation, there was about 15 bees walking (didn't see any flying bees up there) around it, and I have to admit it is slightly disconcerting seeing them milling around up there.

Saying that they paid no interest to me at all, and I was only a couple of metres away shining a torch on them. Definite audible hum when you're in the loft. I'd guess it's football sized or slightly smaller under the fibre glass and it's no surprise my son can hear them if they're that close to his ceiling board.


I tried to take a picture and a video, neither of those turned out viewable (and you've seen what I class as viewable, so imagine how bad they must be to fail even my standards).