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Wasp Alert 2013
Wasp Alert 2013
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The scores on the South London doors for 2013
Bees - 2. Both of which were yesterday in my garden. Wasps - 0 Ladybirds - 0. I just don't get this at all, ladybirds were commonplace everywhere but have just seemed to have vanished completely. I have seen a few butterflies in the last week or so, just thought I'd mention that as they are not getting any press reports on the thread which is a bit disappointing. |
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It's really strange Slippy! I think about for years ago the Ladybirds were short on numbers, but then came back with a vengeance
for the last three years. Time for some research, as I haven't a clue how they procreate, and where they bed down for the winter! Got all the windows open here and have only one small hornet type thing in the house. I waved my brand new "Executioner" at it, and I got almost as big a shock as it did! There was bright blue and red spark and the thing was nuked! |
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Wasps : Loads of 'em
Bees : Same as above Skunks : 3, a mother and two young ones, b'stards keep ripping up my grass digging for grubs. |
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Petrus..do you reside in Glasgow?
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er, no sofiakenny, I don't...in fact I'm about 3300 miles away from weedgieland.
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Still no real action on the wasp front!The count is now just six.
Bees...a couple of dozen or so (haven't really been counting, as the thread is mainly about wasps). Ladybirds....zilch! |
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Deepest Essex update:
WASPS None. Have seen plenty of hover flies, which look like wasps, but no actual wasps. Expecting to see plenty though in next month or so, they are usually a bit of a menace in these parts. BEESSome good news to report on the bee front. Have seen plenty this year, including hundreds of grass-pollinating chaps when I was playing cricket the other day. Plenty of the bigger bumblebee types as well - is it me or do these fellows get bigger every year? Or perhaps the air is getting smaller. LADYBIRDS A rare sight these days, but had one on my cricket shirt the other day, I took him off and placed him carefully out of harm's way at third man. I can't tell you whether he was a good fielder or not, because nothing went his way. FLIES Plenty, but not the millions of them that used to be everywhere. Funny how people set up Government-funded research to enquire into bee depopulation, but no-one gives these little fellows a thought. STUPID PEOPLE Absolutely everywhere. Pretty sure it's not a geographical anomaly either. |
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Having 2 young'uns close together has really been an eye-opener in the bug-hunting stakes, last year and the year before when we would go on bug-hunts with the eldest ladybirds were everywhere, hundreds of them, you could guarantee finding a few dozen in the apple trees. That same period there were virtually no wasps but spiders everywhere.
The youngest is now of an age to appreciate bugs but there aren't any around, hardly any spiders, maybe 2 ladybirds so far but a lot more facking wasps. Bees and ants remain consistently high in number, respectively "loads of the little beauties" and "too many of the cants". |
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TY Ken...keep us posted !
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Wasp count is zero in my part of Ireland. Plenty of bees, which is good, the non stinging variety, loads of spiders which is also good as I missed the binman last week & the flys are becoming a problem but the old spidy webs seem to be doing the trick & the dishcloth as well.
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The west Norfolk count is in:
Bees - 5 Wasps - 1 (murdered with a television magazine) Ladybirds - 0 White butteflies - hundreds Those little black bastards they call 'storm flies' - thousands - so small they even got under the glass of one of our photos on the wall in the lounge. |
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^^ to be added to my post of early June.
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Those little black bastards they call 'storm flies' - thousands - so small they even got under the glass of one of our photos on the wall in the lounge.
We always called them "Corn Flies" or "Harvest Flies", as they are driven out of the corn with the harvesting, which is happening right now! Have suffered the buggers every year previously, and yes, they do somehow get behind picture glass, and into light fittings, and ruin the pleasure of being outside, as they itch like hell and descend on one in their thousands! |
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White butterflies....yes we have a fair few, but what we haven't got are the "Red Admirals", that look so good
when the purple "Buddleia" is at it's best. |
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Hmmmmm.....nectar !
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Cost me £25 to get a wasp nest [byke] nuked.
Our garden refuse bin currently has 2 spiders guarding small wool like balls which I presume are incubating spiderlings. |
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Oh my sweet Lord, we seem to have some action here!
A hyperactive wasp just got in the car (well the top was down, so it scarpered having made it's point)! Count is now seven! |
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Quite a bit of bee and butterfly action in the last week or so.
2013 count thus far. Bees - 20 Wasps - 1 Ladybirds - 0 Butterflies - at least 30 |
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butterflies having a field day on my sprout plants
 how's your mum doing anyway Slippy? |
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Suca Dan....fishermen will take it for free,
If it's visible to you, or you know where the entrance is, wait till dusk or very early morning and spray into the entrance with an off the shelf nest killer. I dealt with one, three years ago, in the stonework of an external chimney. What was incredible is that over the next few days there were wasps going mad, trying to get in, but I had blocked up the entrance. They were hovering and going up and down and eventually they reached the top of the chimney and went down inside. Some finished up exhausted and died when they went for the window. Some others will be found at the back of the fire and the rest were dealt with in the most humane way possible. What is even more incredible is that the next year there were loads more trying to get in!!! Seeing that the workers die each year, it is very surprising that a new breed can somehow sense where the nest is! |
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Thank you so much for asking B-B, incredibly from being on the verge of having last rites and me actually saying goodbye forever not that long ago she has been out and about driving again to my brother's pub near Box Hill a few times and has booked a holiday to go to Spain for early October!
The women on both sides of my family are a tough old breed but especially Ma's side, they had to be to put up with the men to be fair.  |
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great news Slippy well pleased for you
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This is an interesting explanation....
. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23356578 I never knew that a wasps nest can have up to 10,000 of the little b@stards! |
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That's good stuff Slippy .....tell her to keep the balcony diving to an absolute minimum
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New species seen today! Darwin eat your heart out. Wasp like traits, thin & no bigger than a fly but with the black & amber markings & they look like nasty stingy little barstewards, haven't a clue what they are, maybe they are crossbreeding with houseflys.
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Quickly, name it and achieve immortality.
Hymenoptera Stingycantbastad |
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Deplasterer, they sound very much like hover flies - they tend to be attracted to a single variety of leafy hedgey plant, used to have a colony of them outside my house - they aren't stingers, but they do make a waspish sort of noise.
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Apparently their markings mimic wasps and bees to ward off predators.
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I remember seeing a glorious dragonfly years ago near a pond, havetn seen any for yonks, loads of cabbage butterflies this year which is unusual, perhaps lots more people are growing cabbages?
wasps - hardly any as yet, bees a few. ladybirds - nil. Used to like the 'inverse' ones ie black with red spots....its quite amusing the way people will allow ladybirds - owing to their pretty colours, crawl on you even tho they bite, yet theyd never allow a plain black beetle, which is basically the same thing - near them. |
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*them.
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wasps are misunderstood creatures. They prob want to make friends with us, try offering them bud and they'll guard your house from burglars.
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i aint seen a wasp all year, seen a few bees.
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Just had a pleasant half hour break in the sunshine.
An ice cold lager and a 10m target pistol, and plus for amusement, my executioner bug zapper if needed. Well it was, as within a minute the first little bugger appeared, as it fancied a drink. It was zapped into oblivion in a very impressive "crack" and blue flash. I think it's friend lost interest and p!ssed of. So the count is now 9, and I can see that increasing very soon! |
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you killed it? why?
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I didn't kill it! I merely held the tool for it to commit suicide!
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Opened the kitchen blinds this morning to find a wasp trying to get out. Opened the window but he decided to stay and went into the main kitchen area. I closed the kitchen door and 30 seconds later I murdered the little facker. Nothing can come between me and my first cuppa of the day.
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Murderers
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there was a wasp on Big Brother the other night
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Ok....I held back on posting, as I thought we had "wasp lift off", with three seen last weekend!
Glad to report that, for now, we are spared! Count is now twelve......... |