Bumbles

[gavin]

Who is seeing bumble bees? I saw two in the orchard yesterday, my first for the year. Both were queens of the while-tailed bumble bee, Bombus lucorum.

143

The buff-tailed (or earth) bumble bee, Bombus terrestris, is often up and about earlier in the year, but I haven't seen any this year. Queens can be massive and their buff tails and less bright yellow bands make them easily identified.

144

[linchpin]

Hi G,

Saw 2 yellow tailed yesterday, filmed one/(with mites) whiteish spider looking.

L.

[gavin]

There's a red mite I've seen on them in late summer. The buff-tailed one used to be uncommon in Scotland (when I was a lad, many moons ago ... ) but is one of those bees that has been moving north and is more common here now. Same as the red-tailed bumble bee, some of the mining and mason bees ... which always makes me wonder when people keep claiming that bees are in terminal decline, as I heard at a couple of meetings this week. Butterflies too - we've had a succession move into the area: orange tip, peacock, comma ...

G.

[gavin]

While I'm on this topic, maybe I can put out a plea to look out for the UK's new bumble bee species, Bombus hypnorum. It was discovered in Wiltshire in 2001 and has been consolidating and moving north at quite a rate, with a big jump of a couple of hundred kilometres in 2009 (how did it do that?!).

http://www.bwars.com/imagesbwars/Bombus%20hypnorum/latest_map.GIF

http://www.bwars.com/bombus_hypnorum.htm

G.

[gavin]

From: http://www.opalwestmidlands.org/bees/bees.html

Project 2: Look for Bombus hypnorum

Keep an eye out for a newcomer to our national bee fauna. Bombus hypnorum is a new bumble bee that was first recorded in the UK in 2001 from a site in Wiltshire. OPAL WM are happy to be helping BWARS record the spread and movement of this species. It is a distinctive species with a unique combination of a ginger thorax and a white tail. No other UK bumble bee has this colour pattern. The species is often found on species of Cotoneaster and Lilac (Ceanothus spp.) [in fact Ceanothus is not lilac but is good for bees] and can be found on many flowery garden shrubs. In late June, males can often be found on bramble flowers. If you spot this species in your garden then please either email us or fill in our on-line recording form by clickinghere (http://www.opalwestmidlands.org/bombus/bombus.php). Records should include full details of locality, date, recorder and identifier and, wherever possible, a photograph for verification purposes

http://www.opalwestmidlands.org/bees/files/bombus-hypnorum.jpg

[gavin]

BBC Radio Scotland's 'Out of Doors' repeat (first broadcast yesterday) has just said that bumble bees have been spotted in Haymarket and the Asda car park in Gorebridge!

[Jon]

I saw one on the shed door yesterday. I think it was a white tailed but I really can't tell bumbles from either barn doors or banjos.
I dug one up last week when I was scrabbling for the last of the potatoes. I put a flower pot over it and piled a bit of soil around it, but it didn't look to happy about being woken early.

[gavin]

It isn't too hard to get to grips with the 6 common ones (soon to be 7 to confound the bumble bee doom mongers). Does take a wee while and some persistence, but once you know them there are endless possibilities for showing off and impressing people!

G.

Oh look, I've passed 100 posts.

[Trog]

Oh look, I've passed 100 posts.

Does that mean a free drink, or do you have to pay a forfeit? :p

[Neils]

Seen a few bumbles in the garden over the last week. I think/hope that we might have a nest under one of the decking things in the garden, there's certainly been a lot of interest In one particular gap at the back by one bumble but I've not seen much of her since.

[Lindsay]

Hi Gavin,
Saw 1 bumble bee yesterday but 7 or eight today. All whited tailed - I think! A good sign - it is getting warmer.

Lindsay

[kirk boy]

I have seen several very large ones in my garden which is in the central belt i take it they were Queens i was so cheered up by their humming.

[GRIZZLY]

Gave a Q white tail a sip of honey 2 weeks ago.She was visiting our crocuses but had got a little chilled by the cold wind.After being held in my hand,she warmed up and took aforementioned honey after which she flew away quite strongly.We have got a white variety of Eschallonia in the garden and when this is in flower it literally hums with mostly bumbles.It also attracts clouds of Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies.The honeybees don't find it too attractive tho' - perhaps they're bullied off it by the bumbles.

[EmsE]

I'm not sure if this is a bumble bee or not, does anyone recognise it? It was flying around our garden last summer.

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[gavin]

The eyes, look at the eyes!

It is a bumble bee mimic, a kind of hoverfly that gains protection by looking like an insect with a sting in its tail. They even buzz when they fly. I'm fairly sure that it is this one:

http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/BBCT_Gallery/Mimics/slides/bbmimiconbramble_3_peter_barber.html

G.

[EmsE]

... that will really confuse the kids when I tell them it's a hoverfly. Wish me luck with that one.

[gavin]

You can pick it up in your hands next time - that should impress them.

[Trog]

When we had spring (remember that - the day before yesterday?), I looked up at the willow in full flower a couple of yards from the beehives. The girls were ignoring it, prefering the gorse a little further away (gourmet bees?) but there were two lovely dark bumble bees enjoying the pollen. Such a lovely hum!

For years I've been happily picking up bumblebees, especially the ones that like to go for a swim in the horse's water bucket, believing they didn't sting. Last summer I found out I was wrong in this assumption when one ungrateful bumble inflicted a little pain - and was promptly dropped. Since then I've been more cautious and fish them out with a twig!

[POPZ]

I always thought that bumbles 'nipped' as opposed to stinging with venom. What they nip with, I have no idea, but actually I have to admit that I have not been nipped, stung or in any way molested by one. Despite rescuing hundreds from death by spider web.

[Trog]

Well I got away with it for years until that ungrateful so-and-so!

[gavin]

They do seem to indicate whenever they'd like a human to back off. Sort of tip slightly to one side and lift one leg high in the air, as if to say: 'I'm watching you! Any further and I'll sting.' Is that a reliable guide to their intentions?

[Trog]

I've seen them doing that when they're covered in mites and also found one dead inside a hive with one leg raised as if to fend off the guard bees. However, when they're using a bucket as a swimming pool they don't seem able to spare a leg (and if they did, would they be waving or drowning?). Does anyone know if I was stung, or bitten?

[Stromnessbees]

Trog, I'd say you were stung. See also the Wikipedia site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee): (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee%29:)


Queen and worker bumblebees can sting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_sting), but unlike a honey bee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee)'s, a bumblebee's stinger lacks barbs, so they can sting more than once.[19] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee#cite_note-18) Bumblebee species are normally non-aggressive, but will sting in defense of their nest, or if harmed. Female cuckoo bumblebees will aggressively attack host colony members, and sting the host queen, but will ignore other animals (including humans) unless disturbed.Home Planet on Tue 30th had a contribution about the mites commonly found on bumblebees:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00rmrpz, scroll to 17 minutes. I'm not entirely happy about their views on honeybees, though. Have a listen yourself ...

Doris

[GRIZZLY]

The usual misconception that even so called "expert" scientists fall into that :- "honeybees are domesticated and don't occur naturally in wild feral colonies".Try telling that to a swarm that escapes,they immediately revert to being a truley wild colony.About time someone took the young lady scientist to task and corrected her facts .

[Trog]

Even the ones that deign to live in the hives we provide are wild at heart!

[Phil McAnespie]

Well I got away with it for years until that ungrateful so-and-so!

Hi Trog.
You were right to think you had been stung. The bumblebee can sting but as said, does not have a barb on the sting. The first sting I ever received was from a bumblebee, when as a boy I was trying to see how many I could catch in a jar. One escaped and I can still tell you to this day exactly where it stung me. You are quite right to say I deserved it for what I now know as cruelty. Fortunately I have learned, although when I receive the occasional sting from my honeybees , I wonder!!

[Trog]

I stopped to talk to a bumblebee today as I came up Post Office Brae with the messages. She was resting on the path in the sunshine and put up a defensive leg as my shadow crossed her. I crouched down to chat to her, making sure I didn't get in the way of the warming sun, and decided she was probably safe enough where she was as there would be no traffic on that particular route. More to the point, the school is now on holiday so there was little danger of her being crushed by thundering trainers en route to the chip van!