Reply to: The biggest bumble bee in the world...

[Churchill]

wasps? nasty little feekers.

I quite liked the idea of the masonry bee - we had a hive of them once in the stables at home. I imagined them with their tiny aprons and shaking 3 hands at once.....

<Pogle returns to planet whimsy>

Me too!

[d000hg]

Wasps are a pain, but I personally thing they're amongst the most beautiful insects.

[TimberWolf]

wasps? nasty little feekers.

Breeding wasps doesn't seem to be anywhere near as popular as bees. Are there books on wasp keeping?

[Drewster]

No one is interested in wasps though.

Well Wasps are not the "baddies" they are often portrayed as......

They do lots of good stuff in the garden.... killing/eating various insects and stuff....

They are only really a pain late in the year - when they come over all arsey and stropy and (seem to) sting anything in sight.......

[Pogle]

No one is interested in wasps though.

wasps? nasty little feekers.

I quite liked the idea of the masonry bee - we had a hive of them once in the stables at home. I imagined them with their tiny aprons and shaking 3 hands at once.....

<Pogle returns to planet whimsy>

[TimberWolf]

No one is interested in wasps though.

[Pogle]

I have learnt a lot about bees today - thanks Drewster

[Drewster]

As a former bee keeper, I can say that drones are truly great.

Put aside your species prejudice, and you will see the male bee, or 'drone' for what he is. He's basically a chap, a bloke.

He is bigger than the female bee. More rotund of figure.

He has no sting, nor any other defence, other than his charm.

He bumbles around the hive, pretending to fix things. The young and nubile female worker bees attend to him, feed him, and groom him.

Once in his life, he gets to fly. He follows the queen, and if he gets lucky, he will get his end away.

He will return to the hive (usually depleted and queenless) and the worker bees will shove him out of the door, to die of cold and starvation on the ground below.

Poor old drone.

I am sure you intended this in jest - but as I am somewhat anally retentive I will just correct you:

Young female workers (bees) are not Nubile in any sense.

The Drones get to fly pretty much when they like.

Drones don't follow "the" queen in the hopes of shagging her - "the" queen is thier mum after all and that isn't good genetically.

They leave the Hive (as and when) to find young (virgin) queens to "shag" in order to pass on thier genes.... this act basically causes the loss of thier reproductive organs and thier subsequent death (not quite the same as you having your meat and 2 veg ripped from your body but as good as)

He will not return to the hive (cos of having his knackers ripped off he is dying).

The ex-virgin queen (impregnated by many drones) goes back to her hive and starts laying eggs for the rest of her life......

The young queen (recently shagged) is returning to the Hive which almost certainly does not have a resident queen (her mum) because of :
a) The old queen has left the hive to find a new home.
When a Hive/colony is very succesful the (still "powerful") Queen flies off with most of the flying bees (Workers and Drones) to find another "home".
This is a Swarm*
Before leaving there will be several queen cells near to hatching.... The first virgin-queen to hatch will kill all her "royal" sisters (the other unhatched queen cells) with her sting (Queens are the only bees that can sting at hatching/emergence, and they don't have the barbed sting of the (older) Workers... ie they can sting repeatedly (and crucially - don't die).
This virgin-queen is the one that flies off (without any of the other bees following her) to find Drones to mate with... then she returnes to the Hive and startes laying eggs........
When the old queen left she left behind thousands of young Workers (who can't fly) to tend the hive etc.
b) The old queen is to "weak" to control the hive and prevent the nurturing of queen cells.... so basically similar to (a) except the old queen has to be got rid of as well as the sisters.......

*swarm - If you see a Swarm please contact a local Bee Keeper who will come and collect it - its very easy, Swarms are not dangerous to you - as long as you leave them alone.

Please DONT spray them with water, try to "shoo" them away or (worst of all) DONT phone a Pest Controller - Because Pest Controllers will just spray them with 'orrible chemicals to kill them and charge you for it (they get paid to kill things)

[Board Game Geek]

Eek ! That's a real monster Pogle !

Let me guess, during the final confrontation with Godzilla, the moth darts in and out with a series of devastating attacks, gradually wearing down Godzilla to the point of near exhaustion.

Then finally, when it looks as if Godzilla is almost beat, and the little ones are crying tears for our reptilian friend, he lashes out with a puny yet surprisingly effective tail slap and consigns Monster Moth to oblivion ?

[Pogle]

One of these buzzed me today, whilst I was outside having my lunch.

It landed on my trouser leg, and I let it rest there for a while, and took some pictures on my phone.

The photo is not mine, but it gives you an idea of the size of a Privet Hawk Moth. Blimming enormous, as you can see.

2 teenagers (boy & girl, about 19), noticed it from where they sat, and the girl screws up her face and goes "OMG, does it bite ?"

I said "No, it's a moth. I don't believe they eat humans. Well, not living ones, anyway".

She and her friend rapidly finished their lunch and vacated the benches.

Such a lovely creature, and I was in awe at the sheer size of it, for a moth in the UK at least.

Hmm you've obviously never come across this little beauty then!
http://www.onlyinternet.net/awinterr...ery/mothra.jpg

But I'm impressed with the size of the moth, it looks almost too exotic to be in this country

[d000hg]

Not seen the moth, but in Cornwall as a kid we caught some caterpillars of a related species, the elephant hawk moth (what a great name). They were bloody huge!

[Board Game Geek]

One of these buzzed me today, whilst I was outside having my lunch.

It landed on my trouser leg, and I let it rest there for a while, and took some pictures on my phone.

The photo is not mine, but it gives you an idea of the size of a Privet Hawk Moth. Blimming enormous, as you can see.

2 teenagers (boy & girl, about 19), noticed it from where they sat, and the girl screws up her face and goes "OMG, does it bite ?"

I said "No, it's a moth. I don't believe they eat humans. Well, not living ones, anyway".

She and her friend rapidly finished their lunch and vacated the benches.

Such a lovely creature, and I was in awe at the sheer size of it, for a moth in the UK at least.

[Pogle]

I love bees and their buzzy business, I can while away quite a lot of time watching them go into every flower on a foxglove .

On the subject of ladybirds I believe our native species is under attack from a foreign invader ladybird

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8124099.stm

And we released 5 painted lady butterfly's into our garden last week - we'd had them from a grub and watched them grow and pupate and turn into lovely butterfly's. I can recommend anyone with kids (- or not ) to try this it really is great.
We got the kit from the supermarket at Christmas - sent off for our 5 grubs and watched them grow - magic

[bogeyman]

Here's the only reference I can find of bees being spotted humping on the ground:
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

The larger bee that I saw beeing 'humped' was quite a bit bigger than the other, so perhaps they weren't male and female and/or were up to something else.

it's a common behavior called 'gleaning'. Smaller bees gather up excess pollen from larger bees. The larger bees don't seem to mind at all.

[TimberWolf]

You meant they sounded like they were humming.

Here's the only reference I can find of bees being spotted humping on the ground:
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

The larger bee that I saw beeing 'humped' was quite a bit bigger than the other, so perhaps they weren't male and female and/or were up to something else.