A particularly "buzzy" Sunday morning!

Some of the Hornet catch!

 You might well imagine that there could not be a gentler, more relaxing pastime, than setting a moth trap over-night and then sitting down with a cup of coffee in the morning, to find out what might have got itself caught. Well, believe you me, it’s not always quite like that!

It is a while since I put the trap out, but experience tells me that I would expect to catch the occasional Hornet at this time of year, as they too are attracted by the strong mercury vapour light. However, to find 54 Hornets inside the trap this morning came as quite a shock, and as you can imagine, their presence begins to knock the words “gentler and relaxing” for six!

Actually, Hornets tend to be fairly benign I find, sitting together in groups on the egg cartons, waiting to be softly lifted out of the trap and placed on the garden table, so that they can fly off in their own time. Nevertheless, to get this many at one time poses quite a problem, as you are almost bound to knock one of them, however careful you are, and to aggravate any individual tends to send a wave of hostility through the ranks.

Well to cut a long story short, upset them I did, resulting in one of them being quickly nominated to see off this human intruder! It chased me across the garden and into the house, buzzing extremely loudly right behind my right ear. It must have been quite a sight as I arrived at speed into my kitchen, swearing loudly and waving my arms around frantically! What is more, this irate Hornet showed no signs of giving up its quest and now appeared to be going down my shirt collar, resulting in me ripping my shirt off – numerous buttons pinging across the kitchen floor!

Rosie, my little Lurcher, who was curled up fast asleep in her bed, awoke from her slumbers and on seeing this outrageous display of crazed madness, fled in complete panic. (I later found her hiding in the boot room!).

Luckily, the frantic buzzing now came from my button less shirt lying on the floor, so that after a few seconds of manic stamping on the unfortunate garment, all fell silent.

Later in the day I managed to take a look at the Moths that I had caught. Nothing that exciting, but a lovely Frosted Orange brightened up the day somewhat!

Despite all this frenetic activity first thing on a Sunday morning – I do still like Hornets as they are noble beasts. My Lurcher on the other hand, is still viewing me with much suspicion!

    

A beautiful Frosted Orange moth made it all worthwhile in the end!!

Pesticides help bees!

There is a lot going on in the modern day bee hive!

The Varroa mite, sometimes called the vampire mite, has been one of the reasons why Honey bees have been in decline of late.

These mites enter hives and suck the blood from the adult bees and from the larvae, and in this way they transport a lot of different pathogens, virus, bacteria and fungus to the bees. Also, 20 Varroa mites can turn into 1,200 in a matter of months and you only need one mite to kill more or less a whole colony.

One of the most effective treatments for removing the mites from a hive is the use of selective pyrethroid insecticides that are highly toxic to the mites, but safe for use with bees. The intensive use of these compounds over the years has led to widespread resistance in Varroa populations, greatly reducing their effectiveness.

However, Rothamsted Research scientists have now identified the genetic change that causes this resistance in UK mite populations. They have also developed a diagnostic test that allows rapid monitoring of the frequency of resistant mites within individual infected bee hives. The test provides an accurate measure of resistance within Varroa-infected hives before treatment and hence it enables informed decisions of the likely effectiveness of the available treatments.

Therefore, by carefully monitoring the distribution and frequency of the mutation in local Varroa populations using the diagnostic test, it should be possible to develop a pro-active resistance management programme. Such a programme could involve rotation of different products (including pyrethroids) aimed at maintaining a more effective control of this highly damaging pest.

I find it somewhat ironic that whereas on the one hand the big chemical companies such as Bayer and Syngenta are being attacked from all quarters over their Neonicotinoid products, which have now been temporarily banned in Europe because of the potential harm to bees, on the other hand these same companies are helping to fight this pesky little mite to save our honey bee colonies.

Funny old world isn't it?  

"To bee or perhaps not to bee for much longer!"

Some bees can appear lethergic at this time of year

At this time of year you may well start to find dead or “lethargic” Bumblebees, often gathered in numbers around flowering plants, in particular those that offer a good nectar source.

The whole purpose of the colony is to produce queens that will mate around this time of year and then go on to hibernate over winter, so that come spring time next year, they are ready to start a new colony. Throughout the life of the nest a large number of smaller worker bees help the nest to grow by collecting nectar and pollen - these are the bees that you see out and about during the summer, and it is these workers that live for only a few weeks, and then die. It's therefore quite normal to see a small number of dead bees in the garden.

In the autumn, once a queen has mated, she leaves the nest to hibernate and the rest of the colony will start to die. This includes the old queen, the female workers and the males, which have been produced to mate with queens. It is common to find the dead and dying bees near to flowers, because when they are close to the end of their short lives, they become lacklustre and their natural instinct is to feed on nectar. 

Equally, bumblebees may sometimes seem very lethargic just because the weather is cold, but they will usually recover when it warms up. So you don’t need to worry if you come across a few dead or dying bumble bees at this time of year, next year’s generation are ready and waiting for their time to come, inside a queen bumble bee.

It's a Bumblebee for sure - but which species?

Common carder bee - Bombus pascourum - I think!  

If you are like me, you may well struggle to correctly identify what species of bumblebee you are looking at!
 

Well, help is at hand, because The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT) has launched a new ID feature today as part of their “BeeWatch” programme, to allow users to help identify each other's photos. But don’t panic – all photos will be verified by one of their experts!
 

Bumble Conservation Trust also has a great website for helping sort out those more troublesome beasties and also hints for what you can do on your own land, whether it is a window box you are planting up or a large estate!
 

I have worked with Jo Chesworth the BBCT advisor for the south west and she has helped me run joint GWCT & BBCT events for farmers, demonstrating how we can all help to supply more flower rich habitats, which are so important for a whole host of species – not just bumblebees.
 

It was great to see these farmers really becoming engaged with what they could do on their particular farms to help – spurred on greatly by the fact that Jo certainly knows her bees and is great at conveying her knowledge and enthusiasm to others – a gift that not all advisors have!!

So why not see what you can do to help and at the same time brush up on those ID skills by going to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website. 

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