Bees in the wall

sax11

I have these



in my wall at the moment - they are outside it flapping away to , i presume keep a nest cool
never have many, only see half a dozen or so go in and out but they are making a racket now as i can hear the buzzing
Question is what kind of bees are they, if anyone knows. If so how long will they remain.
Loathed to fill up the hole but i dont want them hanging around, especially if they produce young that hibernates.

Oh and apologies for the massive image, tried to resize it

jenfa

I am trying to see if from your photo they have whitish bottoms, if they do then they are bumble bees and bee keepers are not interested. We have some either under tiles or in the eaves space that we can't get to and they are incredibly noisy at night BUT they are protected and there is a massive fine if you damage their nest. If bumble bees then the queen will fly away about Sept/Oct time and that is the time to fill up the hole, I am led to believe that if you fill up any holes whilst the queen is inside all bees will find alternative entrances.

Please be aware that if you put poison down for bees and other bees in the area get it they can get infected and lots of colonies can die.

Mojisola

There's lots of kinds of bumble bees.

Does this help - http://bumblebeeconservation.org/images/uploads/Resources/BBCT_Bumblebee_ID_sheet_(big_8).pdf - shows the most common ones.

Life cycle - http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/lifecycle/

sax11

jenfa - they do not have any white on them at all, completely black bar the orange back

might be youngsters so not got full colour yet

tiger_eyes

If you block up external exits, the bees will find internal exits, ie. into your house.

sax11

im in a block of 12 flats - i don't think the neighbours would be too keen on bees appearing in their houses

there's a lot of cavity wall for them too explore

POPPYOSCAR

We have loads of bees buzzing about in two different places on the garage roof and on the house roof.

We cannot see them going in and out just flying madly around and they are not there at dusk.

The same thing happened last year and after a week or so they were not there any more.

Anyone know what they are doing?

sax11

jenfa - had it confirmed from the beekeeping site that they are bumbles

noisy !!!!!!s and will get worse as the nest will get boiling in the summer (suns on it nearly all day) but i'm happy to houseshare with them until the autumn

DaftyDuck

There's an active thread on the gardening forum on bumblebees and finding a nest. They are wonderful little things, and I've shared my conservatory with them last year. Glad you welcome yours too.

jenfa

sax11 wrote: »

jenfa - had it confirmed from the beekeeping site that they are bumbles

Welcome to the club :beer:

I thought they would quieten down after dark but i find them still buzzing until about 2am - maybe we should buy some ear plugs, having researched this it seems bumbles are better than the bees we had a few years ago because they don't produce as much honey so no worry about it creeping through walls and ceilings.

Glad you at least know what they are now.

sprunga

Hi all. First let me introduce myself as a new member - I live in Pudsey and find the site and forum very useful as I'm sure you all do :j Now to add my bit.
It seems we have just got new guests in our wall cavity. It all started yesterday when we found some indoors at the window. We can see the hole outside where they go in and out with quite a lot of activity. Our problem is that they seem to be using another entrance in a spare bedroom and get stuck at the window.
Looking at some different sites on internet, to try and identify them, I think they may be mason bees.


I'd just like to stop them coming into the bedroom. It's difficult to find the place they come in though.