Bees ... where are they?

alih85

I live in Northumberland and my garden is full of bees, they seem to particularly like my french lavender and the pansies

Haven't seen any wasp's yet though.

Kaz2904

I've got french lavender and pansies and also have a few bees around but not many really. MiL bought a wasp spray to spray on them in the garden and I told DH I'd use it on him if I caught him using it on the bees.

purplevamp

*MF* wrote: »

Anyone else noticing an absence of bees and wasps?

Where are they?

Well, 3 wasps were buzzing around my bathroom on Saturday and the garden has loads of bees in it. Would you like me to send some up to you?!

A_Clock

Ive got a jacobs ladder and the bees always seem to be on it! They jump from that to the anemones then back again

C1aire

I've been thinking the same MF - I had a few of them around about a month ago, but then the weather turned and I spent a day picking them off the floor and feeding them honey to revive them (and stop my cat munching them). Now there is a distinct lack of them. I joined the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and have started keeping count. I've had a few on some aqualegia in the garden, but not many. I'm planning a wild flower bed (free seeds from the BCT to start me off) so maybe that will encourage a few more.

I only seem to get bumblebees in the garden (North London) but at the garden centre the other day there were loads of honey bees.

*MF*

It's been a glorious sunny day here, and I spent a while in the garden cutting the grass - say an hour and a bit - I saw one bee, and two wasps, and that is so so unnatural.

@Claire ... I am joining you by sectioning off a part of the garden for wild flowers having seen the links from maytaurus - but the strange thing is my garden backs onto a large open uncultivated field full of wild flowers - and that has always been a home for bees etc - it's all very strange and kinda sad - I'm just hoping the bees etc I do see are busy little things.

Rikolas

All the missing bees seemed to combine into one huge uber-bee that was in my kitchen recently. Mum wanted me to kill it, but it looked like it would have ripped the door off its hinges and swatted me if I tried, so I freed the furry monster.

Seen a fair few wasps though. Wouldn't miss em if they vanished...

Rik

Secret_Lady

Wiltshire: I have far more bees in my garden than usual and they appear to be very large ones busily buzzing in and out of the flowers. I've seen a few wasps but not too many, thank goodness.

A_fiend_for_life

There have been a few stories on radio 4's farming on this.

Germany has temporarily banned a group of pesticides that are prefixed on certain crop seeds after they were wrongly applied. All the hives in the area were affected.

There is also a petition on the ePetitions site for No10 though the submission date was not until October November time.

Most of the stuff I've seen though refers to farmed bees but little on the effects on solitary bees that are just as important as pollinators.

It has been quite a cold spring but I don't know if that has an effect.

C1aire

An usually warm patch early in the Spring, followed by a cold snap (such as we had a few weeks ago) usually spells doom for the wildlife. Everything wakes up early because it is warm, but there isn't enough food so everything dies when the cold sneaks back in.