MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Just been up to Mrs Zip's mum's house and bees are swarming out of her flower beds.
She is very allergic to bee stings.
Is this like flying ant day and they are buggering off ,or is this their new home?
Those look like what we have, ivy mining bees.
They're completely harmless, don't sting (females have a sting but rarely use it and it's like a nettle sting, if they can penetrate the skin, which they have trouble doing). You can mow the lawn over them and they don't care. My young nephew will happily sit watching them from 1ft away with no issues.
https://crunchyontheoutside.com/2022/09/26/the-intriguing-ivy-mining-bee/
We have a colony of thousands on our south facing, sandy soil front lawn.
https://youtu.be/fIBcB63jO4c?si=UHH_dk8LpylZU5ux
Petrol. It's the only way....
[url= https://i.ibb.co/YcGzzMD/IMG-5863.gi f" target="_blank">https://i.ibb.co/YcGzzMD/IMG-5863.gi f"/> [/img][/url]
Mining bees are great. Lots of pollination going on + little holes in the lawn to help aerate. All good. We have them too.
We have those. Lovely little things. Not even slightly aggressive IME
We get a few of them in the lawn too. Like others have said they're really chilled out, the cat catches them without being stung and they ignore me when I'm mowing the lawn or otherwise interfering nearby.
They do look like ivy bees, which makes sense given the time of year. As mentioned, there's no real sting to speak of, certainly compared to a honeybee.
She is very allergic to bee stings
Presumably she keeps an EpiPen to hand? Still lots of honeybees & wasps around due to the warm weather.
How deep do you need to dig before you get to the honey mines?
What do they do with the ivy once they've mined it?
Mostly they're fine but if they delve too greedily and too deep they might awake a beelrog
Chinese bees. Finally made it through.
What do they do with the ivy once they’ve mined it?
Sit back and wait for the wasps.