Bees and Wasps
A few nights ago Dad and I (Ross) were called out to a cabin because the heater wasn’t working. It turned out to be that I’d knocked a plug loose earlier in the day and had cut off the electricity to the boiler. When we opened the door to fix the problem, we were met with both a hive of wild bees AND a wasp bike. Thankfully I managed to dodge their stingers (Dad got stung on the hand) and remove the bees. Wild bees, when disturbed, move on quickly, and by the morning they were gone. The wasps on the other hand weren’t so keen to move on. They were still hanging around the boiler, so were carefully relocated to a safer spot for them to continue to build their bike elsewhere.
The species of bee we think were red-tailed bumble bees:
These are one of the ‘big 7’ widespread and abundant species of bee found all across the UK. It’s great to see bees living in and around the cabins as they are becoming increasingly more threatened by intensive farming techniques and loss of habitat. #savethebees
The wasps are also great to have around. They’re not the most popular flying animals but they play a key role in the local ecosystem. As predators, they control the numbers of many pests such as greenfly and caterpillars, eating as much as 14 million tonnes of insect prey across the summer. They also play an important role as a food source for the birds and even Badgers (if they’re brave enough).
Let us know what wildlife you’ve seen/photographed – we’d love to hear about it!
If you’d like to learn more about bees and wasps, here’s a couple of links where you can read more about them.
Wasps – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41042948
Red-tailed bees – http://www.bloomsforbees.co.uk/id-gui…/red-tailed-bumblebee/
Thanks for reading!
