Bumble bee deaths

[Danavan]

Turned up to a job on Thursday morning, as I got out of the van a large bumble bee flew noisily past me, then another went by close too. I looked about at my feet straight off thinking maybe I had disturbed a nest.

I had parked near a prunus in flower on a small bank so looked around their too, I was shocked to see not just a few but in excess of 50 bees dead scattered all around. Not just under that tree but also another near by too. Their were some holes about in the ground that may have been hive entrances & a hive entrance by the root plate of a beech we were working on with a few bees emerging.

The dead bees had their stings missing but more puzzling was that something had also taken out an area on their backs by the wings. I saw 1 wasp with sting taken & head missing too. Was this a wasp attack or something else? & would it just be a honey thing or extreme hatred for bees?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I do hope we havnt got a case of hornet raid here

[Andy Collins]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QN1ct56j38&feature=youtube_gdata_player]Hornets vs. Bees - YouTube[/ame]

[Andy Collins]

I've never heard of this til Hama posted about it, quite shocking!!

[Rich2484]

Could be african honey bees, seen a few lately, bigger than the average bee and it will attack a nest kill the queen and any protectors that get in the way, then leave the nest for dead.

 

It happens more than you would think but there's no danger to bees on the whole.

 

But then it could also bee hornets, weather is gettin warm quick so it's attracting more rare species of insect to the country, also noticed hives are more active than usual.

 

Had a few big hornets steeling into the boat when it was in dry dock for winter.

[arbogrunt]

sounds to me like someones been eating Finch, Chimps and mushy bee's again

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I've never heard of this til Hama posted about it, quite shocking!!

 

nature is shocking, there are many battles in the macro world that would be the subject of science fiction movies and horror!

 

Im glad to be top of the food chain (mostly)

[Rich Rule]

sounds to me like someones been eating Finch, Chimps and mushy bee's again

 

The oldies but goodies!

[Danavan]

Glad I didn't come across a hornets nest near by! I would have got proper grumpy to get some of the same treatment as the bees:scared1:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

to be fair this hornet raid of the bees is unique to the asian hornet, our bees havent learnt the method of killing the scout that locates the nest so if the asian hornets get here our bes will have a HUGE issue