Posts by BenWilson
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Not sure, bees only sting big animals like humans once. But the way I heard it, against wasps they have no difficulties tearing them to shreds, stinging repeatedly and tearing back with a saw-like motion. Given that they can penetrate the thick skin of a large animal, a soft little insect has no defense. If I were one to anthropomorphize nature, I'd say that the bee's sting is very much designed with wasps in mind as a highly likely honey and larvae thief.
Not that the bee will survive long term.
I don't know that wasps hunt in packs, other than to defend their hive, which a bee would have no interest in approaching at all. Thank goodness, considering that they eat meat.
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Now that's an idea. They just need a cape, which could be justified as some kind of raincoat. They've already got the whacky helmets and eyewear, the full length underpants, the utility belts, and the intention of saving the world.
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After seeing Obama's budget, I think I'm going to reverse my pessimism earlier in the thread. There is indeed reason to be cheerful. This guy is the business.
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Heh, I used to feel that cycling looked pretty silly (not that that has ever stopped me), but recently I've realized that "Hi-viz is the new Inviz". So long as you're dressed as eyecatchingly brightly as possible, no one takes the slightest notice of you. Not sure why - I think it's the mantle of officialdom that wearing reflective yellow seems to connote. People figure you're just doing your job, rather than actually opting to look like a clown.
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Does anyone know if wasps prey on bees? Can I blame vespa germanica for the lack of bees round our house?
They can steal honey, but I think head to head the bee has an advantage with their barbed sting. It tears through the soft body of a wasp, ripping them apart, where the wasp's sting can pierce the bee many times without slowing them down.
Thanks for that. I was surprised recently - though I guess I shouldn't have been - to discover that Austria and Hungary manage their largely 'native' and 'wild' deer populations with massive winter feeding programs in national parks.
Yup, and I was pretty surprised by what my in-laws considered to be a 'bush walk' - walking down concrete paths in a large but well-tended park.
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Nothing I've found yet indicates that the varroa are affecting any bees except honeybees. Would be interesting to hear from an expert.
We have at least 32 species of native bees: all of them -as far as we know-are solitary.
Not quite all according to one source. But they don't actually say which 3 species are social, or why they think this.
It is curious despite the massive transplantation of European ecology how much that is native survives, and how weak the introduced species can be when not supported by the entire backdrop of European horticulture. I often wonder how much of European flora and fauna are really that native either. As in, the prevalence of certain forms of life in Europe may have a lot more to do with the number of humans than the particular geographical location.
To me, it was one of the most striking observations I made in my last trip to Germany - that there seemed to be almost nothing wild at all. No part of the place had not had humans walking all over it, tweaking it here and there, killing this, encouraging that, for thousands of years . Tens of thousands, maybe. NZ is a pretty wild place, still.
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I guess they're they ones sucking up the native flowers?
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Is there a bee conference somewhere? Or do I blame the dog?
From what I've heard, the varroa mite is doing the damage, some kind of parasite. But nature and selective breeding may be fighting back. There has been work on picking out resistant bees (which somehow sterilize the mites) for selective breeding via insemination, a process that is also costly, but perhaps at some point it just becomes a super-survivor and nature takes over again? Either way, the dog is not to blame.
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Well, the native flora would do just fine, seeing as how they mostly got along without bees before humans introduced them (honeybees and bumblebees, anyway.)
Have they not been somewhat enhanced by having their pollen spread around more selectively? I'm asking, not telling.
But a significant portion of our food crops and non-native flowers would be *screwed*.
I gather hand-pollination is an expensive alternative. How fast could a decimated honeybee population potentially return? Aren't the queens basically bee-making machines, so capable of extremely rapid repopulation?
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I'm in Auckland, and so far this summer it's been as you say, but in the last few days I've started seeing isolated honeybees, and then yesterday I saw about 4 on separate occasions. I felt like catching one and shaking it's hand.
I haven't particularly noticed more bumblebees than usual. But they've been more conspicuous by virtue of being the only bees around. Just as well they are around too, I can only imagine what could happen to the flora of the country if there was nothing at all spreading pollen around, except for humans and wind.
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