[Paul Radon]

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Howard Kirby - 23/6/2009 21:45

Yes a huge amount of greenfly this year.

Indeed! The gardens of the pubs I frequent, as well as my garden are alongside the river and the amount of greenfly has been simply unbearable the last couple of weeks. Seems odd as I have never particularly associated greenfly with rivers before. Went to the bar for a pack of crisps earlier and came back to find 7 of the lil blighters in my pint grr. Not to mention all the slapping and scratching..

[Paul Radon]

Initially thought they looked like bees John, but it seems to me they are surrounding a wasps nest. Not too sure mate.

[John W]

No, I don't know either ,Paul and I returned a week later and it had been taken away, I assume because it was at the side of a public footpath to some lakes. As I stood there a couple flew very close to me but no more than that - just a warning I suppose. Pity about having to drop 'quality' though.

[Howard Kirby]

They look like honey bees to me.

[Ed wxman]

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Paul Radon - 23/6/2009 21:54

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Howard Kirby - 23/6/2009 21:45

Yes a huge amount of greenfly this year.

Indeed! The gardens of the pubs I frequent, as well as my garden are alongside the river and the amount of greenfly has been simply unbearable the last couple of weeks. Seems odd as I have never particularly associated greenfly with rivers before. Went to the bar for a pack of crisps earlier and came back to find 7 of the lil blighters in my pint grr. Not to mention all the slapping and scratching..

Stick to shorts...lol!

[Nigel Bolton]

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Howard Kirby - 23/6/2009 22:56 They look like honey bees to me.

Me too. Wasps don't congregate like that.

N.

[Cliff]

Definitely bees. And Nigel, I know I am being childish and pedantic but did you realise you transposed the p and s in the title? Wapsies? or are we having an plague of diminutive Italians?

[ozzie]

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Nigel Bolton - 23/6/2009 20:32

Tis true, stacks of bumble bees this year, good as I thought they were on their way out with some odd virus that was wiping out many bee species.

No ladybirds yet, in fact I have not seen any for some years now.

It is surprising how insects seem to boom-bust. Just from memory

1973 year of the ants.

1976, year of the ladybirds.

1979, year of the green fly.

1981, year of the thunder bugs

1990, year of the wasp,

1995, Another year of the wasp - in fact this year, they were absolutely endemic along the south coast.

This year seems to be year of the mosquito. I hope none are Anopheles.

N.

To add I found I think it was 06 was the year of the small beetle that had a green tinge to the back which also they flew,I remember this as where I work I have to where a yellow hi vis and it really attracted them but not seen them since.

This year is definitely the year of the greenfly though.

[Ed wxman]

At least they're enviromentally friendly..

[scrapemedic]

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John W - 23/6/2009 21:48

I came across this on the 4th. I assume they're wasps ?? To get the Kb <100 I had to reduce quality to 12 ,the original is much better.

Thems is definately bees. If you contact the local beekeeper they will come out and collect them.

A friend did just that for a swarm that had collected at the side of a road. The guy came out in his little van and cut the branch they were clinging to, stuck it in the back of the van and off he went, wafting away the bees from in front of his vision!

[Lightning Hunter]

I've seen very few mosquitoes down here this summer so far, whereas in 2007 and 2008 we had an abundance. This is presumably due to the amount of rain, ie a little above average, yet still warm in 2007 and 2008, but much below average rainfall and baked ground this year (yet slightly cooler).

[Coolcirrus]

The lack of ladybirds is interesting. If it is a lack of our native common seven-spot (a voracious aphid-specific predator) that's bad news for aphid population control. Over the past few years the 7-spot has been displaced by the more aggressive generalist predator harlequin ladybird. This has become the dominant ladybird in many areas. What is curious though, is why are there so few harlequins so far this year (is it less hardy than we thought?).

As for mozzies, the Asian Tiger beasts are expected in the UK any time now, although the French have been out with aircraft blanket-spraying insecticides in certain areas to try and reduce the populations.

As for the small green beetle with greenish tinge that could be attracted to a yellow hat there are many possible contenders (some small day-flying ground beetles (Carabidae) and leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) fit the bill, among others - the key thing is they are more likely to fly in warm, sunny weather so presumably it was a warm and sunny period in 06?

[ozzie]

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Coolcirrus - 24/6/2009 11:54  As for the small green beetle with greenish tinge that could be attracted to a yellow hat there are many possible contenders (some small day-flying ground beetles (Carabidae) and leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) fit the bill, among others - the key thing is they are more likely to fly in warm, sunny weather so presumably it was a warm and sunny period in 06?

Yes it was a sunny and warm period,pretty much like the sort of weather we are having now,it may have been 05 as can't remember the year but I know their was a lot of them about that year and not notice so many before.

[Nigel Bolton]

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Cliff - 23/6/2009 23:17 Definitely bees. And Nigel, I know I am being childish and pedantic but did you realise you transposed the p and s in the title? Wapsies? or are we having an plague of diminutive Italians?

Yep. letters transposed deliberately. I always knew wasps a wapsies as a youngster.

N.

[ClimateKate]

Only one or two wasps so far this year, which is after a couple of years with nests or attempted nest in the garden.

But I agree with everyone else, loads and loads or greenfly and lots of little bees. There's a constant buzzing in the garden (or is that the wind turbines? [hehe] )

[rosskesava]

I'm a window cleaner so I usually come across quite a number of wasp nests underneath facia tiles, roof tiles etc. The nests I've come across so far this year seem to have hardly any wasps going in and out which is odd as by June the numbers are starting to build up but all in all, I'd say there are definately fewer nests than normal and less wasps than normal in each nest.

The odd thing I've discovered with wasps nests is that if I ignore them, they ignore me but if I even think in terms of controled panic, they swarm out the nest. It's as if they are reading my thoughts.

I also sometimes do roped access work on office blocks and the like. The strangest place I've come across a wasp nest was 19 floors up. It was a massive nest behind some aliminum cladding. Until then I didn't know wasps flew that high.

[Cliff]

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Nigel Bolton - 24/6/2009 13:04

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Cliff - 23/6/2009 23:17 Definitely bees. And Nigel, I know I am being childish and pedantic but did you realise you transposed the p and s in the title? Wapsies? or are we having an plague of diminutive Italians?

Yep. letters transposed deliberately. I always knew wasps a wapsies as a youngster.

N.

I knew there was a good reason Nigel!  You being one of our eloquent writers an all that lol

[John W]

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scrapemedic - 23/6/2009 23:46

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John W - 23/6/2009 21:48

I came across this on the 4th. I assume they're wasps ?? To get the Kb <100 I had to reduce quality to 12 ,the original is much better.

Thems is definately bees. If you contact the local beekeeper they will come out and collect them.

A friend did just that for a swarm that had collected at the side of a road. The guy came out in his little van and cut the branch they were clinging to, stuck it in the back of the van and off he went, wafting away the bees from in front of his vision!

Not in my neighbourhood, Liz but thanks. They were by a public footpath 6 miles from my home and when I returned a week later they'd gone so someone in one of the houses in the lane has had them removed.

[RichC]

We had the biggest hornet i have ever seen come into the front room the other week... infact it was so big i had to go onto a wildlife forum to ask if it was something else.
The other half heard it first, a VERY low resonance humming sound, unlike most hornets/wasps you hear.
I looked at it and my mouth opened, with swear words in the like of "what the hell is that!"
To give you an idea on how large it was.... i had a bit of 4inx2in baton of which i used to get it out of the room.... i put the baton up to it, as it was buzzing around the chandoleer (sp)... it landed on it and it was longer than the 2in side of the baton. (Its body was draped over both sides of the 2in side...) so it was longer than 2in long.
Most hornets ive seen have been a dull orangy/reddish colour and black....or yellowish and black, this was dull yellow and black and i was told by a bee keeper that by its size it was almost definately a Queen Hornet.... and with the way it was going around the room it was looking for a place to tent... so no doubt if i had not seen it by morning we might have had a room full of Hornets as this beast came down the chimney.

As for Wasps, i think we have or did have a nest in the top of the roof space... blocked off to the rooms. As everytime i unscrew my light bulbs in the plasterboard i see dead wasps which have been frazzled....

Not having much luck lately.... first we have a giant hornet, and if it had stung my 2yr old daughter...well.... then whilst in Hayle last week we found a female Adder in the chalet... right where my 2yr daughter was playing, if she had tried to pick it up!!!

[Lightning Hunter]

Hornets are usually fine as they tend to be more docile (I've had one crawling happily along my hand without a problem). They just look 'scary' to some I guess.

We actually have a population of 4-spotted chaser dragonflies in our pond (larvae, and adults breeding) and they often resemble large hornets when in flight, as they are mainly black with yellow stripes, and have a wide body. They don't buzz though ;)

Don't be fooled by bumble bees either. I've actually been stung more by them than I have by wasps (3 times versus 2), but all times it was because they'd been accidentally squashed or caught in my clothing, so partly my fault ;)