The Year of the Wasp is not over yet. They're not a problem any more, but there are still a few flying about hoping to gain access to a hive.
Kitta
The Year of the Wasp is not over yet. They're not a problem any more, but there are still a few flying about hoping to gain access to a hive.
Kitta
bees and politics should not mix
Creative use of bees -
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/arti...ce-in-kakamega
Last few days have seen an upturn in wasp activity around some of my hives. Looked like something had pulled the entrance blocks away from two and the wasps were having easier access. I suspect rats.Originally Posted by Mellifera Crofter
Bulk order of mouseguards just arrived so on they go.
Considering the incredibly mild weather down here (we even missed 'Brian') I'm a little concerned that there are no wasps to talk of, even in August/Sept they were in short supply.
I don’t use mouse guards .
My under floor entrance open mesh floors require a mouse to wriggle up a 10 mil slot 3” deep. The whole width of the hive is left open .
I’ve never had a problem since using them !
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Lots of wasps still around in Ireland especially in the east.
Done a fair bit of driving this weekend - ivy in full flower down in Galloway, just starting here in Aberdeenshire. With highs of 10 degC forecast this week I wonder if it's too late to be of any use to the bees!
ivy
Bees bringing in pollen yesterday in the lovely sunshine here on Tayside. 100% sure its from ivy; saw the foraging. Some more yellow pollen noted as well. Mahonia maybe?
But - couple of frosts might change things. Wasps seem to have disappeared now.
Some bright yellow pollen coming in last week up here as well that didn't think was Ivy. Some flowering brassicas (turnips?) in a field nearby but maybe it could be mahonia.
Might be worth a trip north to see those Aberdeenshire fields of Mahonia. Who am I to talk with some clumsy wording in yesterday's SNHBS circular!
I seem to have inadvertently set up a wasp monitoring station here overlooking the Tay to the west of Dundee. Three ways:
- a stack of extracted supers out the back
- the Asian hornet trap as requested by the nice lady at the Scottish Government
- a pile of supers in my front room with as yet unextracted heather honey plus an open window (a necessary health precaution given my sensitivity to certain particles)
The bee equipment was a major wasp magnet through September but went quieter when the local ivy came into flower (and, no doubt, the available scraps of sticky stuff has been used up). And when the Asian hornet trap was set up.
The Asian hornet trap has sooked in zillions of wasps but that has slowed now to a trickle. No Vespa velutina in case anyone is wondering.
The front room still has a few wasps commuting to the stack of supers today. Maybe two. They know their way in and out quite well. There has been a certain attrition as, when they deviate from the usual route to and from the window and start to harass me instead at the desk that tends to trigger a bout of vespicide.
With the vehicles outside white this morning I did wonder whether the wasp season had now finished. Not so, it seems, but we're nearly there.
I wonder if the red admirals in the orchard are still alive? Early in October I estimated 2,000 of them but at every visit there seems to be fewer and fewer. They've probably been migrating south since then but they did seem to be leaving it late.
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