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[Rowan]

I am getting more bumble bees in the garden , they love my Herbs, and the Lavender and Sage are particularly beautiful this year.

They also seem to be bigger, like HB I am happy to see them, but I don't like Wasps, they never seem to be in decline.

Thanks for the link Taz, I have posted it on my FB, my lot "Friends" are all into Nature and Conservation. 

[Taz2]

Glad you liked it SL. Wasps are amazing too though and serve a great purpose in the garden keeping down the aphids. It's only in the late summer when all of them are released from their bringing-up-baby-duties that the problems really intensify. But, hey, they've worked hard all summer, they are on their hols and, like people, just want to eat and drink too much and have a ball. They will be dead by the first frost so you can hardly blame them for partying a little.

Interesting facts here http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/416968/The-wonder-of-wasps-an-essential-part-of-garden-life

If you are eating outside and being plagued by wasps early in the summer then there's no point trying to tempt them away from the table with something sugary - they are out looking for protein for the grubs so a small piece of ham or other meat placed somewhere away from you should do the trick. It's fascinating watching them dissecting it into small squares to take back to the nest. Well, I think it's fascinating anyway!

Taz x

[Rowan]

Thanks Taz, better post the wasp link on my FB too it just goes to show that we are motivated by how insects look , appear and behave in our emotional response  to them.

I do hate it when the get in the house and bedroom though so as long as they party outside 

[honeybun]

I am more motivated by the fact that they seem  to like to sting me 

Well my bees are busy in and out today and they seem to look just like a bumblebee.

So Honeyb has bumblebees.....very apt 


Honeyb
x

[CLKD]

   Taz.  Wasps do LOTS of good in the garden.  We have so few this year.  Usually our shed door is shredded to make nests.  But none has been taken this year and we have only seen a few taking water from the ponds.  No large hornets this year either. 

I would advise leaving the hole alone ……….. it will be home for something else and mason bees in particular are missing over-wintering spaces 

[Joyce]

Wasps have congregated in our bins last couple of years. Not nice to open your bin, especially garden waste one,  to a huge amount of wasps. How I've not been stung I do not know. Always happens mid August time.

[CLKD]

Never had wasps or bees in our bins, flies sometimes  - do your bins have holes at the bottom? or gaps round the lids?

[Joyce]

They get in under the lid, teeny tiny gap. Ended up spraying outside of bin with wasp spray to stop them going in. This year got a powder to sprinkle in empty bins to discourage them. So far so good. But not August yet. 

[oldsheep]

not fond of wasps, having been badly stung on the neck once. But thanks for the tip that they're just after the BBQed chicken. Hope they like spicy marinade 

Slugs though.....I've given up now on all the eco friendly, gentle solutions. Napalm on the order list. I also succumbed to ant powder (although got most of it on myself) and an ant bomb. They stripped my juicy fat strawberries in under an hour. And have eaten my gerberas ( a capital offence).
The 4 year old in the basement flat told me today that if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she'll go outside and jump on them 

PS I love bumblebees. We have giant ones that fly into the bedroom, but lots of normal ones feeding on the sage and lavender. Just planted more lavender too. The local schools in my area of London are now keeping bees.

[honeybun]

My wasp stings have been quite varied over the years.

Stung on the bum....Don't ask 
Stung in the armpit while hanging out the washing.
Stung in my mouth after a wasp got in my wine....now that one made me feel unwell.
Stung in my ear... 

That's just the recent ones.

Oldsheep....I have resorted to the big guns for my slugs too. Fed up with every thing being destroyed.


Honeyb
x

[CLKD]

Ants don't eat strawberries 
Slugs everywhere here so have been liberal with the blue sweeties ………. covering them where possible so that the hedgehogs and blackbirds don't pick them up.  Not as many snails but I don't pay good money for pretty plants so that slugs can demolish them ………..

I had a very large bumble trying to get into the kitchen through the shut window earlier  - he'll go away with a headache …….

[Joyce]

Think you'll find they do. We used to have ants on ours. Don't grow them any more.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/rid-ants-eating-strawberries-45347.html

[Taz2]

It seems unusual to have UK ants eating fruit but the American species do attack strawberries. Maybe you had a visiting USA colony CG 

Taz x

[Joyce]

Heck knows. Long time ago now. Days of me scrambling about trying to stop ants, slugs, whatever from eating my strawberries is long gone. We have a lot of ants in our garden, not sure what they're nibbling on these days mind you. But oh boy snails have got my hosta half eaten already! 

[CLKD]

Ants will make nests in soft soil which can disturb roots therefore the plants die.  I've had to put blue sweeties round the hosts and newly moved plant-lets!