Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => This 'n' That => Topic started by: honeybun on July 01, 2014, 07:05:30 PM
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I have noticed quite a lot going into a little hole just under the front steps. Any ideas on what to do about them.We don't use the front door much so can't see they will be much of a problem inside.
Hubby has a wasp killer spray but I really don't want to kill them.
What should I do. I'm inclined just to leave well alone until they leave in autumn and then block the holes up.
Honeyb
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Leave them. What kind are they?
We are so short of bumbles across the UK. You could get your local honey maker to have a look-see, or if there is a wildlife group near ask for advice. Unless they are inside the house leave well alone. We had a nest a few years ago in one corner of the garden, they died once the frosts arrived :'( ……… I spent hours watching them ;)
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Not sure what kind they are. Just bees that buzz ;D
Really don't want to touch them at all. Hubby said its up to me. Just have to park the car further up the drive ::)
Honeyb
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Lovely to sit and watch them in the sunshine ;) …….. bees only sting when they really have to …...
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Unlike wasps who seem to consider me fair game most summer's.
I have been stung in some very unusual places ::)
Honeyb
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:o …. wasps however, live to sting another day ………
Do you have a bee keeper locally?
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Could they be Mason bees?
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Masons are usually solitary :-\
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Sure that we do somewhere but as they are under the bottom step I can't see what a beekeeper could do.
There are two chances of hubby taking the step apart
None, and none at all ::)
Honeyb
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Just seen your post CLKD....there are quite a few of them.
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A bee keeper could identify the type of bumble you have ;)
Or do a 'google' ………… can you tell I'm intrigued ……… if I lived closer ………. ;)
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We have a nest of bees in the compost bin. We know a local beekeeper and asked his advice. He said leave them as they won't be there for long.
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Thanks Ju Ju.
That's what I wanted to hear.
CLKD....I will have a better look in the morning and let you know.
Honeyb
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A few years ago when we lived in an RAF quarter we noticed bees under the back door step.Chap from the estates office came round to look and said they were masonry bees,they don't sting(so he said) and would soon leave which they did.
Thorntrees x
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This is from a bumble bee forum Honeyb "The best advice is
You could leave them where they are, they will die out by the end of October other than the new Queens, which will emerge and then hibernate until next year."
We often have different types of bees nesting around the garden and under the step and patio stones. We've never had any bother with them. They are in decline and need all the help they can get. http://bumblebeeconservation.org/
Taz x
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Yes we are just going to leave them alone.
Can't stand wasps and they would have to go but I like the bumblebees and I am happy to let them do their own thing for the summer.
Hubby will seal up the hole in the autumn.
Not going to be able to use the front door much though ::)
Honeyb
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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. :)
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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
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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 ;D
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I am more motivated by the fact that they seem to like to sting me ;D
Well my bees are busy in and out today and they seem to look just like a bumblebee.
So Honeyb has bumblebees.....very apt ;D
Honeyb
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:thankyou: 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 ;)
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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.
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Never had wasps or bees in our bins, flies sometimes ::) - do your bins have holes at the bottom? or gaps round the lids?
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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. ???
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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 :D
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.
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My wasp stings have been quite varied over the years.
Stung on the bum....Don't ask ;D
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... :o
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
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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 …….
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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
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It seems unusual to have UK ants eating fruit but the American species do attack strawberries. Maybe you had a visiting USA colony CG ;D ;D
Taz x
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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! ::)
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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!
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Seen more ants than usual this year, must be something to do with the weather. So long as they remain outdoors I don't mind.
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I always put jars of cheap jam outside the house which they take back to the nest - contents not the jars :o ;D … that way they don't come into the house searching for sugar.
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I was going to say, mighty strong ants in your neck of the wood CLKD. ;D
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:rofl: ……….. reminds me a song from my childhood about an ant breaking a dam ………
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"High Hopes" ?
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Grrrr gonna be singing that now CLKD. ;D
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;D ………. I wonder what happened to the little boy who sang the 'line' on his own …….
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Just see the bee posts and wish I'd seen them earlier. Just moved house and noticed last week there were loads of bees in the garden which I thought was quite nice then noticed a few days later many more bees buzzing in and out of the decking. Lifted some decking planks and discovered a massive hive with thousands of bees swarming in and out of it by then - quite scary when you have a young child and dog that want to play in the garden. I'm sorry to say we had to get the pest control man to take it away tonight. He said he'd never seen a hive so big in such a long time and it was the right thing to do to get rid. Now I feel bad though :'(
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Safety first though Ali. Can't have child or dog getting stung. Don't feel bad.
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Of course he would say 'best to get rid of it' that's his job >:( ……… pity he didn't suggest a bee keeper first!
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Wish i could be so accepting of insects but we have some frightful ones down here in Florida and they are BIG. Ants here for instance are like something out of a horror flick..my daughter when little was out wearing those little jelly sandals when she stepped on some..within seconds they were all over her legs biting requiring a trip to the emergency room. We do have bees that produce nice locally grown orange blossom honey but we also have yellow jackets that can kill so caution is the word living in the tropics. :( :( :(
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:-\ ... what's with the killing of ants? We've had a heap slowly growing in our front garden for 0ver 20 years and they don't make sink holes, however, moles ........ can destroy fields if their tunnels and heaps suddenly let go. Wood ants, the long orange ones bite: HARD! I like poking the heaps :o :-X
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Having watched ants strip my only big fat ripe strawberry in under an hour, I'm abandoning gentle eco methods of deterring them and am sending for the napalm.
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I expect your paving was laid onto sand? Hence the ant movement, clever little insects. Gosh singing that 'dam' song again ;D (not that you are old enough to remember it ....... )
I measured our nest at the front today: 3ft x 3ft x ........ gave it a poke, lots of orange ants came out ;) ........ :-\ I wonder how many years before it over-takes the whole of that border ::)
Why didn't you eat your big fat ripe strawberry Oldsheep? ..........
Annika .......... what other nasties do you have in your plot?
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Just catching up with this thread.
The wood ant nests are amazing. If you stay and watch you will usually find a "motorway" to one of the trees. The ants will be going up one side and coming down the other collecting whatever it is they collect. I have a fascination with them and the way they work together. I even belong to an Ant Forum ;D
Oldsheep - do you know what type of ants you have. It is unusual for british ants to eat strawberries unless the fruit itself is infested with aphids. As they pick the aphids off the strawberries come away too. It is often common for slugs to start the holes and then the ants pop inside to lick off the sugary substance.
Taz x
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:thankyou: Taz. Ceertainly I've never known ants to eat fruit ………
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Think that's what happened with ours all those years ago. Aphids would be heaving all over them. Of course I was told to put down straw to help. Did I? Nope!
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Ants harvest aphids to take back to the nest for food!
Lots of bees on our loosestrife plants and various other evening openers, including evening primrose and honeysuckle :-*