It wasn't as easy as I though to get the pictures but I think you can see what I'm talking about - horrible yellow jacket wasp in my bee house. I think they are also living in the clematis in this picture, I keep seeing them go in there too. I might cut it right back once it's finished flowering.
Yeah, I know Chris Packham was singing their praises on Springwatch or something similar. I'm not going to go killing them or anything as I do like to let nature be. But they must be killing the mason bees, and I'm sure wasps aren't at risk like bees are. Plus the bees are cute 😁
Just a thought, but you could try half-occluding some of the various holes with mud or wood glue - making them smaller. The wasps might be put off, though they can chew through wood, so maybe not. Making the holes slightly smaller might work. It might be worth trying it with a few holes and see...
Smaller tubes is the answer but I think mud filling will be tricky! Especially as I'm scared to go too near the house in case they fly out and chase me 😆. There were some old clogged up tubes from last year on the house and they have broken into those so I don't think I'd be successful. I'm just going to have to get over it!
Well, the Pilkington box is doing well now with mason bees, using mud to seal their pollen nest cells. The west side is more than half full. They have started on the east side now but are using it more for a snooze chamber at the moment. There seems to be only one new capped channel, so the rest are still works in progress. Keeping the spiders off and their webs is a daily job at the moment.
You can see the leaf cutter cells made last year, third channel down, which is quite a different colour from the rest. The cells are made of leaves and the new leaf cutter bees will hopefully emerge in the summer. The mason bees emerge first.
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You can perhaps see here the great differences in the differences in the colour of pollen, some bright yellow and some much paler.
It looks very sticky and damp in there at the moment, with all the new mud and all the bees sleeping. The screen was almost misted up. I didn't hear any snoring, though maybe I wasn't listening on the right wave length.
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Lots of the bees seemed to sleeping upside down, which I found interesting. The one at the bottom here seemed half curled in a ball. They weren't dead. I checked.
It seemed to take two weeks+ for them to complete or nearly complete a channel, although the rainy, windy weather might well have slowed them down in their foraging. It took much longer than imagined, a very stop/start process with plenty of naps. 🐝
I've made a fatal error with my bug hotel so here is a warning for others: Don't stuff very dry bamboo into a bug hotel without leaving room for expansion as it swells up in the rain Both boxes now have very large cracks in them. I'd packed the tubes quite tightly to stop little hands from removing them and chucking them into the water butts all the time. Chicken wire would have been a better option in hindsight...
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Another lesson is - if you have any bug houses where you can remove a panel to watch what's going on inside, place your house in a position where you can easily see in. My nest boxes up way up on the side of my shed and I have to balance on a planter to see in. Out of the way is good, but accessible for you is good too. Even if you can't see in, it's great to be able to have boxes closer to eye level so that, if you are interested, you can follow which channels have been capped and what with etc. Today, on close inspection (on tiptoe, on one leg), I realise that some of the micro bees have capped their nests with various coloured pollen.
I don't want to move the boxes now as everyone inside is already orientated. Ho hum.
Visited my elderly mother today, she explained she had wasps nesting in a blue tit nest box and had dowsed them with he hose pipe, but they had returned. I was horrified to discover they are bees. She felt bad, as she loves bees. How she mistook them I have no idea.
Thankfully they must have rebuilt their nest as they are swarming around the outside of it, but only the occasional one enters or leaves the nest box. Anyone know what they do this for? We spent an hour sat on her patio happily watching them.
Sadly I can't post the video, but here's a photo. I'm told they might be brown tailed bumble bees?
@LeadFarmer One way to upload a video is to put it on Youtube and post the link here. It's pretty straightforward. I can't see the bees closely enough to help with an ID
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Thankfully they must have rebuilt their nest as they are swarming around the outside of it, but only the occasional one enters or leaves the nest box. Anyone know what they do this for? We spent an hour sat on her patio happily watching them.
Sadly I can't post the video, but here's a photo. I'm told they might be brown tailed bumble bees?