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Bees or wasps?
LeadFarmer
Posts: 1,492
I know some honey bees do resemble wasps, but could someone please let me know if these are bees or wasps in my garden?
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Not sure but I'd like to know too as I have a small group trying to burrow into the soil. Not sure what they are up to.
I think these are wool carder bees http://www.uksafari.com/woolcarders.htm
You lucky chap - important pollinators but only very localised distribution outside South Wales
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Corinne - do yours look exactly the same, or are they different in any way?
Could yours be Tawny Mining bees - No. 3 here http://www.bbowt.org.uk/sites/bbowt.live.wt.precedenthost.co.uk/files/files/bees.pdf
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
No mine look exactly like LeadFarmer's, no distinct stripes but yellow edge to belly. Do wool carder bees dig into soil?
Well Im in the middle of building a path in my garden, and Ive dug out a hole in the middle to blant a large shrub. Ive temporarily filled the hole with stone so my young son doesnt fall into it, and these bees/wasps are tunnelling into the clay in the hole and either nesting or collecting the clay...
Now im more than happy to halt my project if they are bees and would be thrilled if they were nesting. But if they are just wasps collecting mud then I may have to disturb them. You can see in the next photo the holes they have made tunnelling into the clay..
I'm sure they're bees of one sort or another - don't look like any type of wasp I know - their abdomens are completely the wrong shape. They look like wool carder bees to me and as I said they're not common outside a few specific areas - could you find your local wildlife trust's website and email them so they can add them to their records?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Just a thought, have you got any roses with circular pieces cut out of the leaves? They might be leaf-cutter bees - ours cut pieces of rose leaf and line holes in wood with them before laying their eggs, but they might line holes in the ground I suppose.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
A wasp is not easily mistaken to be honest. They are much more aggressive than bees in general. They also have brighter markings, with hairless abdomens and a very thin waist area, whereas bees of all types are rounder in form.
These are bees, hard at work in our gardens hurray.
Thanks Wintersong. I have never had problems identifying wasps before, what with their distinctive yellow/black colours, and thier bodies seem to be seperated from their heads by just a thin segment.
Whilst these look like wasps, they are different enough to make me wonder? So do we definately think they are bees?
Yes, they look like bees to me. Wasps are bolder-coloured and not at all furry.
Come to think of it, there are very few wasps around at the moment anyway. I saw a few queens looking to nest a couple of months ago, but nothing since then. Bees are what you'd expect to find in the garden now. Wasps, if they do appear, are more friend than foe at this stage in the year, as they feed on aphids now, whereas later on they seek out fruit and that's when they become a nuisance.