First wasp of 2009

[alan refail]

[Bush Tucker]

I met a number of them in my shed! I put the oil fired heater on while I attempted a New Year clear out of the shed and after a couple of hours there were about 6 of them buzzing round!

[Primrose]

Haven't seen any wasps yet, but we did have three bumble bees buzzing around on our winter heather before last week's freezing cold spell. Poor things probably died off in the cold. I would have liked to put out some sustenance for them to keep them going but wasn't sure what was the best way of providing something.

[Monika]

Primrose, I must admit I have never tried to feed bumble bees but have successfully fed butterflies, so it would probably work for bumble bees , too. In case you need it another time: put some fruit sugar (from Boots or a health food shop) on a piece of sponge or double thickness of pan scrubber and dissolve it with a small dash of hot water.

[AnneThomas]

I know people who put honey water out for bees in the winter/early spring. I have no idea about the proportions so can't help there.

[richard p]

you can feed honey bees on ordinary cane sugar dissolved in hot water and allowed to cool down, bee keepers have to feed the hives during the winter if theyve stolen all the honey .. i seem to remember something about honey bees can only poo whilst flying so they have to fly every so often... cant remember what the timescale is, or whether it applies to wild bees.
normally its only queen wasps that survive the through the winter, and they are woken from hibernation by a rise in temperature.... incidently spraying a flying queen with wd40 knocks it down for squashing.

[Smurfy]

I'm petrified of wasps and last year we had a nest in the wall cavity which meant each evening we had between 5 and 12 wasps in the kitchen and bathroom. We put some sticky fly catcher 'flowers' on the window but realised that wasps can pull themselves off the sticky bit.

I'm just hoping that wasps don't return to previous nest sites.

[Monika]

Smurfy, why are you petrified of wasps? They won't harm you if you don't threaten them. I HAVE been stung in the past, but I let them walk about on me and they don't sting, unless you try to squash them or something like that. Wasps feed their young on caterpillars and greenfly and other beasties, so they are in fact good guys!

[Smurfy]

They have it in for me!

Maybe i'm paranoid but when i was young both bees and wasps used to get caught in my hair when i was in the paddling pool and sting me on my scalp. (that was a few years ago i might add!)

I've overcome my fear of bees and have mostly of wasps but in september when they have finished raising their young they fly around my face and head and that still freaks me out.