BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)

Subject: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: GUEST,muppett
Date: 24 May 10 - 08:55 AM

Just nipped out to enjoy the sunshine for a bit and to get some dinner and got swamped by what seemed to be thousands of greenfly and other such little bugs, is it my imagination or are there an abundance of them this year?

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: theleveller
Date: 24 May 10 - 09:11 AM

Haven't noticed too many greenfly but there has been a huge number of very large bumble bees about.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: Lox
Date: 24 May 10 - 09:20 AM

Glad about the bees!

MORE BEES!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: GUEST,muppett
Date: 24 May 10 - 10:00 AM

Aye same here, bring on the bees, though can be a bit scary, was seeing the Grandkids yesterday and a large swarm of bees massed in a garden across the street, got a bit concerned for a while, had visions of a killer bees horror film I saw years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 May 10 - 10:01 AM

bumble bees are solitary charcters.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: GUEST,Muppett
Date: 24 May 10 - 11:18 AM

These were not bumble bees

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: Ed T
Date: 24 May 10 - 12:12 PM

I noticed larger bumble bees than normal this year.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: ClaireBear
Date: 24 May 10 - 12:37 PM

I saw a bumble bee last week that was roughly the size of a small helicopter. Quite cheersome.

C

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: gnu
Date: 24 May 10 - 12:49 PM

I noticed an increased amoumt last year and even more this year (New Brunswick, Canada).

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 May 10 - 01:58 PM

The bee is such a busy soul
It has no time for birth control
And that is why, in times like these,
There are so many sons of bees.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: mauvepink
Date: 24 May 10 - 02:26 PM

I think some of the 'larger' bumble bees seen this year in the UK have certainly been Queens looking for new nest sites. What I did notice was not that they were larger but that they were later after such a cold winter. Thus we had longer, warmer, days to notice them and seemingly see more.

So many 'creepy crawlies' are 'late' this year. Perhaps the greenfly are slightly now more abundant as we have had lots of flowers flowering all at once too (I saw crocus, daffodil and tulips all out at the same time around Easter, which is unusual I think, and many bluebells are late too). Maybe we will see an increase in Ladybird numbers a little later if it stays mild as 'plagues' of Ladybirds are certainly linked to years of over abundance in prey.

What we need to see are increased numbers of our honey bees. Their decline has been terrible the past decade.

I would have paid good money to see a bee the size of a helicopter! ;-)


lol

mp

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: gnu
Date: 24 May 10 - 03:07 PM

I usually don't see many honey bees here. Had a nest under Mum's front steps and a BIG nest underground in her flower bed three years ago. She wanted them gone so I made "efforts" to do so... all of which failed for some odd reasons. >;-)

But, next year, they wear all gone. Haven't been back. >;-(

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: akenaton
Date: 24 May 10 - 05:37 PM

Saw a large black bumble today in West Scotland...biggest I've ever seen.....strange.....must be the GM crops.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: mauvepink
Date: 24 May 10 - 06:40 PM

There are a number of Bombus species that are mostly black. Some have a bit of red on the rear which can be hard to spot too. Not all bumble bees are aposematically marked. Most of the black species are more southern in distribution, granted, but why would GM crops have such an effect?

Melanism too is known in many invertebrate species

mp

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: Alice
Date: 24 May 10 - 06:42 PM

Rapaire, LOL.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 May 10 - 07:55 PM

When I was about six years old, I had never been stung by a bee (still haven't!), but I knew other kids who had and I knew that it hurt like bloody blue blazes.

I was playing out in the yard one day when suddenly the biggest bee I had ever seen came darting and buzzing very loudly around the yard. Hovered by a flower, then zipped off to another one, buzzing loudly all the way. Shot right past me to another flower.

Scared the be-Jesus out of me!

Like a Jack-in-the-box, I levitated to the porch, dove behind the screen door, and into the house, yelling for Mom.

"Mom! There's a huge, giant BEE out in the yard!!!"

She came out of the kitchen and looked through the screen door. I pointed it out to her.

"Oh!" she said, "that's only a hummingbird. It's harmless. It won't hurt you."

I'd never heard of a hummingbird before, and had certainly never seen one. Little bitty thing. The only bird that can actually hover in one place like a helicopter. Or a bee. Tiny little jewel of a bird. But gi-normous compared to a bee!

Still deeply suspicious, I decided to play in the house for awhile.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: Gurney
Date: 24 May 10 - 10:36 PM

Insects seem to cycle boom-and-bust, either rare or overabundant. I think it depends on the weather conditions during their breeding.
I remember (very well) our honeymoon was during a boom of craneflies. We walked around squinting and trying to talk with our mouths closed.

Bees here are still rare because of Varroa Mite.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: Janie
Date: 24 May 10 - 11:08 PM

Watching the Carpenter Bees hover around my window sills and the wood posts holding up the carport, and noticing the sawdust.

Not good.

Not yet prepared to use toxins, but may have to.

No greenflies where I live.

Agressive Italian honeybees are not nice, but are going to be the salvation of the Honey Bee in America, with their mite resistance.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 May 10 - 11:25 PM

The thing about bugs all gets down to how you deal with them. Down in south Georgia and northern Florida, all good mothers cut out a giant hole in the seat of the pants of all the little kids running around. It keeps the gnats of their faces...........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: GUEST,muppett
Date: 25 May 10 - 04:42 AM

The greenfly were still about in numbers last night, walked home from work, which is 2 1/4 miles and was in a constant cloud of them.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: Bugsy
Date: 25 May 10 - 04:58 AM

I thought someone was taking my name in vain for a moment there!

Cheers

Bugs -y

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:08 AM

Muppett, as long as you keep your gob shut you'll be ok.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: GUEST,muppett
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:35 AM

It's me hair I'm worried about Dave, not me gob

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 May 10 - 07:27 AM

I believe that the food chain has much to do with the increase. Higher up the food chain, animals are slowly becoming extinct, largely due to the 'taking of land' by man for his own purposes... as that happens so numbers of those lower is able to increase all the way down the chain. Oh and by the way, apart from foxes, what eats squirrels in the UK.... they are increasing rapidly.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: gnu
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:57 PM

Peeps eat squirrels in the US I hear... although I can't imagine it unless their tree rats with bushy tales taste a lot better than the red tree rats we have up here in New Brunswick, Canada. I was in the bush for an unintended stay once and ate two bites of one... spit the second bite out and decided I would wait until I was near starvation. I was 13 years old and all I had was a knife... ya get hungry and tree rats are the easiest animal to kill. But, they surely must be one of the foulest to eat.

Subject: RE: BS: is it my imagination or ........ (bugs)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 May 10 - 03:35 AM

News reports confirm:

There are more bees than usual in LAKEVILLE, Minn

John