Bees, Wasps & Hornets
In Bees and Bee Problems, Pests in April, Pests in August, Pests in July, Pests in June, Pests in May, Pests in September, Pests in Spring, Pests in Summer, Wasps
Bees, Wasps & Hornets:
It won’t be long before we start getting calls about bees and wasps. This normally starts with customers saying that they have got hornets when in fact they usually turn out to be Queen wasps emerging from hibernation. Their function is to find a nest site, build a nest, lay eggs, rear and feed the grubs that hatch out until they turn into the first batch of worker wasps. Nests in the early stage can be dealt with fairly easily if the nest can be seen. Many nests are located in cavity wall, soffats or other cavities that are not accessible.
The start of nest building does not start for at least a month after the Queens emerge. Bumble Bee Queens come out of hibernation before Queen Wasps. Bumble Bees are used to colder climates and some species live in the arctic. Bumble Bee Queens do not hibernate in buildings as Queen Wasps do so don’t come into contact with people so much unless they fly in through an ope window. Queen Wasps can be a nuisance and in fact a danger to people if they have been hibernating in loft spaces and get down into rooms underneath. A common treatment for Queen Wasps in late Winter and Spring is for us at PEST UK to fog a loft with an insecticide that kills any insects the insecticide comes into contact with. This type of treatment is very successful but has its limitations as the surfaces in a loft space are not very good for insecticides to last very long on as well as some Queens being in areas incapable to the insecticides such as in the soffats or under the insulation.
Honey bees have a different lifecycle to that of most wasps and Bumble Bees, they have a Queen but all forms (Workers, Drones and the Queen) live throughout the Winter (although there are fatalities). They are able to do this as Honey Bees store honey.
