A few days ago, we received an enquiry to this website from a Ballaugh resident who said:
Hi, we think we have bees – potentially in our chimney. We are coming home and finding anywhere between 10 and 20 very sleepy bees (pretty sure they are honeybees – they definitely aren’t wasps or bumble bees!) in our living room most days. Down the chimney and out through the small gaps in the wood burner (which we haven’t used all winter) is the only obvious place for them to be coming in. Are you able to offer any advice?
Male Tawny Mining Bee – www.mattcolephotography.co.uk
Which was followed up by: I have stood outside our house staring at the chimney / front of the house around the living room for ages and can’t see anything obvious but they are coming from somewhere; there are too many for it just to be coincidence. We put 16 out when we got home this evening!
The initial response of Bee Inspector Harry Owens – who hasn’t yet had the chance of a visual to support his views – was
They could be solitary bees which do look like a honey bee, they are the same size very black and appear in the house getting in via window or door then try to escape again .They are looking for as place to lay their eggs which is normally about 18 inches down in the ground and referred to Mining Bees most likely named Dasypoda hirtipes (A summer mining bee of coastlands. The female has very large, hairy pollen baskets on the legs, but otherwise neither male nor female is unusually hairy. They are buff coloured with black abdomens, except for a buff base of whitish hairs. They are not aggressive at all and are like most solitary bees, endangered. They can also be found in holes in brickwork as well a stonework and will be about for a week or two then you don’t see them again. (My Ref The Oxford Book of Insects).
Updates are welcome!
Post Featured Image: http://www.snipview.com/q/Dasypoda%20hirtipes
