Help Identifying Type of Bee Please?

[NikkiDodd]

Good evening,

I hope you don't mind me popping into the Beekeeping Forum (I'm usually resident on a Springer Spaniel forum - an entirely different kind of beast ).

We have recently experienced a few mysterious visitors to our house and I've finally managed to get a reasonable photograph of one - I suspect it might possibly be a species of bee - I wondered if anyone here might be able to help me establish a positive identification.

To give a brief background: from October to December last year we had extensive work down to the ground floor, rear of our house - a single storey brick extension was built - several internal walls removed and the ceiling removed in the back end of the original house - so we have pretty much seen the internal 'skeleton' of the house. It's a 3 storey house so the roof space is quite some distance from the ground floor. The entire ground floor of the house has been tiled and new skirting boards put on too.

A few weeks ago I noticed a small winged creature crawling dozily around the floor in the area where the old house joins the new extension - I didn't think much of it at the time. A few days later two more of the same creatures, again very dozy, were crawling around just outside the understairs area (which is where our dogs have their beds (no door on what used to be the understairs cupboard)) - I scooped them up and popped them outside and felt slightly suspicious at more 'visitors' of the same type. Then this evening one of our dogs started getting agitated in her bed and I found her batting another of these creatures between her paws - I rescued the little winged chap and managed to get some photos.

I am puzzled as to where they might be coming from - and am a little concerned that we might suddenly find ourselves inundated with them ... so, any clues would be very much appreciated.

Sorry for rambling on - here are a couple of photos:

very many thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Nikki

 

[Artisan]

Think it may be a Masonry Bee or Mason Bee. Give them a Google.

Peter

 

[tonybloke]

looks like a mason bee to me!

 

[RoseCottage]

I agree with the others...here is the Wii page:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee

all the best, Sam

 

[BobH1]

These are attractive bees, we had them living in our lawn. There's more information here: http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/?q=red-mason-bee

 

[Artisan]

A possible explanation would be that you had Masonry bees living in the outside wall where you have now got the extension. This has become part of the inner house and your central heating has woken them early as I don't think they are around until April. That is why they appear a bit dopey.

Peter

 

[NikkiDodd]

Thank you

Thank you so much for your help.

Of course, it makes perfect sense, that they were previously in our outside wall - that is now an inside wall - the poor things must be travelling a long way to find a way out of the wall space now though; as the old outside wall is now plaster boarded and skimmed.

I'm now reading conflicting advice as to what to do about them - I've read about alternative 'homes' we can hang up outside to encourage them to live there rather than in our walls - but I'm also reading that it would take 100 years or so for Mason Bees to eat our house - I'm sure I could find an article on the internet telling me that there is a group of Mason Bees running a go-go bar in Ibiza if I looked long enough!

Thanks for your help guys - much appreciated

 

[RoofTops]

It is a bit too early for mason bees and I fear these ones might be doomed. Clearly the warmth of the house extension has encouraged early emergence. They would normally not appear for about a month I think.

Garden centres sell artifical nest sites - lots of cardboard tubes in a plastic pipe. You can also try making your own by drilling holes in a bit of wood but the holes need to be very smooth in my experience.

 

[tonybloke]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=3451&stc=1&d=1299321531

 

[richardbees]

Tony

After years of doing this I was recently told by a Pro that it's a lot better if you burr off the edges to leave a clean rim to the holes

 

[RoofTops]

They will use hollow plant stalks if available which suggests they like the holes smooth. Rough edges would knock off pollen.

 

[Storm™]

I used to live in a 400 year old cottage. The door was a lovely thick oak thing. Every year regular as clockwork along came the Mason bees. They lay their egg in any hole deep enough then stuff it full of food then seal it up. When the door was open as it often was they would pop in and out for hours. When the door was shut we used to wedge open the letterbox for them. A neighbour who was a commercial beek told us that its the females out and about first then the males later.

Anyhow good luck with them. Ours went to extraordinary lengths to use the same holes year in year out. Even the key hole was used lol.

 

[Bad Boy Bee]

Well chuck my inards over my shoulder it's a classic

 

[Easy Beesy]

Hi Storm sorry to disillusion you but solitary bees usually lay their female eggs first, in the tube, then males so that the males hatch first and have matured in time for the females hatching. sort of last in, first out, kinda thing.