Is it my imagination?

[sandysman]

Is it my imagination or are there more bumble bees, wasps and butterflies this year.
I have just been pottering in the garden and I don't think I can remember seeing as many bumble bees both in number and variety for a long time. There are also far more wasps and butterflies this year than in the past few years. Has anyone else noticed?
Andy

 

[Roola]

Is it my imagination or are there more bumble bees, wasps and butterflies this year.
I have just been pottering in the garden and I don't think I can remember seeing as many bumble bees both in number and variety for a long time. There are also far more wasps and butterflies this year than in the past few years. Has anyone else noticed?
Andy

deffo more bumbles in my opinion... see them more than honeybees..... maybe they are just bigger.

 

[ichbinpaul]

Just ever so slightly! wherever I look at flowers I see No Honies just Hoardes of varied Bumbles, all of the privet bushes around my Apiary 1 Honey to 20-30 Bums, it was all I could to to stop myself from evening the odds!.

 

[pargyle]

deffo more bumbles in my opinion... see them more than honeybees..... maybe they are just bigger.

Definitely more bumbles and butterflies in my garden this year than I've seen in at least the last three ... better weather I assume after the rotten spring, rather than the wet summers we have had.

 

[Putnamsmif]

Definitely more than last year anyway. I do a lot of fly fishing for trout and one of my favourite times of year is late April when the hawthorne flowers and the hawthorne flies hatch, but this year, near me anyway, because of the cold Spring the hatch never really got going. I suppose all insects must have the ability to bounce back from seasonal irregularities, let's just hope that seasonal irregularities don't become the norm, if you get my drift.

 

[madasafish]

yes.. bumbles flourishing here.. more than previous summers.. assisted by all the bee friendly plants people have no doubt planted...

 

[itma]

yes.. bumbles flourishing here.. more than previous summers.. assisted by all the bee friendly plants people have no doubt planted...

Echo that from a town in a different part of the country.
Mind you, its different in the countryside!

 

[Davelin]

Yes and here, lots of Bumble Bees this year, and....shhhh. not as many wasps.

 

[troedyrhiw]

Yes loads more bumble bees and butterflies. Luckily fewer wasps but I did mistake the helecopter sound the other day - turned out to be a massive hornet :yikes:

I think the weather has been ideal for them, a lot more varied flowers in the fields.

 

[Loubee7]

I reckon more bumble bees this year as well, maybe less wasps too?

 

[karlbown]

Not many wasps but loads of bumbles, and butterflies especially, here in Lincolnshire

 

[farbee]

Many more bumbles here too. Wasp have also increase alot in last couple of weeks (Although not greater than any other year) but were very low before that. Not noticed much difference in butterflies.
Around my house, where I don't keep my bees, I have only seen a couple of honeybees all year.

 

[nelletap]

Loads more bumbles and butterflies - huge range of types even within close proximity. I see honeybees more at water sources than on plants at the mo. Fewer wasps so far thankfully. I'm in Buckinghamshire.

 

[sunhivebee]

Sussex countryside: many more bumblebees of about five different types, less wasps, and loads of tortoiseshell butterflies; lavenders in my garden have far more bumbles than honeybees.
In Gloucestershire and Devon last week I noticed more butterflies than ever seen before. Very lovely!

 

[Chris Luck]

Well there you are...

...here in most of France it's been catastrophic, early butterfly, moth and insect species all but wiped out, very few wasp family around at all even now, only the two most common bumble bee species doing reasonably well, crap for most solitary bee species, thousands of swifts died and fell from the skies, bats suffered terribly and so on and so on.

Chris

 

[BILL.HEARD]

Sussex countryside: many more bumblebees of about five different types, less wasps, and loads of tortoiseshell butterflies; lavenders in my garden have far more bumbles than honeybees.
In Gloucestershire and Devon last week I noticed more butterflies than ever seen before. Very lovely!

A 20m double row of lavender in a garden near some hives of mine, must have been several hundred bumblebees 5/6 different types seen on two consecutive days, not one honeybee to be seen.

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes it seems it has been a good year for all the little critters and glad to see the wasps are recovering. I don’t know why but I am noticing a lot of spiders.

 

[Somerford]

Definitely a bumper year for bumbles and butterflies. Had 2 bumble nests near my hives, and plenty of butterflies too. Speaking to a pest controller friend, he keeps records going back 30 years, there is a cycle in the nature of bees and wasps. He said 2 years ago the wasps peaked, and dropped off last year to levels similar to 7 years ago, bumbles the main call out this year, again cyclical, very few honey bee swarms this year unlike 3 years ago.

 

[Luminos]

Business as usual here - always lots of butterflies, bees, hoverflies etc.
Few Asian hornets so far, though - maybe they've gone back home lol

 

[Chris Luck]

Business as usual here - always lots of butterflies, bees, hoverflies etc.
Few Asian hornets so far, though - maybe they've gone back home lol

Do you keep a species list and record numbers?

Chris