Turkish Bee

[mike99]

This is a weird article and it baffles me. Why is it a risk to British bees? I must be missing something. Surely there would only be an issue if it was either a mated queen or a drone?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7299533/Call-swat-team-Bee-smuggled-UK-familys-suitcase-destroyed.html

 

[thorn]

This is a weird article and it baffles me. Why is it a risk to British bees? I must be missing something. Surely there would only be an issue if it was either a mated queen or a drone?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7299533/Call-swat-team-Bee-smuggled-UK-familys-suitcase-destroyed.html

Or if it's carrying a disease not yet in this country and which could be transmitted to our native bees.

 

[mike99]

That was an angle I didn't think of.

 

[maz0]

Once tried getting into Australia with dirty golf shoes in luggage and customs had a fit, made us clean them then and there. It's all about the disease...

 

[kazmcc]

It appears to be Megachile - leafcutter, of which we have 7 species native to this country. Several of which use petals as well as leaves to create nest cells. Some Osmia do too. Another example of irresponsible journalism. Using Google to identify bees is a risky method, esp given many photos of invertebrates are incorrectly labelled and Google doesn't account for location when offering suggestions. I am surprised that DEFRA are even entertaining this, esp since nobody at BWARS has been contacted concerning this.

 

[mike99]

This is a weird article and it baffles me. Why is it a risk to British bees? I must be missing something. Surely there would only be an issue if it was either a mated queen or a drone?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7299533/Call-swat-team-Bee-smuggled-UK-familys-suitcase-destroyed.html

Oh dear. They seemed to have left it too long:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...aked-UK-escapes-officials-chance-swat-it.html

 

[kazmcc]

Oh dear. They seemed to have left it too long:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...aked-UK-escapes-officials-chance-swat-it.html

No they didn't. The bee in their photo is Megachile centuncularis, one of our native species. They've seen something they didn't recognise, googled 'bee using petals' and ran with the first suggestion google offered. I'm astounded that nobody has asked BWARS about this.

Please, if you see a bee that you don't recognise acting in a non honeybee way do not kill it. We have 250+ solitary bees in this country, many with unique nesting habits.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I live watching these leaf cutters
We have one laying in a pot destined for Ma in Law this weekend

I made Stan dig the patch out and transplant it into another pot.
She’s back there today so hasn’t noticed

 

[kazmcc]

Some are more likely to use petals than others but it's not unheard of for this particular species to use them. in my garden they prefer rose leaves but last year it was my hibiscus leaves.

 

[mike99]

No they didn't. The bee in their photo is Megachile centuncularis, one of our native species. They've seen something they didn't recognise, googled 'bee using petals' and ran with the first suggestion google offered. I'm astounded that nobody has asked BWARS about this.

Please, if you see a bee that you don't recognise acting in a non honeybee way do not kill it. We have 250+ solitary bees in this country, many with unique nesting habits.

Thanks for the update. Interesting that it is one that occurs here. I would try not to kill something intentionally. I even have trouble swatting flies even though I hate them. I tend to open the window and hope it flies out.
Dispatching an unsatisfactory Queen is going to be very traumatic for me I think.

 

[kazmcc]

It's a common mistake in this Google age. We get lots of requests from people who have googled something they've found and have come up with a non UK species. Google is great for lots of things but it doesn't take into account distribution unless you specifically request it to when looking for identification help and unless you know which sites you can rely on for accuracy then you can often find things have been misidentified anyway. We are all scratching our heads a bit that Matt Shardwell from Buglife seems to have accepted the id given by the women and ran with it on BBC4 radio yesterday.

I have also been told this morning that some papers have been advising readers to contact their local BKA if they encounter any unusual bees. This is putting great pressure on BKAs who are busy enough during certain times of year dealing with swarm calls and very few will have members with identification skills outside of the honeybee sphere. I'd be happy to take a look if any members are contacted for these purposes and can pass them along if it's something I'm not entirely happy identifying myself.

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

Ummm....this is the...um... daily mail. Perhaps it..um....should be...ignored.

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[Erichalfbee]

Ummm....this is the...um... daily mail. Perhaps it..um....should be...ignored.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Yes of course we can ignore it but it’s loyal readers certainly won’t. Karen has a very valid point

 

[bobba]

Ummm....this is the...um... daily mail. Perhaps it..um....should be...ignored.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

The "daily fail" should not be ignored, it is a great source of comedy.

 

[maz0]

When I first moved to the countryside I saw a wood wasp for the first time and thought I had found a European Hornet. This was only a week after my beginners beekeeping class where we covered diseases and predators. I’ll admit I got a bit of a panic until my wife corrected me!

 

[kazmcc]

Ummm....this is the...um... daily mail. Perhaps it..um....should be...ignored.

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I agree completely, but many people buy into it. There are people in beekeeping groups on Facebook demanding to know why the bee wasn't killed and allowed to 'get away'

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I live watching these leaf cutters
We have one laying in a pot destined for Ma in Law this weekend

I made Stan dig the patch out and transplant it into another pot.
She’s back there today so hasn’t noticed

I had a long chat with a man whilst manning the WBKA stand at the Royal Welsh, he grew cacti and every year he had leafcutter bees burrowing into the soil under the cacti and laying eggs - he even video'd one removing a stone that had rolled down into the burrow.
Wish I'd asked him for a copy now.

 

[kazmcc]

I had a long chat with a man whilst manning the WBKA stand at the Royal Welsh, he grew cacti and every year he had leafcutter bees burrowing into the soil under the cacti and laying eggs - he even video'd one removing a stone that had rolled down into the burrow.
Wish I'd asked him for a copy now.

Megachile willughbiella is a particularly inventive nester and will often nest down the sides of plant pots where the soil has shrunk away from the sides as well as other odd places, but it could be any of them. The leafcutters are a really interesting genus. I get two species visit my garden for forage and nesting material but I haven't found where they are nesting yet.

This whole farce is getting ridiculous now I hear. Turkish newspapers are wading in

 

[MartinL]

There are people in beekeeping groups on Facebook demanding to know why the bee wasn't killed

That's the growing fraternity of FB,
isolated nutters with nothing better to do than post everything on line,

Not like us on here

Well. .. … ….