Wasps

[Excession]

Bloody things, popped to the apiary the see my girls, mainly to see pollen going in.

In one hive I saw three wasps get in. They did not make it out though so hoping they met a grizzly fate.

Reduced the entrance to once space.

Can we have a frost please?

 

[Excession]

Ordered a WaspBane trap, time to give the blighters some!

Already destroyed one nest locally... Grumble grumble.

Question though: do varroa effect wasps at all? Can wasps transport varroa?

 

[oliver90owner]

*do varroa effect wasps at all

Doubtful. Are they not 'carnivores' for a larger part of the summer? Varroa don't over-winter too well on single queen wasps, hibernating in some cranny, I woud think. Inverted commas because they are not really... Something to think about.

 

[Excession]

Figured as much for maintaining a varroa population, especially with a prolonged brood break, and no winter wasps.

I guess I am thinking along the lines of if a wasp colony robs a smaller bee colony heavily there is an opportunity for the wasps to also bring back varroa... Would it doom a wasp colony? I doubt it... But would be interested to see if varroa/wasp is plausible.

 

[ichbinpaul]

I witnessed somthing amazing "to me anyway"! I recall a thread talking about the effects of a "bee bite" as opposed to a bee sting, well yesterday whilst in the workshop I caught a glimps of the sheet of white paper, that I had placed the bodies of a bee and a wasp that appeared locked together is a death grip, where the bee had the wasp firmly held by a front leg whereby they had both expired!!! they were positioned with the bee on the landing board and the wasp dangling in the wind, I had intended to take a photo although I often intend such but the technology for handling and posting photo's is not within me yet! anyway as I walked toward the piece of paper placed their Two days earlier, I noticed that the wasp was standing up and had freed itself but was extremely lethargic and had obviously been paralized, wow what a weapon our girlies appear to have all in a bite, it explains a lot of the things I have seen where the girlies have taken out wasps and seemed unaffected.