Wasps

[holmbee]

Many years ago (when I last had bees) I had a different wasp problem. A single wasp would wait until a bee landed short of the entrance, would then attack from above and immediately bite off the bee's head, followed by the abdomen (and legs if I remember right), and would fly off with the thorax, presumably to feed it's larvae with the flight muscles. Little I could do about it, and not nice to watch!

I watched European Hornets coming in to take bees exactly like that a couple of years ago. They came in one after another about two minutes apart on a warm September afternoon.

 

[Karol]

Many years ago (when I last had bees) I had a different wasp problem. A single wasp would wait until a bee landed short of the entrance, would then attack from above and immediately bite off the bee's head, followed by the abdomen (and legs if I remember right), and would fly off with the thorax, presumably to feed it's larvae with the flight muscles. Little I could do about it, and not nice to watch!

I remember being in Lubeck in Germany working with a beekeeper there and one of his stronger hives was absolutely decimated by wasps but they were sweet feeding rather than hunting and the wasps were simply amputating the bees' abdomens and flying off with the nectar contained within. There were just thousands of poor honey bees walking around with no abdomens and it was really really pitiful to see.

 

[Bear]

Like this?

 

[Karol]

Yes, just devastating with the poor bees lingering on for ages.