Bramblings – the occasional newsletter of NCBKA

This year has already been hailed for record honey harvests. I shall wait until the season is over before coming to too many conclusions. There have been equally strong claims that wasps are a particular problem. I have certainly heard stories from different quarters of colonies being destroyed by wasp predation, and there is no doubt that wasps are capable of clearing out huge quantity of stores. However, at the same time I have seen relatively small colonies with no entrance block or other closure holding there own while wasps make persistent attempts to enter the hive. I suspect the full explanation of what is going on is far more complicated.

Just because wasps can be observed stripping a hive and the colony dies out as a result it does not follow that the wasps were the cause. I suspect that in most cases the wasps move in after the colony has begun to falter. For example, I have recently seen hives with brood frames spaced haphazardly in the brood chamber. The benefit of providing bees with foundation is lost if they are forced either to build wild comb between the frames or try to maintain brood temperature when the brood is so far apart. The inefficiency of this one error by the beekeeper could be enough to set the energy budget against successful build up during the season.

Beekeepers traditionally seek out and destroy wasp nests near their hives. It is easier to observe wasps following a “bee-line” back to their nest than to see bees themselves doing it (Try watching a worker foraging clover and deciding when it has finished and is setting off back to the hive. When a wasp has supped on jam or whatever it will go straight home). Most wasp nests are built in the ground, although we are more likely to encounter nests in roof spaces and hollow trees. Destruction of nests within range of bee hives will have little impact on wasp populations. Wasps are predators on numerous other insects while they are seeking protein for their brood early in the year. They are therefore potentially beneficial to us and are unlikely to be noticed or be troublesome until the adult wasps turn to carbohydrate sources for their maintenance later in the season. Late in the year each wasp colony produces many queens to overwinter. I’m sure that the number of wasp colonies increases in the vicinity of apiaries. Perhaps queens seek out nests near honeybees which they “know” will provide rich pickings. All organisms tend to build their population to fill available habitat, so wasps will soon migrate back into an area cleared of nests by a beekeeper. The beekeeper will never win, but can do a great deal to tip the scales in favour of the bees.

While watching flowers to see what bees are working, I have this year for the first time seen Dolichovespula wasps on snowberry and onion flowers. I think they are D.media which has begun to spread through Britain. Perhaps I am prejudiced against our common wasp, but these relatives of the tree wasp seem altogether more handsome and welcome. The dolchovespula wasps do not build large colonies and do not present a threat to our bees, although the tree wasp is known to build nests in empty bee hives. Whether they can sting us is a different question!

Will Messenger, 18^th August 2001