Wasps versus Bees

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

I've noticed that BEES are becoming more scarce.   I read an article in a recent paper to say that beekeepers are worried because the Government are withdrawing funding for Veterinary treatment of a parasite suffered by bees, which could become bad news for bees.   
On a UKTV History programme the other night, Alan Tichmarsh said that of the 13 (?) Bumble bee species native to this country, three had become extinct, and several were endangered.
Do we not need bees to pollinate our plants, flowers and fruit trees?   If bees do in fact become extinct at some point in the future, will wasps replace them functionally?
I've got a wasps' nest on my plot.   I walk very slowly past it, not too closely, and they've done me no harm so far.   I am reluctant to get rid of them as I wonder whether they are the future pollinators.
Does anyone have any knowledge or experience in this field please.

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

[aquilegia]

That is terrible news. Bumblers are so cute and cuddly!

I see quite a few in my garden - there are quite a lot of plants that they like. See a lot of orange, white or yellow-bottomed ones. Also several tawny mining bees.

Also get a lot of wasps. They don't bother me anymore. I just ignore them - they get on with their waspy stuff, I get on with mine. They are also predators of some pests - so they are good news really!

Get much more bothered by hover flies, who seem to like my shampoo - they spend ages hovering round my hair after I've washed it!

[wardy]

Hoverflies are good news Aqui as they eat vast amounts of aphids apparently.  I have a wasps nest in my manure pile and I've been tiptoeing round it all summer  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Bumbles are declining due to modern agricultural practices, so they should be encouraged any way we can. The thing with honeybee medications is that new EU regulations mean that we'll no longer be able to buy them over the counter. The basic requirement is for all animal medications to be prescribed by a vet, which would put the price through the roof and achieve nothing, since they have no training on insects at all. The government is trying to get an exemption, but this would still require the involvement of a 'suitably qualified person'. What's that, when it's literally a question of buying the pack and bunging it on the hive? They seem to be setting the bar extremely high, again restricting access to the meds, when at the same time they're trying to cut back the number of bee inspectors, and substitute volunteers for part of the work, and that's not working either.

It wouldn't affect me, as far as I can see, since I'm not using the conventional meds, and can easily get what I need from a pharmacy, but a lot of beekeepers do rely on buying the packet and following the book.

[Paulines7]

We rely on bees and wasps for cross pollination yet both are getting scarcer.  There have hardly been any wasps in my garden near Salisbury this year compared to previous years.   ;D  My niece lives near Bristol and she said there weren't many down there either.  I haven't seen any on the windfall apples in my mini orchard.  At this time of year I am usually very careful not to get stung when walking past them and picking up windfalls.  We didn't have any plums this year so maybe that kept them away.  I am frightened of wasps anyway as I have a bad reaction to their sting unless I am very quick and get Waspease on.  However, although I dislike them I know how important they are to our ecology and would be interested to know if there are other areas especially in the UK, where the wasp has been in decline this year. 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Not many round here this year, but there were plenty last. I don't think social wasps are in decline, it's just that we had some very cold weather this year just when the queens were establishing new nests, and were at their most vulnerable.

[wardy]

Pauline   My son has a very bad wasp reaction problem and he seems to get worse each time he's got stung.  Don't know if wasps just home in on him but he's been stung about six times at different times and each time his reaction is worse.  He's ended up being taken to hospital twice now and is dreading getting stung again.  The last time he got stung he was up on to of a tower crane and knew he just had to get down before he lost the use of his hand which was swelling up like a balloon.  He got stung on his hand a year before (palm) and ended up in Casualty.  His hand looked like a red boxing glove  :(
I can recall going to the Isle of Mull and he had just stepped off the ferry and got stung on the end of his finger.  Gawd

[aquilegia]

Wardy - that is terrible and frightening. Can't the doctor prescribe him with the medication? I used to know someone who was allergic to cashew nuts and she had a shot of adreniline that she carried around everywhere, just in case.

I was watching GW from a couple of weeks ago yesterday. They had a thing about a nectar bar - planting loads of plants bees like. In my garden they love things like Buddleiha, fennel, verbena bonariensis, foxgloves, penstemons, aquilegias (hooray!), blue bells, campanula, broad bean flowers, nasturtians. Loads of things can be planted up for them to dine on.

[wardy]

I wonder if he could eat his way to becoming kid of immune to the stings, eg by eating lots of honey or something.  is that possible or just daft?  I know I'll ask Premtal  :)

I love bee plants and have loads in my garden  :)

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

Robert, thank you for the expansion to my knowledge on the subject.   I had hoped that an Apiarist would come on with an answer.   I hadn't realised that the EU had again interfered the "rules".   If a thing ain't broke, there's no need to mend it - unless you are an EU Bureaucrat.   (Hugh are you reading this?)
But you haven't answered the crux of the question - put simply, if there ain't any bees, will wasps do instead?  Put another way, if we can't get butter, can we use margarine.

Pauline, your observations are very interesting.  Salisbury is climaticlly warmer that the North West, but I wouldn't have thought that such a small temperature difference would have had that effect, would you.   As Robert has said, modern agricultural changes are more likely to affect populations of either of the two subject insects, and others too.

Aquilegia, you have a good point about growing the sort of plants that these insects, including butterflies, need and despite planting these at home and on the plot, they don't seemed to have helped much.

Thanks everyone for your responses, but I'm still looking for that expert view as to whether wasps can functionally replace bees if the worst comes to the worst - and I sincerely hope it doesn't.

[redimp]

I understand that the most beneficial plant for the rarer bees is red clover - I have done quite a lot of research into bumbles due to the nature of my job and my love of them.  Consequently I have tried growing the stuff ut it is just not interested.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Red clover is a superb plant for bumblebees as their tongues are long enough to reach to the bottom of the nectar tubes.

[Gardengirl]

Here in Herts I have definitely noticed a decline in wasps this year, thank goodness as I do NOT like them at all >:(  Having said that, if they are beneficial in cross-polinating, then that is not good news.  The bees however have been quite plentiful in my garden this summer, especially on my dahlias, loads of bumbles as well as all the workers.

[Svea]

i have had plenty of bees (bumbling and otherwise) around my plot, as well as  on my balcony. they particularly liked the basil flowers, as well as the lavendar
i didnt particularly plan to grow anything encouraging - they all seemed happy as larry as it was

[Robert_Brenchley]

Wasps can't functionally replace bees as they have much shorter tongues and can't reach the nectar in a lot of plants. On top of that, they don't collect pollen, and they're not covered in electrostatically charged hairs. So they won't be attracted to any flowers except the ones which produce easily available nectar. Social wasps only go for flowers to any degree at the end of the season; earlier on they get all the syrup they need from the larvae.

[Paulines7]

Re. where have all the wasps gone?  I think Robert has probably hit the nail on the head and that their decline is owing to the very cold weather this year when the queens were establishing their nests.

Colin, you say that Salisbury is climatically warmer than the north west, but I think this is only during the summer months.  During the winter, when you have all that endless rain, we have many frosts.  I live on the edge of Salisbury Plain and it can get very cold here.

Both of you mentioned that modern agricultural changes could affect bee and wasp populations.  I am wondering if the sprays that my farmer neighbour puts on his field on a regular basis have affected the bee and wasp population in my garden.   :-\  The field ajoins my land where I have my fruit trees and the back garden.  The boundary is only about 12 metres from my house.  Whatever it is that is sprayed, it hasn't affected the house fly and crane fly populations!!   ???

[kentishchloe]

you can help protect local bee populations by providing them with habitats - wiggly wigglers are those in the know about this, check this out:

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/shop/foundproduct.lasso?product_id=79&-session=shopper:5003602A1689127F3BrLL2220095

or i believe you can make one by tying together a bundle of short (6-10") pieces of narrow bamboo.

buzz buzz buzz :D

[Robert_Brenchley]

The mason bee nesters work extremely well but the tubes do need replacing after a couple of years as they eventually rot.

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

Wasps can't functionally replace bees as they have much shorter tongues

That's the reply I was looking for, thank you Robert.   So I can safely get rid of the wasp nest in due course, but I must also consider ways to save the bees.   Several of you have given me ideas, and I must research the subject a bit further.
I'll start with your offered webset Kentishchloe.
Thank you all for your contributions, and to add that I too would be knocked out for several hours if stung by a wasp.

[redimp]

Don't be too hasty with the wasps - they kill caterpillars etc to feed to their larvae who then provide the sweet sticky stuff.  They are benficial (very) just in a different way.