Hard News: Mediocrity Watch
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We don't see many honey bees round our place, with a lot of (regenerated) native bush about. There's a few bumble bees but the prevalence is wasps. We have to have wasps' nests 'bombed' 2 - 3 times a year.
Does anyone know if wasps prey on bees? Can I blame vespa germanica for the lack of bees round our house?
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Oh, and I can state, from our recent South Island road trip, that bumble bees are mightily attracted to lavender.
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Don't know if this has already been posted but I heard Paula Bennett on NatRad's One in Five last night, speaking as the new Minister for Disability Issues.
Thoughts? I wasn't particularly impressed myself - Bennett was certainly on-message but specifics seemed to be a long way off (except maybe an awareness campaign of some sort).
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Oops, perhaps posted to wrong thread...
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Sam - I think that interview is really relevant to this thread. Yes I heard that interview and had to keep reminding myself that this was a minister in her first significant interview as Minister of Disability Issues speaking to a sector that has been working very hard on several fronts over recent years. Most importantly she is charged with implementing the 22 recommendations (which had cross party support) of the disability report of the social services select committee - an inquiry that had been going for over two years. Such as a stand alone Disability Commission.
I think her interest in 'awareness type stuff' and patronising comments about not noticing wheelchairs, and commitment only to a ministerial committee, shows she has not quite got it. Frankly, I found it a heavy on waffle and psychobable, and light on detail. But we can only hope (desperately) that she learns fast.
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Does anyone know if wasps prey on bees? Can I blame vespa germanica for the lack of bees round our house?
They can steal honey, but I think head to head the bee has an advantage with their barbed sting. It tears through the soft body of a wasp, ripping them apart, where the wasp's sting can pierce the bee many times without slowing them down.
Thanks for that. I was surprised recently - though I guess I shouldn't have been - to discover that Austria and Hungary manage their largely 'native' and 'wild' deer populations with massive winter feeding programs in national parks.
Yup, and I was pretty surprised by what my in-laws considered to be a 'bush walk' - walking down concrete paths in a large but well-tended park.
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It tears through the soft body of a wasp, ripping them apart
Without wanting to turn this into Pirates vs Ninjas, surely the wasp would have a better chance of landing a fatal hit? And a bee having sunk its sting into a wasp could be stuck with a possibly still living and if so very angry passenger.
I realise you were talking about one-on-one but a swarm of wasps going at a lone bee could finish it off quite fast, which would be more common if they were actually attacking it for food, perhaps?
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And a bee having sunk its sting into a wasp could be stuck with a possibly still living and if so very angry passenger.
Least of the bee's problems at that point, I would have thought: there's a reason a bee only stings once.
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Not sure, bees only sting big animals like humans once. But the way I heard it, against wasps they have no difficulties tearing them to shreds, stinging repeatedly and tearing back with a saw-like motion. Given that they can penetrate the thick skin of a large animal, a soft little insect has no defense. If I were one to anthropomorphize nature, I'd say that the bee's sting is very much designed with wasps in mind as a highly likely honey and larvae thief.
Not that the bee will survive long term.
I don't know that wasps hunt in packs, other than to defend their hive, which a bee would have no interest in approaching at all. Thank goodness, considering that they eat meat.
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If I were one to anthropomorphize nature, I'd say that the bee's sting is very much designed with wasps in mind as a highly likely honey and larvae thief.
That sounds about right. I had a backyard beehive in Grey Lynn for around ten years, and while I often saw 'German' wasps loitering around the entrance, I never witnessed any actual combat between them and the bees. I once found a wasp inside the hive entombed in propolis. Presumably the bees had dealt to it before mummifying it in that interesting substance.
BTW while extracting the stuff from the combs can get a bit messy on a small scale, inner western suburban Auckland honey can be pretty good. The combs vary wildly in colour and taste, depending on what happened to be in flower at the time. Probably less pesticide risk than rural honey, too.
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Is it true that the more you are stung the less likely you are to get arthritis?
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I once found a wasp inside the hive entombed in propolis
How curious. I wonder if they did that to prevent it rotting?
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Hilary, I got stung by wasps uncountable times when picking tobacco for 2 seasons at Motueka (they lurrrve the scent? taste? of tobacco-leaf juice.) Maybe the effect doesnt last (if there is an anti-arthitic effect) but I've sure as got osteo-arthritis in many places...maybe it applies to rheumatoid arth? Maybe it's a placebo-type response? Anyone?
And, BenWilson- it has been noted for millenia (it seems humans devised skeps for at least 4 mill.) that bees 'embalm' intruders (a mouse has been found!) Myself, I like the ?Japanese bees that surround an intruding wasp and by sheer numbers and body heat *cook* the thing to death...)
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Is it true that the more you are stung the less likely you are to get arthritis?
It would certainly distract from the pain. :)
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I once found a wasp inside the hive entombed in propolis
How curious. I wonder if they did that to prevent it rotting?The wasp had probably been in there less than a year, but inside the casing of propolis it was in pretty good nick. As I was a rather lax beekeeper and rarely ever ventured into the base storey of the hive below the queen excluder there may well have been more mummified intruders down there. It would have been an intrepid wasp to have made it to the upper supers of the hive.
I bet real beekeepers would have some good stories of things found in hives.
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I often wonder how much of European flora and fauna are really that native either. As in, the prevalence of certain forms of life in Europe may have a lot more to do with the number of humans than the particular geographical location.
You mean the way that in England rabbits (which were imported for their fur and meat) are still slowly displacing the native hares?
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I think the arthritis thing is supposed to be bee stings, not wasp bites.
BTW while extracting the stuff from the combs can get a bit messy on a small scale, inner western suburban Auckland honey can be pretty good.
My uncle (still I think) has some hives on his balcony in Grey Lynn I think. Great honey, I get a big jar of it most years.
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You mean the way that in England rabbits (which were imported for their fur and meat) are still slowly displacing the native hares?
I look upon this as the slow, pre-emptive, and really long-term revenge of the Spanish ("five centuries from now you may win in the battle of colonial empires, but our furry minions will have their revenge upon you! MUAHAHAHA!")
...it's Friday, okay?
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Step away from the keyboard, young lady, slowly and with your hands in the air...
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.. like you just don't care.
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I've been told german wasps can be a problem for a weakened bee hive - like a hive with a bad varroa infestation.
I've never seen bees and wasps fighting in the garden, but have seen lots of wasps, native wasps or bees, bumblebees and honey bees all working the same plants at the same time.
BTW, if any one who knows what tutu looks like knows where any bushes/trees are in Western bays and Mt Albert can you post a reply. We're supposed to keep an eye on it to avoid any chance of tutin poisoning.
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so I take it you all haven't been following the beekeeping RadioNZ bee show? Might have a few answers...esp as tutin is mentioned this week.
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Latest on BobbyJindal: he borrowed a key story in his speech, claiming to have been at the shoulder of a New Orleans sheriff during the Katrina crisis, talking tough to a federal bureaucrat to get things done.
Despite his vivid personal recall he, er, wasn't there.
What on earth are the Republicans doing?
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Playing to type - tough chickenhawks.
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Our David Haywood in 'Playing Favourites' with Kim Hill this morning was just the bees-knees.
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