Biggest Bee ever? I nearly fell over!

[DannyM]

I reside in the loft (it's all converted etc...) and in the summer I get nothing but a horde of bees, wasps etc.. coming into my room.

However today, I had a xxl visitor, it was about the size of a ping pong ball, I jumped off my chair pushing it over in the process, quickly turned my velux window inside out in the hope it would fly out, which it did, but now I am properly on edge!

I don't usually have much trouble with bees apart from that annoying sound, but this thing has got me proper nervy now!

Any clues to what it is? Hows it so BIG?

IT WAS HUGE!

[nvening]

sounds like it might be a hornet

[Biscuit]

i thought hornets where smaller?

[planet436]

It's probably just a enormous bee. I've nearly died in fright at some of the bees you find up in Cumbria. Found a quick reference, you might have been lucky and seen a queen bee which is over 2cm long.

http://www.bumblebee.org/key.htm

[DannyM]

Cheers, for that! It looked like a Bombus lapidarius.

This isn't funny now though, I'm properly flinching at any buzzing sound, I want to close the windows, but it's too warm!

[Phage]

http://smilejunkie.com/wp-content/up...nt-hornet1.jpg

[sammyc]

Rig yourself up something like a temporary window net - you can buy them but with velcro and fiddly bits http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WINDOW-INSECT-...item4840a61416 where a bit of net & masking tape would be as easy.

[kalniel]

Bumblebees are cute and very well mannered. No problem sharing a room with one.

[planet436]

http://smilejunkie.com/wp-content/up...nt-hornet1.jpg

Yeah no way of confusing that with a bumblebee. I swear hornets are un-killable. Once when working outside chopping logs it settled infront of me, so I threw a log at it which apparently didn't crush it but did make it noticeably angrier.

[Phage]

I like bumble bees. They're the teddies of the flying bugs. Hornets are the F16, only armoured.

[DannyM]

I hate them, but refuse to kill them there essential to our survival!

The net's an interesting idea, thanks for sharing that. What's strange is that they will come in through the velux type window, but not the normal windows at the back of the room!

[peterb]

Yeah no way of confusing that with a bumblebee. I swear hornets are un-killable. Once when working outside chopping logs it settled infront of me, so I threw a log at it which apparently didn't crush it but did make it noticeably angrier.

and how would you feel if someone threw a log at you?

DannyM, if it is a Velux window...

http://www.newblinds.co.uk/content/velux_insect_screens

Not cheap (might be worth shopping around - that was the first on a google search) or might be cheaper to buy in France of you are over there!

[santa claus]

Talking of bees, hornets and wasps, I think there's a wasp nest in a wall cavity at the back of my place. I can hear them doing whatever it is they do in there. How can I get rid of them? Prefer to get them to leave rather than kill them if possible.

[sleepyhead]

http://smilejunkie.com/wp-content/up...nt-hornet1.jpg

Suzumebachi. Big, nasty hornets....and can be found in Japan. Eep! At least England has none such beasties to contend with.

[Splash]

I was on my walk into work yesterday and walked past the biggest bee I'd ever seen. Definitely a bee, but chuffing massive. Maybe the weather is to account for the increase in size?

[Phage]

Talking of bees, hornets and wasps, I think there's a wasp nest in a wall cavity at the back of my place. I can hear them doing whatever it is they do in there. How can I get rid of them? Prefer to get them to leave rather than kill them if possible.

I'm not sure that a colony of wasps would ever voluntarily leave once established. Perhaps with the right pheromones...

Suzumebachi. Big, nasty hornets....and can be found in Japan. Eep! At least England has none such beasties to contend with.

Apparently the Asian hornet has set up in France, and the common Europaen hornet is not small either.
http://foxhavenjournal.com/wp-conten...aa-battery.jpg