Author Gary Taylor ◦
I often see posts of wasps (or signs of them) inhabiting bee hotels and people asking if they’re a problem… Basic answer, no… If you see a wasp making a nest in your bee hotel it’s more than likely it is one of the “good” ones that feeds her young on the caterpillars and grubs that are responsible for all the holes in the “organic” vegies you’ve spent so much time and money on trying to grow… 😆 (not taking the Mickey… I’m all for it, been there done that, spent 10 times more on pyrethrum and “natural” remedies than what the vegies I got would have cost at the supermarket… 😅 but a year or so later, when you’re cooking a roast with the tiny little potatoes and carrots you’ve grown yourself… the thought of the overall time taken and relative expense is barely even a nagging distraction…😂).
So don’t bee disappointed, it’s the sign of a heathy ecosystem 😃 and no they will not displace your native bees… In fact quite the opposite, some native bees prefer a pre-existing nest, and I don’t think it’s entirely due to laziness… an existing vacant and structurally sound nest indicates stability, no recent fires or floods… more of a wise choice perhaps?
Anyway, 1st pic, the mud wasp had finished her first nest (top of pic above the cranky bee) and was currently working on tidying up and preparing three others… the one bottom right of the pic, the one she’s on and the one the cranky bee has apparently suddenly moved into while she was off making more mud for her nests…
She couldn’t believe it! The audacity! Furious, she’d stormed straight up to the vagrant ready to give it a piece of her mind… then saw the huge set of jaws on the face that looked like it might take a piece of her mind whether she offered it or not, and politely said “Pardon me old chap, but I do believe you may have inadvertently got the wrong room…”😄
Righto, gotta point out here those big jaws and that protrusion on it’s clypeus (the black bulge below the antennae that looks a bit like the nose of a dog that’s been chasing parked cars) suggests it’s Megachile canifrons… Now if the “asoc” bees are the outlaws in an old western movie, and Ruby is The girl with the dragon tattoo, then canifrons has to be Aunty Jack (for those too young to remember, do a google search 😄).
2nd pic she leant forward and in a deep gruff voice replied “Oi, I’m not a chap…”
followed by (3rd pic) “… now get outta here before I rip yer bloody arms off…” 😆
Photographs © Gary Taylor