taxi4ballet Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 (edited) The next time I'm at work and get a text from dd saying "Help! There's a MASSIVE bee in the house and I'm hiding in my room!!!!!!" I'll be more inclined to believe her... The bee in question was still there when I got home over an hour later (and dd was still hiding in her room). She was right. It was the most enormous bee I've ever come cross. We've got quite a bee-friendly garden but I've never seen anything like it. However, I managed to trap it and let it go outside eventually. If anyone knows a beekeeper or an insect expert, I'd love to know what type it was. Black, and about 4 cm long, about double the size of a normal bumble bee. I got quite a good look at it, and searched in my British insects book to try and identify it. It wasn't in the book so maybe it was a continental visitor. Edited for typo Edited June 11, 2014 by taxi4ballet 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Let us know if you find out more Taxi. I love seeing bees buzzing around. I was very sad the other day when I found a deceased bee on the floor in the kitchen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mallinson Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Sounds as if it might be the first of the killer bee invasion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 There's been a bit of coverage in recent days on the spread of the 'Tree Bumble Bee' in the UK - maybe one of those? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27701591 http://www.opalexplorenature.org/TreeBumblebee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 (edited) It could well be a queen of one of the larger native bumblebees. If so well done for letting it go! Edited for typo Edited June 11, 2014 by AnneMarriott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Our garden is very bee friendly too and this year Ive never seen so many bees mainly of the bumble type but we've been trying to get mason bees going for a while (early for fruit pollination) ......luckily they are tiny......and this year we've had loads. I'm not usually bothered by bees but I must admit I might be a bit wary of the bee in the picture though!! Well done taxi for getting it out of the house!! I think these killer bees are technically hornets but don't ask me the difference am not sure. The size of the one you saw Taxi suggests it could have been a queen looking for somewhere cosy to set up a nest!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 11, 2014 Author Share Posted June 11, 2014 Ian, not that one I think, it was a lot bigger and had a longer body. John, you could be right as it was hornet-shaped and fairly aggressive, although that could have been due to it being trapped in my net curtains for an hour!. I wish I'd taken a photo of it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I saw an unusually large bee just yesterday in my front garden. Even though I was looking at it from a distance away,with me being on the sofa,it still looked a lot larger than normal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovetoDance2003 Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I found a massive bee on our windowsill in the kitchen today. It was huge and like you it was probably the biggest I've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaffa Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 And me too, yesterday (visiting near Manchester). Bigger than I've ever seen before.. Wish I could give more details, but I just ran! Yaffa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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