Bees in & out of my garage wall - help!

[Mummyoftwo]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone can shed anylight on the bees that i have entering my garage wall via a hole in the cement. I was watching yesterday afternoon & within about a space of a minute 5 bees were going in & 6 came out. They are not large bees but seem slightly bigger than honey bees. I just wondered if this is common & they are harmless or if we need someone in. I know that bees won't still without being aggravated, unlike wasps but i have a toddler & a baby so don't want to take any chances.

We have some what i think to be solitary bees which seem to live in the soil in my garden, black with yellow bottoms, & this is what i thought to be entering the brickwork when i noticed it a couple of days ago. There was only one that i noticed then!

What should i do?!

Here's to hoping you can help :)

[Jon]

Just enjoy watching them. They will be some kind of harmless mason bee or suchlike.

[Moggett]

If they are bigger than honeybees they are most likely to be bumblebees...? If they are bumblebees they will die off at the end of the summer. If possible try and live and let live, they are generally gentle creatures unless someone goes out of their way to threaten their nest. You will have hundreds of bees visiting the garden everyday which I assume have never stung the children, and you have bees nesting in the soil already which have not caused any problems.

Are they going into a cavity wall? If not what is on the other side of the wall where they are going in and out - there should be a nest somewhere in the garage.

Try and take a picture of the bees going in and out and post a photo on this forum. You will then get a quick identification.

http://www.britishbee.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=840

http://www.britishbee.org.uk/files/swarms_leaflet-R3.pdf

[Chris]

If they are honeybees (plenty of pictures on this website) then there could be some small safety issue. But more likely they are a solitary species of bee, like mason bees.

These bees sometimes excavate small tunnels in loose mortar, and although they are solitary, the fact that you sometimes get a handful nesting in the same spot gives the impression that they are social and belong to some heaving colony ... when they don't. These are probably the same handful of bees you are seeing over and over again.

A good many species of solitary bees are stingless. Of those that have stings, I understand the sting isn't sufficiently pointy enough to piece human skin, and the venom is only weak anyway. More chance of winning the lottery than getting stung by one of these ... type of thing.

If they are not solitary bees, then they are more likely to be a species of bumblebee. But it is a bit early to see lots of bumblebees. Suggest you have a look at some pics on the web. Note that the bees nesting in the loose soil in your garden could easily be the same type of bee.

I'm sure a pest control operative somewhere will take £50 off you for getting rid of these - most probably complete and utterly harmless - bees. A candidate for 'Rouge Traders' if ever there was one ...

[Mummyoftwo]

Thanks guys, :)

I have attached a picture that i managed to snap earlier today. From my lack of knowledge is this a mason bee? :confused:

Thanks for the help :)

[RoofTops]

Looks like osmia rufa the Red Mason Bee. Have a peek at these pictures: http://www.bwars.com/Osmia_rufa.htm
The only snag is these are solitary bees so you wouldn't get more than one going into a single hole - except when the new bees emerge when they do indeed all come out at once. The ones at the bottom of the hole are the oldest so wake up first. The first one bites the bottom of the one above and so on until they are all awake then emerge, chewing their way out.