My ramblings on bees, science, nature, pesticides, and the wonderful, vital world of insects. More coming soon. I'm a professor at the University if Sussex, specializing in the ecology and conservation of bumblebees.
Hello David. I was wondering if you can indeed look back at a a succesful nesting season for the hairy footed bees. How many of the cavities in clay were filled up and closed eventually?
Great video I've been visiting a local nest the last few weeks to film them, at a the same exact spot I've seen them 3 out of the last 5 years, contrary to pest controller and people that sell fake nests claims they don't nest in the same spot twice! I've been within 1m of the nest entrance and worst Ive had over the years is a few buzzing round my head after a friend panicked and ran away!
Fair points Dave. So you will be happy to see our street pavements looking like mini jungles. Lots of councils already leave large areas of parkland uncut - nice to see but it's obviously to do with cost saving primarily
2:22 The local councils may not using pesticides, but others in their own homes will be looking for an alternative, recently I heard of someone using bleach and salt even though roundup/glyphosate is available. A two pronged approachy might be needed, a lot of education and then a ban on pesticides. Are the people of Paris using bleach to kill their dandelions and everything else? Bleach kills everything and makes the soil unusable.
Haha - I'm desperate to grow apples, but I have to fight off our naughty (but lovely) crimson rosellas here in Australia. I'm gonna have to construct some kind of enclosure around my trees. I do share them with the birds but they'd take the lot if I let 'em. I have a fab Belle de Boskoop which was laden last year, and this year I'm hopping for orange pippins as well. Gorgeous video Dave - I'm very jelly!
Beautiful! That was also the name of the museum I spent my adolescence at, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sadly, the museum is now permanently closed after more than 30 years of serving the community. We used to have insect artwork painted everywhere that looked very similar to the illustrations in your book. We had one main floor of mostly mounted insects, another main floor of mostly living ones, and eventually we even had a beautiful butterfly pavilion on the ground floor. We would have loved to have your book in our bookshop.
My grandmother had a large garden with three large Bramley trees, they were never cossetted and produced so much fruit we had to give it away by the bag full, the most productive apple trees i have ever seen.
Thankyou Dave for an enjoyable & informative video…I was born in Kent, but left when age 16 to live in Suffolk. Now I'm in Wales for the past 30 years & I've hankered after my own orchard since I was young ~ You've inspired me 🙏 🙆🏻♀️ ⭐️ A Star You Are 😊 PS: I also need to start collecting your books 📚
It really is a bumper year for apples this year! Already had our first of many apple and something crumbles, going to try making some apple and sloe jelly this week as sloes also looking good 😊
Apples on dwarfing stock can be grown easily in containers. You can even get trees with up to 3 varieties grafted onto one tree. So even people who are watching this with small gardens can grow apples. Blossom for pollinators, habitat for wildlife and fruit for us! Definately if you have room for 1 tree pick an apple tree!
I grafted a Rajka scion to M26 rootstock at the start of the year as I heard good things about it. Would be interested in your experience with it, does it fruit well? Good eating? I love exploring different varieties, I'm trying to make an orchard that crops from August through to November
My family has a small apple tree in the backyard I think we’ve had it for at least 5+ years. All that grows on them when it fruits are many small, marble sized apples. How long until a tree grows full sized fruit?
The whole carcinogen thing with Roundup has been disproved! People on social media often spread a lot of disinformation! Glyphosate is a good tool when used responsibly, do I want it sprayed on wheat just before harvest to promote fast even drying? No I don’t! Is it reasonable to use it to spray weeds on my garden pathway or driveway, or on dangerous weeds such as poison ivy, or even on an empty vegetable bed that has a weed problem? I believe it is! Glyphosate is broken down by soil organisms and has a half life of three months in your soil, you can sow seeds on a treated area after a couple of days. It’s extremely safe stuff! Don’t use it if you don’t want to but leave people who use it safely alone!!
I had a ruby tailed wasp in the garden the other week, l wonder if it was attracted by the leafcutter bees using my bee hotel? I have never seen one before (despite being 52). Really beautuful insect and so unlike anything l have seen in the UK before
Brighton Council has resumed use of weedkiller , the pavements outside my home have recently been sprayed and the kerb sides , so now we are left with dead and dying plants . As a beekeeper with hives locally this is extremely worrying, I have signed many petitions for roundup and neo-nics to be banned. Sadly there always seems be be loopholes in legislation that use is resumed.
Thank you for taking your life in your hands! Your mention of papier-mache manufacture reminded me of sitting in a wooden armed chair in our suburban garden and observing the marvel of a wasp rasping away and building a neat ball of wood fibres under its chin and carrying it way, returning quickly to repeat the process. Unforgettable!
I agree completely. If only New Zealand would get onboard. All councils in New Zealand spray streets and parks liberally and unnecessarily and it makes me so angry. It is NOT the clean, green country that its tourism marketing campaign makes it out to be.
Can you talk about how agressive hornets are in more detail. I am not alone in this. But i see them as evil insects that will attack you as soon as they see you. And i mean. What do you do if they fly towards you like one did to me earlier. Do you whip them away? Will they attack back? Will they flee?
I think generally the european hornets are not considered to be overly aggressive, of course they will sting if they feel threatened, so it's not a good idea to start moving and waving your arms in their presence, they are just getting on with things and don't want to be disturbed.
My box hedges were being massacred by Box Moth and I considered using an insecticide but realised that it would be better to let the box die and replace it with a naturally resistant shrub rather than killing all the insects that it came into contact with
I`ve signed this already!! It took me a couple of years, lots of emails and several signs to stop the council spraying outside my house. I was told they would have complaints from parents about my thistles scratching children, walking past on their way to school. I said it was interesting that parents would complain about their children getting scratched but not poisoned. Because people don`t realise. I live in Wales, so this is probably devolved.
Yes! I’m sure that my dogs have been poisoned by spraying around street trees in London. And why do people prefer brown dead plants to green living ones? 🤯
