The message
from K contains these words:
Mary Fisher writes

I've nver heard of using aPiriton to treat nettle stings. You need a dock
leaf :-)

At one time I was on daily antihistamine for a medical condition. Nettle
stings were much less of a problem during that time.

I don't think dock does anything - it's simply the rubbing that helps.
Gave up docks long ago.

Beg to differ.

And I still use them if the nettle is particularly virulent. I'm
informed that after nettles have been cut down or damaged, the new
growth is a lot more stingy. (not stingy...)

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
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"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...
Hornets, while bigger than wasps, are relatively gentle.

They prey on honeybees though.

Can do but mostly they're not a real problem. All social wsps can p[rey on
honeybees, occasionally they'll cause a colony to be unsustainable but
it's not common..

When I went to Germany to visit Nuele (you will remember us from another
group) hornets were hovering around the landing platforms of her beehives
all the time.
Having said that, I have yet to meet a hornet in Leicestershire.
They are all over the place in Germany. Take a walk in the wilds where she
lives, and I mean wilds, come upon a bridge which has a metal handrail which
has a hole in it - and in it is a hornet's nest.

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...


When I went to Germany to visit Nuele (you will remember us from another
group)

Indeed

hornets were hovering around the landing platforms of her beehives all
the time.
Having said that, I have yet to meet a hornet in Leicestershire.

The only hornet nest I've ver seen was in Leicestershire :-)

They are all over the place in Germany.

Prhaps, I didn't see any when we visitd a son who was stationed there - oh,
that might have been because we went for Christmas and New Year :-). It's
not here. Yet.

Never say never!

Mary

"Rusty Hinge 2" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:
"Rusty Hinge 2" wrote in message
k...


Do they pollinate?

Yes. Often, especially in the autumn.

Tell me more.

I've often seen wasps sticking their faces into late flowers - and, come
to think of it, earlier ones. The flowers of my Cotoneaster horizontalis
seem especially attractive to them.

That's because cotoneaster flowers are very shallow, the nectar is easily
available to wasps, who don't have the long tongues of bees. I've explained
that they need sugar when the larvae are few or absent. Just because any
insect visits a flower doesn't mean it's going to pollinate it.

Bees are 'flower faithful', once they find a source of nectar or pollen
they'll stick with that flower, thus they'll fly from one e.g. apple flower
to another until the supply ends. In that way the flowers are pollinated.
Wasps don't do that so any pollination is accidental.

Wasps and other insects - even bees sometimes - will also exploit the
'extra-floral' nectar which is produce on the reverse of some leaves. If you
turn over a laurel leaf, towards the base at each side of the central vein
and not exactly opposed, you'll see two very small openings. These exude a
type of nectar which is much sought after by sugar-hungry wasps. That's why
you might have noticed many wasps round a laurel bush or hedge.

Next time you see a wasp on a flower make a note of how close to the surface
are the nectaries. If you see a wasp going to a flower with a long corolla
I'll eat my veil.

Mary

In message
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk...
In message t
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


"Broadback" wrote in message
...

As a bit of an aside I seem to have a wasp nest in an abandoned
mole/mouse hole at the edge of my lawn. Is this normal, all other wasp
nests I have seen are outside and consist of a "paper" ball?

It's normal for some types of social wasps to make nests in abandoned
mouse
holes, excavating them to make the hole big enough. Bumble bees do the
same.

Ah! A lady who knows something that I want to know. My daughter gave
me a bumblebee nesting box for Christmas and I followed the
instructions which said that a mouse nest should be put in the nesting
box to attract bees, so I got my local pet shop to stable his mice
overnight in hay and put that hay into the box (Ah, the obligation
that some gifts put on you!), but no bees settled in it. What more can
I do? It'll have to be next season now of course.

I've never heard of bumble bees being attracted to a mouse nest per se. It's
the hole, the cavity, they're intererested in!

Sometimes artificial nesting boxes are occupied quickly, other times not. I
don't know the answer. It might be best to cover the top with some dry
vegetable matter or bits of old carpet (and make sure it's kept dry), to
mimic favourite nnatural nesting places. The bees will bring in their own
nesting material.

Mary

Then would bits of dried moss be attractive? There won't be any
problem about that! The box is quite well made, for example it has
drip rails round the edge of the lid, so that drips will fall clear of
the wall.

Michael Bell




--

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Mary Fisher
writes

"Gordon H" wrote

Yes, and before you grab that nettle hiding in a clump of Indian Balsam.
BTDT.

I've nver heard of using aPiriton to treat nettle stings. You need a dock
leaf :-)
Mary

I know, but I was referring to antihistamine cream rather than Piriton
tablets!

Ah. A medical dock leaf :-)

Maru
--
Gordon H

"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk...

....


Sometimes artificial nesting boxes are occupied quickly, other times not.
I
don't know the answer. It might be best to cover the top with some dry
vegetable matter or bits of old carpet (and make sure it's kept dry), to
mimic favourite nnatural nesting places. The bees will bring in their own
nesting material.

Mary

Then would bits of dried moss be attractive?

I'd think it would be very attractive, from the nests I've seen. But I'm not
a bumble bee :-)

There won't be any
problem about that!

I can't suggest any way of making it available to them. Putting it in the
box might help - but you do realise that it's too late for a nest this year?
If you put it in the box this year it might go mouldy.

The box is quite well made, for example it has
drip rails round the edge of the lid, so that drips will fall clear of
the wall.

That sounds good.

Leave it in a sheltered, insulted spot next spring - from say March onwards,
and hope.

And let me/us know!

All information adds to the body of knowledge. Nobody know everything :-(

Mary