When the sun is shining there are lots of tiny little bees that look like
miniature honey bees buzzing around in our front garden (S facing) I've
never seen such small bees before. Three weeks ago when weeding there I got
stung 4 times on the knuckle, all swelled up over the next few days and it
still isn't right and still hurts, coincidence? What are these tiny little
bees? I would get a picture but they never stop wizzing about.

Bob Hobden
North Surrey.

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 13:31:14 +0100, "BobHobden"
wrote:

When the sun is shining there are lots of tiny little bees that look like
miniature honey bees buzzing around in our front garden (S facing) I've
never seen such small bees before. Three weeks ago when weeding there I got
stung 4 times on the knuckle, all swelled up over the next few days and it
still isn't right and still hurts, coincidence? What are these tiny little
bees? I would get a picture but they never stop wizzing about.

Bob Hobden
North Surrey.

Dufourea minuta perhaps.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software for Windows http://www.npsnn.com

"Chris Hogg" wrote

Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

"BobHobden"
wrote:

When the sun is shining there are lots of tiny little bees that look like
miniature honey bees buzzing around in our front garden (S facing) I've
never seen such small bees before. Three weeks ago when weeding there I
got
stung 4 times on the knuckle, all swelled up over the next few days and
it
still isn't right and still hurts, coincidence? What are these tiny
little
bees? I would get a picture but they never stop wizzing about.

.

Dufourea minuta perhaps.

But rare http://tinyurl.com/ha2sthc


Very interesting, Chobham Common is only a few miles away indeed I drive
across it quite often (like today) and Byfleet is also quite near and I
visit there regularly too as friends live there.
I'll try to get a picture if only they would settle for more than a second.
If there is a nest, from the flying around, it must be under a rose bush and
that is where I was weeding. Garden is cottage garden type (controlled
overgrown) so not able to see what did the damage but certainly there were
four bite/sting marks as the swelling went down. Can't imagine what they
are feeding on although I have seen them go into flowers of Geranium (real
ones ,not Pelargoniums) and Alstromeria but they are in and out in a flash.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Chris Hogg" wrote

Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

BobHobden" wrote:

When the sun is shining there are lots of tiny little bees that look like
miniature honey bees buzzing around in our front garden (S facing) I've
never seen such small bees before. Three weeks ago when weeding there I
got
stung 4 times on the knuckle, all swelled up over the next few days and
it
still isn't right and still hurts, coincidence? What are these tiny
little
bees? I would get a picture but they never stop wizzing about.



Dufourea minuta perhaps.

But rare http://tinyurl.com/ha2sthc


Some photos here.... tried video, absolutely useless.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobhob...57667882033444

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Chris Hogg" wrote

"BobHobden" wrote:

When the sun is shining there are lots of tiny little bees that look like
miniature honey bees buzzing around in our front garden (S facing) I've
never seen such small bees before. Three weeks ago when weeding there I
got
stung 4 times on the knuckle, all swelled up over the next few days and it
still isn't right and still hurts, coincidence? What are these tiny
little
bees? I would get a picture but they never stop wizzing about.


There are a large number of bee species in the UK. People are familiar
with honey bees and bumble bees, although there are several species of
the latter, but there are all sorts of solitary bees such as mining
bees, mason bees, leafcutter bees etc. Most of them are smaller than
honey or bumble bees. Whether they carry stings, whether they are
likely to sting people, and whether your stings were by bees or
another insect, I don't know, but I've always thought the solitary
bees to be pretty harmless. http://tinyurl.com/lztj7w8 and
http://tinyurl.com/zffwyao

There are all sorts of other insects that sting and bite. In our
garden we often get Flowerbugs, Anthocoris nemorum, which are
bloodsuckers. I know from painful experience that they can give a
nasty bite that will swell up and itch for several days, having caught
one or two in the act! http://tinyurl.com/hdb877k and
http://tinyurl.com/gsxq9jh.


On a Facebook group a couple of people have suggested they are Hoverflies.
Now I've never seen Hoverflies on mass, never seen them fly like a bee (not
hovering, no jerky flight) but what do you think. They simply look and act
like small bees.

As you suggest, the fact that I thought they were the culprits for the
stings may be a red herring, it may have been
something else as I didn't see what did it. Can't see it being bloodsuckers
as the sting was instantly painful such that I thought at first I had jammed
my knuckle against rose thorns but the marks were not consistent with that,
no tears no blood, and then the swelling and pain over the next few days
(still tender now) .

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On Fri, 8 Jul 2016 07:48:16 +0100, "BobHobden"
wrote:

On a Facebook group a couple of people have suggested they are Hoverflies.

Hoverflies are nothing like bees. They are a different shape to bees.
It's unusual to see more than one at a time.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software for Windows http://www.npsnn.com

"Stephen Wolstenholme" wrote

"BobHobden"wrote:

On a Facebook group a couple of people have suggested they are Hoverflies.

Hoverflies are nothing like bees. They are a different shape to bees.
It's unusual to see more than one at a time.


That is exactly what I thought. Eyes seem wrong for Hoverflies, they don't
fly like one and there is a number, perhaps twenty, at a time, flying around
in the sun.

There is a similar Geranium bed in a garden over the road and I've noticed
they seem to stick to our garden, not seen any over the road and I have
looked. So they don't travel far unlike Honey bees.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"BobHobden" wrote

"Stephen Wolstenholme" wrote

"BobHobden"wrote:

On a Facebook group a couple of people have suggested they are
Hoverflies.

Hoverflies are nothing like bees. They are a different shape to bees.
It's unusual to see more than one at a time.


That is exactly what I thought. Eyes seem wrong for Hoverflies, they don't
fly like one and there is a number, perhaps twenty, at a time, flying
around in the sun.

There is a similar Geranium bed in a garden over the road and I've noticed
they seem to stick to our garden, not seen any over the road and I have
looked. So they don't travel far unlike Honey bees.


After the photo I took today in the kitchen I have had the following reply
from the Bee expert from the Natural History Museum (on Twitter)....

"Yes definitely Andrena sp., several similar species can only be separated
with microscope "

Turns out that although they are solitary bees they will congregate if
conditions are right. So it look like we have a number of nests in our front
garden.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Chris Hogg wrote:
There are all sorts of other insects that sting and bite. In our
garden we often get Flowerbugs, Anthocoris nemorum, which are
bloodsuckers. I know from painful experience that they can give a
nasty bite that will swell up and itch for several days, having caught
one or two in the act! http://tinyurl.com/hdb877k and
http://tinyurl.com/gsxq9jh.

I'm almost sure my mate was bitten by one of these earlier this week - we
were putting concrete post and panel fencing on a site which had become
quite overgrown with tall grass, nettles and other lanky weeds.

He has an itchy red lump on his arm and it's so swolen it looks like there's
a chestnut under his skin...thankfully, biting insects never seem to bother
me, except horseflies

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 12:43:45 +0100, "Phil L"
wrote:


He has an itchy red lump on his arm and it's so swolen it looks like there's
a chestnut under his skin...thankfully, biting insects never seem to bother
me, except horseflies


I was bitten by something like a horsefly in Senegal when I was in my
teens. It's 50 years later now but a small lump still shows.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software for Windows http://www.npsnn.com

BobHobden wrote:


Some photos here.... tried video, absolutely useless.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobhob...57667882033444

Sweat bee perhaps?

Obviously there's umpteen variations and sub species, (as there are with
every flying insect!) but these look very similar

http://pix-hd.com/gallery/sweat+bees+uk/32

google image search for Lasioglossum sexnotatum uk