whats this one,Buzzy?

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whats this one,Buzzy?
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buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Tue May 29, 18 9:22 am Post subject:

dpack wrote:

they are ok if you leave em alone, sharing a territory or working in theirs can upset them a bit .

when i built a winter home ( in summer ) the " locals " were a bit tetchy at first, nearly 2 decades on i still have scars from the 5 stings to the leg .
we got on after their initial fury but whatever the literature says they have a poke nastier than bee or wasp .

learning to live with them includes learning when to run at least 25 meters ( away from their nest

)

once they get to know you they seem mostly ok unless surprised or confused .

However, a few years ago my neighbour put her foot in a shoe that contained a hornet. It stung her twice, but she said it wasn't as bad as a standard wasp sting.

Henry

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6614
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Tue May 29, 18 9:56 am Post subject:

buzzy wrote:

dpack wrote:

)

once they get to know you they seem mostly ok unless surprised or confused .

However, a few years ago my neighbour put her foot in a shoe that contained a hornet. It stung her twice, but she said it wasn't as bad as a standard wasp sting.

Henry

That settles it then, your hornets are not so nasty as ours!

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Tue May 29, 18 1:01 pm Post subject:

the ones that had me were far nastier than any wasp or bee i have encountered.

if i was to rate em honey bee gets a 1 , wasps get a 1 to 1.5 and derbyshire hornets get a 2 and a bit.

maybe it is me but the huge red lumps seemed a perfect setting for the dissolving flesh at the injection site. once the initial venom necrosis had made soup of finger tip size holes in about 12 hrs it took a bit of decent nursing care and a few months to heal the lesions and a couple of years for the scars to settle.

for comparison the spider that made me think the back of my hand was going to split only gets a 2 on the pain and damage scale.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8957
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Tue May 29, 18 2:42 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Slim wrote:

Any Asian Longhorn Beetle scares in the British Isles yet?

yes:

https://www.forestry.gov.uk/asianlonghornbeetle

That is a scarily long list of hosts

report to the Forestry dept if found?

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6614
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Tue May 29, 18 7:50 pm Post subject:
If found, report to as many as will listen! The state of Vermont sent a pancake breakfast to the city of Worcester Massachusetts in gratitude for their rigorous quarantine after it was found there. It was considered that they had saved the nation's largest producing state of maple syrup

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16000

Posted: Wed May 30, 18 6:27 am Post subject:

That was a nice idea Slim. The Forestry Commission is being as vigilant as cuts in staff will allow, and they certainly have some very good people working in the pests and diseases department. Sadly 'free trade' doesn't match with stopping things getting in, especially as border inspections aren't too good with again, cuts in staff. There have been some controls brought in; I don't think chestnut or ash can be imported now, although they can as firewood and other biomass, and that can be a problem if all the infective agents aren't carefully removed. Unlicenced wood shavings for packaging have been the infecive agent in several cases, which is why all reputable makers obey the strict controls in place on its processing.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8957
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 18 9:43 pm Post subject:
On a dry roadside just outside Forfar...luckily I hadn't driven over it

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 18 10:21 pm Post subject:
I'd say that was Northern Marsh Orchid (but I was never an expert on orchids). A lovely specimen, well photographed. Thanks for posting it. Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16000

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 18 6:48 am Post subject:
That's lovely Gz. I am not sure which orchid it is, but I suppose they will be coming up soon. We get pyramid orchids by the roadside here, and I suppose we will be looking out for common spotted orchids now too.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8957
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 18 4:56 pm Post subject:
I'm sure I saw some sort of Black veined white butterfly today (back in the hills again). Unfortunately no camera to hand, and being hot weather it was flitting about fast! I've only seen white butterflies so far...and only one orange tip.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16000

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 18 6:28 am Post subject:

It could have been a green veined white as the adults are supposed to be around at this time of year. There are a couple of other butterflies it could have been too, including a female orange tip, but that is more splodgy dark colour than veined.

Butterflies do move about fast in warm weather, which makes taking pictures rather tricky. I have a lasting memory of one of our rather mature volunteers trying to get a picture of a silver washed fritillary and trying to keep up with the various butterflies flitting around.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8957
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 18 9:27 pm Post subject:
Back up in the Galloway Hills, clearing grass and buttercups from around an azalea planted in a tyre,underneath a goat willow tree,found this lovely beastie

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 18 9:48 pm Post subject:
big moth? im fairly sure i have seen em before and they turned out to be big moth but that isnt much of an id watch out for the spines

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 18 8:11 am Post subject:

Did you sniff it? It ought to have smelt strongly of goat, since it is the larva of a Goat Moth (Cossus cossus). It had probably been feeding on the Goat (!) Willow, leaving large holes, with exit holes near the base. When ready to pupate (after several years as a larva) they leave the tree for somewhere to pupate, but I've yet to find a suggestion of what sort of place that might be!

Nice find.

Henry

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8957
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 18 9:13 am Post subject:
Thankyou!

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