18. Bumbling visitor in the kitchen.

I'm going to have to use a stock pic' for this one, and you're just going to have to trust me that it was in my kitchen. Why didn't I get a picture of it? Because it looked really cross!

Here's my visitor; 

Bombus lapidarius the red tailed bumblebee.

I'm going to have to be honest about this because having such a beautiful animal trapped in my house and not getting a great picture is inexcusable, the main reason I didn't grab my phone and start taking snaps was, I was terrified of it. I'm ok with spiders, wasps, hornets, bats and snakes and the usual suspects that folk freak out about. I'm not good with bumblebees, and I have know idea why?

This one, in my kitchen was at least the size of a cricket ball, had huge teeth and was carrying a smith and weston .44 magnum revolver, and I could hear it mumbling "Do you feel lucky, well do ya... punk?"

Not true of course but it felt that way to me, it was in fact about 2 cm long and must have been smashing its head repeatedly into the kitchen window for some time when I walked in. But it was very loud, and seemed to be a deeper note of buzz to most bumblebees.

It was also not behaving how they usually do, bumbling from flower to flower. This was going round and round at speed, in one meter circles, and each time it ended up smashing into the glass, scrabbling up the glass for a nano second and then repeating the failed circuit at even greater speed and angry determination. 

I did.... eventually.... pluck up courage, dive in, open the window and let it out. 

It was impressive (the bee, not me opening the window) I think the Bombus terestris is the only one of the 19 different British species that is bigger than this one. 

The one in my kitchen was probably a new queen (going by the size) looking for a nest site, she would have hatched last year, overwintered and was now on a mission to find a new home. She flew in by mistake, or was deliberately looking for a dark place to make a nest, under a rockery, in an old mouse hole, this search for a dark secluded and sheltered hole, often brings them in from the bright sunshine outside to your home, where they can be found searching round the backs of furniture, appliances or in dark corners in the garage.

If successful in her hunt for a home, she will start a colony of perhaps 100 - 300 bees (Zahradnik 2000). 

But this isn't guaranteed, there is a another bumble bee Bombus rupestris often called a 'cuckoo bumble bee' that parasitizes the nests of red tailed bumble bees. They sneak in a nest,  kill the queen, or sometimes hide out in a nest until they smell like a red tailed, then they lay eggs in the cells of the red tailed, the 'cuckoo' larvae hatch out and eat the red tailed larvae. Then, when mature they fly off to find another nest to raid, they contribute nothing to the nest at all, and more often that not, destroy the red tail host nest completely.

Zahradnik, J. (2000) A field guide in colour to bees and wasps. Prague. Polygrafia.