German (European) WASPS In the Garden

You would think that with all the flowers I have in my garden that I would pay attention to where all of the pollinators come from. Pollinators in the form of bees that so happily buzz around the flowers in the garden. The bees are as much a part of the fabric of my garden as the birds and the butterflies and flowers themselves but I never really thought of where they came from. I always just assumed they came from 'somewhere else'. Well, no longer will I assume this as I now know I have my very own beehive right here in the garden. Actually under a garden. See the nest in the above picture? In case you can't see it well, here is a closer look below. Just look at all the types of bees in this nest. Most people know there are different classes of bees in a nest; I seem to remember that from somewhere along the way. You generally have the foragers who bring back the nectar to the nest, the queen, the queen's attendants, the drones, and the nursery workers. I am not sure of all the classes but take my word for it there are different types of bees in each nest even though all the bees are of the same species. I had never seen bees in a nest so close up and personal before.

From In the Garden

Much to the chagrin of the both the bees and myself I can now say I've seen a bee's nest up close and personal in the wild. I came upon this fairly large nest quite by accident. The bees did not like my close up inspection of their nest but first let me explain how I came upon it. Mr. Fix-it and I are having some problem trees taken out (more on them later) and needed to move some of his many cars around in order to accommodate the tree trimmer. Since we were busy clearing out some areas of the garden I took advantage of the situation in order to remove my gooseberries and the garden they were residing in. That was an inopportune time (is there any other time to run into bees?) for the bees and the beginning of the problem with the bees, me and BJ.

From In the Garden

I had to dig a very large pile of good soil out of the garden and redistribute it to another area of the garden in a new woodland garden area. In order to move the pile of soil I had to remove some railroad ties. I kept noticing a bunch of bees hovering around an area of soil in the area one of the railroad ties had resided. I had no idea what I would find when I dug my shovel into the soil to redistribute it but was not liking the look of the bees. All I can say is I was happy these are pollinating bees and not the kind of bees that are aggressive or I would've been posting a different kind of post today.

From In the Garden

Don't get me wrong, all bees will attack if their nest is threatened. These bees did come after me but not in such a way that I could not quickly get away so they could calm down. BJ was not so lucky. Dogs are not smart at all. BJ thinks he has to be right under my feet all the time and could not understand what all the bugs were that were buzzzzzing around him. Why is it dogs try to eat bees and other flying insects? Like that will fix the problem for some reason. BJ quickly found out the hard way that he should not try to eat bees! Poor thing was stung. I decided that for his safety he should be locked up inside the house while I continued to work.

From In the Garden

The bee's nest was really not an issue for me as bees are good. Very good, and I welcome them in the garden. But in order for Mr. Fix-it to be able to park his car in the new area the soil had to be removed. This unfortunately meant the bees were in the way and they suffered some damage to their nest. But don't worry, they were not dissuaded from their tasks in the colony and kept right on working to put the nest back together. I finally was able to remove most of the dirt and to rake the rest of it into a manageable grade without disturbing the bees too much more and I suffered no stings. The bees are still safely underground in the far back area-where I'd like to forget they are located....

in the garden....

I normally don't do the large photos but wanted you all to see these bees up close. They were simply awesome to see in the garden. While the pictures do not show their movement they were quite busy putting their nest back together while I snapped some pictures. The white things in the honeycomb are immature bees. This seemed to be their main concern. I was awed by the many different types of bees in this one nest. I have no idea what their stations are but did know the flying types were the ones that would sting! I tried to steer clear of them.

P.S. I know I am not allergic to bee stings since I have been stung many times in the past. If you are allergic or not sure if you are allergic to bee stings you should steer clear of all bee nests. Do not attempt to photograph them or dig around them.

Thanks to everyone's comments I have tentatively identified these 'bees' as German Wasps Polistes germanica. I sure am glad I did not know they were wasps while I was gardening near them. You live and learn as is the case with me today. Nonetheless I will leave the wasps be. Some sources say they are beneficial and some say they are pests. They gather caterpillars and small insects to feed to their larva. They also secrete a chemical that keeps ants away from their nests. Those two things might be a good thing here but honestly I don't want them around. I have also read they nest inside of homes and we've had issues with this very thing in the past.

What made me think they were bees was the fact the flyers are very small and look like the bees I see flying by the flowers, but they cannot be the same. The German wasps can be identified by the three yellow dots on their face and black antennae. There are apparently many queens in the nest which can explain the different looking wasps found here, but only one queen lays the eggs. Thanks for all of your help in identifying these wasps. Hopefully the pictures can help others to learn about these wasps so they don't confuse them with bees:)
As an aside, if you have not yet seen the movie
'Gran Torino' it is a must see movie that Mr. Fix-it and I have watched twice already. It is not a family movie perse and it does have grown up content in it, but it is the best movie we've seen in a very long time so I thought I'd mention it.