What animals eat wasps. Bee-eating birds and everything about them

• 1. Insects
• 1.1. Moth
• 1.2. Butterfly
• 1.3. Ants
• 1.4. Wasps and hornets
• 1.5. Less dangerous pests
• 2. Birds
• 3. Mice and shrews
• 4. Prevention and control measures

Insects

Let's take a closer look at each enemy from the class of insects in order to have a complete picture of their life and methods of dealing with them.

Moth

When she makes her way into the nest, the first thing she does is to lay eggs. This process takes just over a week. To prevent the bees from destroying its offspring, the moth masks inconspicuous, fleshly pale eggs, 0.5 millimeters long, at the bottom of the hive, hiding them in the cells of the larvae and in the garbage.

The moth faces hatch after 10 days and immediately begin to eat honeycombs and wax culls. These pests of bees can destroy all combs in a matter of days, leaving behind only a dirty cobweb, dotted with their own feces. However, this is not all the harm. After the larva finishes the development cycle (20-23 days), it pupates and after 10-20 days turns into a butterfly, which, if the temperature does not drop below 10 degrees, will lay new eggs in the hive.

Moth control measures:

• remove severely affected honeycombs and melt them into wax;
• clean and disinfect weakly affected cells;
• clean the grooves and the bottom of the hive;
• repair the house, tightly sealing all the cracks with putty;
• strengthen the bee family with special feeding (strong insects deal with pests on their own, gnawing them out of the honeycomb and throwing them out of the hive).

To prevent moths from settling in the combs, they should be properly stored. It is best to douse it with formalin vapor or fumigate it with sulfur and place it in a dry tin-lined box (to prevent mice from sneaking in).

Butterfly

No less dangerous enemies of bees are butterflies Acherontia atropos ("dead head"). The most characteristic external signs are a pattern on the spread of the wings, vaguely similar to a skull with bones. This butterfly is a night predator. In one night flight, one individual can eat up to 10 grams of honey. She usually arranges egg-laying on nightshade crops: potatoes, nightshade, henbane, belladonna. The hatched yellow-blue caterpillar reaches a length of 7-8 cm. The fight against a butterfly consists in installing a lattice on the entrance, into the compartments of which only a bee can crawl.

Ants

Do not mind eating honey and ants, these pests of bees usually attack in whole groups. For one good outing, a group can carry up to a kilogram of honey. Most often, anthills are not far away, although sometimes insects settle right in the walls of the hive, packing the larvae in insulation.

In addition to eating honey, some species, such as the red ant, can attack the bees themselves.

Before destroying the anthill, the beekeeper must remember that these insects bring not only harm, but also benefit. When bees die from infectious diseases, ants work as orderlies - they eat their corpses, preventing the spread of infection.

It is worth eliminating anthills only when they are closer than a hundred meters from the apiary. To do this, they are cut off and poured with boiling water with kerosene or decoctions of poisonous herbs (spurnik, aconite). You can prevent the entry of ants by dipping the legs of the hives into jars filled with kerosene, or by lubricating them with grease or autol oils.

If an anthill was found in the hive itself, then the bees will have to be temporarily relocated, and their home cleaned and repaired.

Wasps and hornets

The worst enemies of bees such as wasps and hornets bring great harm. Not only do they unceremoniously invade the nest and plunder the honey stocks, they also simultaneously destroy the brood and kill the bees themselves. If the family is strong, it can independently cope with the enemy, sticking to it with a whole crowd and killing it with numerous poisonous stinging bites. The fight on the part of the beekeeper consists in ruining the nests of the pest and trapping individual individuals in traps (bottles with syrup).

Less dangerous pests

Despite the fact that the following enemies of the bees are not so dangerous, you also need to know about them in order to effectively fight.

1. Ham kozheedy: live in the hive in the summer, eating brood and bee bread. Control measures - treatment of the house, previously freed from the bees with sulfur dioxide.
2. Earwigs: live in a hive insulation, eating dead insects and bee bread. Control measures - change of insulation, lubrication of legs with autol.
3. Spiders: live near the entrance, attacking incoming insects. A spider is exactly the one who eats bees; it can kill up to 7 individuals per day. The fight against them consists in the destruction of both the pests themselves and their cocoons with cobwebs.

Birds

Some of the bird species cause great harm to the apiary, ruining individual hives and eating their inhabitants. Nevertheless, every beekeeper must remember that no matter how great the damage from birds is, they should not be destroyed, because these insectivorous creatures are helpers in the fight against pests of the forest and vegetable garden.

Such species as: tit, wagtail, woodpecker, starling, swallow, thrush, etc. although they are a potential threat to the apiary, bees are eaten only occasionally, when there is no other food. But there are those who eat bees as the main part of their diet, and they will have to be fought with. Among them, it is worth highlighting:

1. Golden bee-eater.
2. Bee-eater.

Honey insects are the main food source of these birds (they can kill up to 800 individuals per day). If they are seen near the apiary, it is worth scaring them off with a blank shot from a weapon, or, in extreme cases, ruin their nests.

Mice and shrews

The main period of penetration of mice into bee nests is autumn. Throughout the following winter, rodents feast on honey and combs, as well as sleepy bees (the mouse prudently eats the entire body, not touching only the sting and the reservoir with poison). In addition, insects, seeing a stranger in the dwelling, begin to worry. Any of their excitement is a disruption of wintering, which will subsequently adversely affect their development and productivity.

Mice and shrews are destroyed with the help of special poisoned baits and traps.

Prevention and control measures

The main task of the beekeeper is to notice the pest in time. An experienced beekeeper always monitors the well-being, appearance and behavior of his charges, and takes action at the slightest deviation from the norm. Among the main measures of control and prevention, it is worth highlighting:

• regular cleaning and disinfection of the hive;
• careful examinations of the territory adjacent to the apiary for the presence of holes, nests, anthills, etc.;
• timely repair of the hive (there should be no cracks in it);
• correct storage of inventory and honeycomb;
• ensuring dryness and ventilation in the nest;
• the location of the apiary is not close to water;
• grease the legs of the houses in kerosene or sulfur.

The multicolored plumage gave the name to the bird that eats bees. The name of the bird is rainbow bee-eater. Several bee-eaters can destroy an entire apiary, bees are eaten from the summer. Bee-eaters inflict even more damage, birds are shot to save hairy insects.

Common sparrows, jackdaws, crows do not eat bees. Bee stings are dangerous to animals.

I know three kinds of birds that eat bees.

1. The first species or genus is called the Wasp or Bee-eater. Very similar to an eagle.

Here is a photo of the Bee-Eater.



1. The second species of birds that catch and eat bees is the Shrike. There she is.



1. Another, the most beautiful species of bird-eaters of bees and wasps is the bee-eater.



But the bee-eaters are sitting in a row



There are several birds in the diet of which bees can be found. For example, bee-eaters love to feast on them, and bee-eaters also eat them. These are the unique birds that feed on unusual types of insects.

Yes, a lot of birds are doing this. Hunger is not an aunt. Here is a short list of these bee-eating birds:

In general, there is a family of bee-eaters, in which there are about 30 representatives, all of which love to eat bees. You can read more about bee-eaters on Wikipedia.

I do not see anything strange in the fact that birds feed on bees, wasps, bumblebees and other stinging insects, because these are still insects, the favorite food of all insectivorous birds and some representatives of birds of prey. So, most often, when they talk about the Osoed or the bee-eater, they mean the representative of the hawk family, who loves to eat not the bees themselves, but their larvae, especially for this purpose, destroying bee and wasp nests.

Also, for her love of bees and wasps, she received her second nickname - the bee-eater, a bright bird of the bee-eater family, the Golden Bee-eater. This rather large bird catches bees and other flying insects on the fly, and it is often possible to observe how, having caught an insect, the bee-eater knocks it on a hard surface, stunning it.



bee-eater, och similar to exotic birds, but inhabits almost the entire territory of central Russia. beautiful, I saw under my window a couple of times, I thought)) then they asked the bee-eater said)) it reaches up to 65 cm in length.





Except for the bird - Bee-eater feed on bees Bee-eaters, Shrike and Titmouse.

Moreover, the tits have adapted to sit on a board near the hive and begin to knock on the tap hole or the wall of the hive with their beak. They disturb sleepy bees in winter, some begin to creep out, here the titmouse presses the bee with its paw and the beak will get enough of the inside of the bee. Not very large damage to a swarm of bees, which a titmouse will eat a few pieces, but a greater danger is the possible loosening of the bee club. The bees sentenced to wintering have an overflowing intestine and from the fuss that has arisen, they may have diarrhea and further illness. nosematosis.

Not only bee-eaters love to feast on bees, some species of bee-eaters, for example, golden, Bmovs, red-throated bee-eats, shrikes, bee venom does not work on them. Flycatchers, blue magpies and even common swallows will not give up bees.

Blue magpie.



It is probably a bee-eater (or wasp-eater). It is a bird of prey that actually feeds on bees.

Some birds eat bees, for example: Shrike, Tits, Bee-eaters (golden, red-throated),

Bee-eater (Osoed), Flycatchers, Blue magpies, Swallows. All of them eat bees with appetite, bee venom has no effect on them at all.

BEEEEER (BEEEEER)

One of these birds is the bee-eater. She received this name not only because she feeds on bees, but also because bees are her favorite and main delicacy.

The bee-eater is a very bright bird, as well as a real hunter of all flying insects.

The diet of wasps is varied, it can include products of animal and plant origin. The feeding habits depend on the specific species to which the insects belong, as well as on the age of the individuals. In the warm season, the abundance of suitable food allows the wasps to feed the larvae and stock up on nutrients so that they do not die of exhaustion during the hibernation period in winter.

In social species of wasps, workers are engaged in the search for edibles. They get food for themselves and for the rest of the family members who do not leave the nest. It may seem to a person observing the actions of working wasps that insects eat almost everything, but this is not so. There are products that are suitable for feeding only adult insects, while a completely different food is selected for the larvae.

Workers find and carry pieces of food suitable for the larvae into the nest. At the same time, adult wasps themselves sometimes do not even have the ability to digest such food. An example of this is the most familiar to a person. These insects feed the younger generation exclusively with food of animal origin, while adults adhere to an almost vegetarian diet.

When foraging for food, social wasp species most often combine gathering with predation (hunting for other insects and not only). Therefore, in the warm season, they flock to the smells of a wide variety of food - from raw meat and fell to jam and beer. As for single wasps, their feeding and feeding of offspring in the course of evolution acquired even more unusual forms. Let us consider in more detail the diets of different species of these insects.

Features of nutrition in paper wasps

Adult paper wasps mainly eat sweet plant foods, with a preference for flower nectars, pulp of juicy fruits and berries. The taste of everything fermented and rotten is very attractive to them, so they often flock to the smell of falling fruit trees (plum, apricot, peach, blackberry, raspberry, etc.), as well as beer, kvass, mash.

Sometimes insects deliberately spoil the berries (grapes especially suffer), gnawing holes in them, and return to them after a while, when the fermented pulp already acquires a characteristic taste and smell.

Paper wasps are also not indifferent to the aromas of syrup, sugar and honey, therefore they often annoy summer residents during the period of harvesting jams and compotes, and also cause a lot of trouble to beekeepers, taking honey from bees.

But they feed the larvae with animal food with a high protein content. To do this, they hunt other insects, killing them with the help of powerful jaws. Gnawing through the chitinous cover of the victim, the wasps first of all lick the hemolymph (analogue of blood in insects). Adults cannot digest solid food, but hemolymph is liquid, and it suits them as food.

Hunting insects, predators show excellent dexterity. They are able to catch not only a slowly crawling beetle or worm, but also a nimble fly. Procuring meat for their larvae, they destroy a huge number of agricultural pests, including ticks and bedbugs, over the summer.

Wasps do not only get animal food from hunting insects. If they come across a piece of meat or fish on their way, they will certainly take advantage of it, and in a short period of time they drag the find into the nest piece by piece. Insects do not shun spoiled pieces and carrion. This option for obtaining food is sometimes even preferable for them, because it is easier than hunting.

Another source of food for adult paper wasps is the saliva of the larvae. Receiving food from the lactating individual, the larva, in response, secretes a lot of saliva rich in protein. This saliva serves as an important additional food source for adults.

What hornets eat

In the feeding and feeding habits of hornets larvae, they are similar to paper wasps. Adults also prefer sweet and fermented plant foods, and for the younger generation, working hornets extract foods high in animal protein.

Due to their size and the strength of their jaws, hornets successfully hunt not only small insects, but also locusts, spiders, small rodents, birds, frogs, lizards and other small animals. And if they attack a hive of bees, then they destroy the entire swarm in a matter of minutes. At the same time, honey is used as food for adults, and the corpses of bees are fed to the larvae.

Vegetarian wasps and hunting wasps

Mazarins (flower wasps) are strict vegetarians of the insect world, outwardly very similar to their paper counterparts. At all stages of development, mazarins feed on nectar and pollen from flowers. While laying the clutch, the female flower wasp fills the cells with the larvae with a mixture of nectar and pollen. This food is enough for future offspring for full growth and development, while it matures inside the cocoon.

In contrast to the mazarins, the philant wasp (another name is the bee wolf) feeds the younger generation exclusively with protein food, namely, the corpses of bees. Nectar and honey are contraindicated for philant larvae, for the younger generation these "sweets" are practically poison. Therefore, having caught and killed the wasp, the bee wolf first squeezes out nectar from its esophagus and eats it, and only then feeds the insect carcass to the larvae. Adult males of philanthropists eat exclusively plant food, females hunt bees.

Road wasps are also good hunters; they feed the growing generation with insects, including large and dangerous ones, for example, tarantulas, spiders.

There is also a species of wasp that feeds on homemade honey. They are wasps of the genus Brachygastra. They learned how to harvest nectar and get honey from it almost like bees. Sweet supplies allow these wasps to survive during the winter hungry months, and during the warmer months Brachygastra consume a variety of plant and animal products.

Adults feed on nectar and lay eggs on beetle larvae. For this, the scolias first paralyze the caught insect so that it cannot move and prevent the larva from gradually eating itself. The growing scolia slowly gnaws out the soft flesh of a still living insect during the entire period of its larval development.

Who eats wasps?

In nature, wasps have quite a few natural enemies. There are animals who have found a way to eat these insects without fear of their sting. Some animals have developed immunity to wasp poison, others manage to avoid the bite of an angry insect by cunning, or a special wool cover protects them from the attack of stings.

Wasps are eaten by many birds and insects, hedgehogs, skunks, weasels, bears, rats, mice, frogs, as well as other wasps (large ones kill small ones). Dexterously deals with the shrike wasp - string it on a tree thorn, thereby killing it. Golden bee-eaters, wasp-eaters, flycatchers catch insects on the fly, gnawing off the tip of the abdomen along with the sting.

Sidewalk spiders, saltpugs and praying mantises lie in wait for wasps near flowers, berries and fruits, and sometimes near nests. Toads and frogs watch over them near the reservoirs, grabbing individuals arriving at the watering hole with lightning speed. Bears and hedgehogs attack openly, stinging insects are not afraid of them - they cannot reach their skin with a sting.

A dog or a cat can also hunt a wasp; carnivorous predators in general often eat insects. And cats, moreover, love to play, gently pressing with their paws, and then letting go of the flying insect. Of course, for a pet, this can end with a sting, so such entertainment must be stopped immediately.

List of birds eating bees. Ways to combat bee-eating birds.

It should be noted that significant damage to apiaries, as well as farms, is caused by birds that eat the workers. But the fact is that the danger is not only the eating of the insects themselves, but their anxiety. Below we will consider what kind of birds feed on bees, and how to protect yourself from them.

Birds that eat bees: name, description, photo

List of birds dangerous for bees:

There is a bird called bee-eater... It is very small in size, about 20-30 cm long. It is very colorful, pretty, reminiscent of some exotic birds. Distributed throughout central Russia. The color is very variegated: blue, yellow and brown tones are combined. Loves to feast on bees, as well as flies and other insects. A very maneuverable, active bird.

Is a bird of prey that hunts not only for insects, but also for smaller birds, lizards, creepers, and mice. It is very similar to a sparrow, but the beak is significantly different in its curved tip, like that of predators: hawks, eagles. The claws are not pronounced, the color in our latitudes in these birds is not as bright as in those that live in the region of Africa and North America. Gray, brown, white, and also reddish shades prevail. This is a rather nondescript, but very interesting and funny bird during observation. It can eat bees both on the fly and when climbing into a plane close to the hives. Can specially guard bees near the hives.

Oddly enough, but they also feed on bees swallows... They are quite common in our latitudes. It is a small bird with sharp, elongated wings and a small beak. They prefer to feed on flying insects and catch them mainly in the air. They do not like to land, watch, and also wait for the victim. There are many similarities with other species of swallows. The color is mainly black and white, there are also shades of gray. Main features: elongated body and very long, thin wings. The body length is about 12-17 cm.

Such birds are common in our latitudes. They have a small size, the average weight is 14-21 g. The feathers are very bright, yellow, green, blue, black and white colors prevail. Mostly you can find tits with a yellow belly. There is a tie on the tummy, which is a wide strip along the chest. The bird feeds mainly on insects, likes to catch on the fly.

Often lands near the hives, waits and lures the victim. This often happens in winter or early spring, when there is very little feed. It has been noticed more than once that a titmouse flies to the hive in winter, knocks on the wall, and sits at the entrance. Sleepy bees begin to crawl out through the entrance. The titmouse presses them with one leg, and with its beak pulls out the sting and eats it. The main danger is not that the tit is eating bees, because it will eat a little of them.

The fact is that in winter, most of the bees are half asleep, their metabolism slows down. When worried, the bees can become nervous and all the contents that are in the intestines can start to come out. The bees will develop diarrhea, and then non-nematosis. This is very dangerous, because by the spring you can get a very weak family that will take a long time to recover. It will have to be strengthened by other families.

In addition to the birds described above, they eat insects, in particular bees, sparrows, redstarts, flycatchers. But they use toilers in small quantities and do not isolate insects from another number, therefore, such victims are accidental.

How to protect an apiary from birds eating bees?

Bird control options:

• Scare away with the sounds of birds of prey... These can be the calls of a hawk or quail. In general, a bird repeller is used in such cases. The essence of the operation of this device is quite simple: it alternately emits sounds through the loudspeaker with the cries of birds of prey.
• Hanging some long ribbons or shiny objects... It can be old New Year's tinsel, discs or tapes from ordinary audio cassettes. Hang them on tree tops as well as around your property.
• Loud sounds. This option will help, but not for long, because from time to time you will have to emit the sound of firecrackers or knock on the trough, pan.
• You can also fight with radical methods.: kill a couple of birds, hang them near the infield. Just hang them up in a place inaccessible to cats and dogs. Because the carcasses of birds can be eaten by pets.
• Busting the nest. This is especially effective in the case of bee-eaters, because these birds cause serious damage to the apiary. But you run the risk of being known as a soulless person among the people. Especially you will be discussed, reproached by people who do not have an apiary, do not understand why you are killing birds. You can hire the neighborhood boys to destroy the nest. Most often, bee-eaters nest in tree hollows.

Beekeepers have developed several interesting ways to get rid of birds in the area and distract their attention from the hives:

• Bonding mirror fragments at the taphole. Thus, the tit sits down near the entrance to the hive. He sees his reflection, gets scared and flies away.
• Slope board locations near the hive. The bird will be uncomfortable to sit on an inclined plane, it will actually not be able to reach the entrance, as well as the wall.
• Mesh construction. A cap made of a regular mesh is put on the hive, which will block the way of the titmouse to the bees.
• Another unusual way is to feed the tits. It is necessary to install feeders around the area with the apiary, into which you need to regularly pour crumbs of bread, grains, as well as dead bees, if any. In this case, the tits will not bother and fly directly to the hives, lure the bees out of there.

Birds that eat bees do more than reduce insect populations. They excite and irritate them directly in the hives in winter. This provokes the onset of diarrhea, as well as non-nematosis. This is what causes the death of bees, as well as the weakening of their families in the spring.

VIDEO: We scare away birds from hives

Almost all insectivorous birds are dangerous to bees. But some species are able to practically destroy the apiary.

Golden bee-eater

Very beautiful small (up to 25 cm) bird. The most dangerous bird for beekeeping, as its diet consists of 80-90% bees. One individual can eat 700-1000 bees per day, which it catches well during the flight, but it can also be in the field, in the apiary. Doesn't react to stings, perhaps doesn't even notice. Lives in colonies, digging holes in the ground, usually on steep river slopes, ravines. When leaving at the end of the season, it seals the nest with a cork made of clay, the next year it returns to the same place.

Destructive for apiaries. A colony of birds near the apiary quickly exterminates all flight bees. Since the golden bee-eater is listed in the Red Book, it cannot be destroyed.

Bee-eater (wasp-eater)

Quite a large (European - up to 60 cm) bird from the hawk family. It feeds, as the name suggests, mainly hymenoptera - bees, wasps, bumblebees. Lives alone.

Shrike

Of the shrike family, 9 species are found in Russia. They are part of the order of passerines, have a powerful, hook-bent beak, more characteristic of hawks, falcons, owls, but the claws on their feet are less developed. When cutting large prey, they often prick it on spikes, wire for the convenience of tearing apart. They live alone. Can often be seen on poles, lonely trees. In addition to insects, they feed on small mammals and birds, lizards, amphibians.

Swallows

There are 75 species in total, 10 are found on the territory of Russia. It flies perfectly, catches insects mainly in flight, often flies into buildings for nesting through broken windows, cracks, small holes. Barn swallows stick their nests under attics, the material is lumps of dirt reinforced with hair and straws. They are built in pairs, literally in a few days. The chicks are fed with lumps of insects glued together with saliva, and a huge amount is caught. If we were limited to only harmful ...

Control measures

The biggest difficulties lie in the fact that birds are not 100% pests ... If the neighbors always (or almost always) support you when destroying the Colorado potato beetle, then the glory of a nest destroyer is still that glory ... The golden bee-eater is perhaps the most beautiful bird in Russia, and the number of harmful insects destroyed by the swallow is enormous. Some species are rare, and a person who harms birds or ruins their nests from ancient times was not considered good, was not an example to follow ... Accordingly, the better you manage to fight birds, the less you will be respected by the neighbors (on average, exceptions are possible) ...

• Scare away by the cries of birds of prey. or
  scare off bee-eats. To do this, you can use a bird repeller.

- The principle of operation of the bird repeller is based on alternating reproduction of the hunting calls of birds of prey - hawk, eagle, falcon, owl in order to scare and drive unwanted birds out of your apiary. This effective, and at the same time humane method will allow you to drive away not only birds that exterminate bees, but also other dangerous and harmful animals for the apiary, such as rats and mice.

• Hanging items that are long and shiny in the sun: unwound foil from a transformer, pieces of unwanted video tape, old CDs. It helps to protect apiaries, melliferous fields and the road there cannot be protected like that.
• Hang up pieces of red cloth. As with wolf hunting, these flaps can scare birds away. They may not work, the wolf, for example, is not always afraid to jump the flags. It's worth a try.
• Loud sounds. Hits in the pelvis, explosions of firecrackers, setting up a scarecrow, shots from a gun help to drive away, but often not for long.
• Kill some birds and hang them near the apiary. Effectively. True, one must watch out so that, for example, cats do not get to the corpses. And the air, like those boots of Tikhon, does not ozonize: birds bring the most damage in the summer, and at this time the meat quickly decomposes ...
• Shooting. It helps, but the ammo is expensive. It makes sense to combine: kill several and hang them near the apiary. The birds are smart enough to associate shots and corpses with danger.
• Bust the nests. Very effective. You can hire the neighborhood boys. Effectively get to the colony of bee-eaters and put lighted cotton wool in the holes, closing the entrance. It is fraught with quarrels with other representatives of the species Homo sapiens. Especially from the "spokesmen for the aspirations of the people" who do not have an apiary.
• Run away. Together with the apiary. Or not to go, not to lay an apiary next to the colony of bee-eats. It helps, however, you can't collect honey without bees. And the unpleasant sensation remains, as after any defeat, not necessarily in the fight against birds. We take into account the obvious consideration: the closer the apiary is located to the nesting place of birds, the more dangerous it is for bees. And more of them will die.
• Make protective devices. Various devices have been invented to protect against birds. As, for example, in the video

In addition to birds that eat bees in huge numbers, sometimes gray flycatchers, sparrows, redstarts, wagtails, etc. feed on them. But since bees are not their main food, the harm from these species of birds is minimal and special protection measures are not required when they appear in the apiary area. ...

Alas, birds, perhaps, divide insects into tasty and tasteless, but definitely not into harmful and beneficial for humans. The protection of your bees, as well as the limits of actions allowed for this protection, are up to you.