You are here: Home » Blog » Archives for predators

A bear with table manners

Well, sort of. Susan, a beekeeper in Pennsylvania, sent these pictures of her hive after a local bear had a meal. I have seen photos of dozens—maybe hundreds—of bear damaged hives over the years, but I have never seen one where the bear was so respectful of the equipment. Usually the hive is in splinters, including the frames, brood boxes, bottom boards, everything. Not that this bear didn’t do damage—he completely destroyed one colony and badly injured the other.

Susan said she didn’t see the bear, but she did see bear scat in the yard. She learned from the Pennsylvania Game Commission that the bear that’s been seen in her area is estimated to be 500 pounds—plenty big enough to leave toothpicks instead of a hive. The bear, having had a taste of brood with honey, came back two days later and did it again.

A Pennsylvania bear toppled this hive twice in three days. Photo courtesy of Susan Fulmer.
A Pennsylvania bear toppled this hive twice in three days. Photo courtesy of Susan Fulmer.

Undaunted, Susan stabilized the remaining hive against the porch and is waiting to see what happens next. Go Suz! I am eager to learn the outcome.

Creative problem solving: going for bear. Photo courtesy of Susan Fulmer.
Creative problem solving: going for bear. Photo courtesy of Susan Fulmer.

Vandals in the beeyard

When I asked for photos of your beehives, Brian Dennis of Northamptonshire, U.K. sent images of his beehives after they were trashed by vandals. Quite a few of you wanted to know “the whole story,” so I asked Brian to tell us the details. Here is his sad story:

When the farmer on whose land I kept my bees informed me that my hives had been knocked over, I went to assess the situation—I was hoping that the wind or animals had caused the problem. What I found is shown in the photos—human animals had toppled the hives using lengths of piping found on site; then they used stones from a nearby derelict barn to smash the hives and destroy the bees.

I spent several hours clearing the site and was able to re-hive two colonies (from ten) that were still alive on the ground. When I returned a week later, I found the attackers had been back to inflict further damage.

Although an isolated site, I could not (after twenty years) continue to keep bees on this site. One of the two colonies that I had re-hived decided they had had enough and left! I removed the remaining colony to another site (same farmer but a more secure site). In the process of being attacked and re-hived, the queen was lost. I added a frame of brood but eventually the colony died out. The farmer provided another site and I have expanded this to six colonies. So far, no problems! The farmer and his wife have become beekeepers and live nearby, so I am able to help as they learn.

I can understand (but not condone) children pushing hives over to see what happens—it happens. What I don’t understand is the pleasure they (not necessarily children) got from destroying my equipment and killing my bees. My bees and beekeeping give me great pleasure. The farmer’s comment was “I hope they got stung.” Unfortunately, it was early in the year and the bees were not active. This year the weather has been awful and my usually docile bees have been very bad tempered, so I wish they would try again! Now I understand why beekeepers often put their bad-tempered bees in out-apiaries!

Regards,
Brian

Vandals toppled the hives by using lengths of pipe.
Vandals toppled the hives by using lengths of pipe.
Next, they used stones to smash the hives and destroy the bees.
Next, they used stones to smash the hives and destroy the bees.
A week later the vandals came back to finish the job.
A week later the vandals came back to finish the job.
The last of the colonies died after the queen was lost in the shuffle.
The last of the colonies died after the queen was lost in the shuffle.

Flies with a wicked thirst

Many predators kill honey bees but most of the incidental attackers have been upstaged by Varroa mites and CCD. For example, the second edition of Honey Bee Pests, Predators and Diseases edited by Morse and Nowogrodzki, devoted ten pages to various fly predators, but most recent texts on bee health ignore flies completely. Still, beekeepers are often amazed and mortified to see ordinary garden creatures snatching their precious honey bees.

Robber flies are a case in point. Robber flies (Asilidae family) are true flies that prey on other arthropods for food. Many of these robber flies will gleefully attack honey bees. Although they do not seek bees exclusively, they are often seen hanging about established apiaries where happy meals are plentiful and easier to capture than some of the quicker native insects. Some robber flies even mimic bees, making it easier for them to blend in with their prey and perhaps fooling their own enemies into thinking they pack a sting.

Like many insects, robber flies have a sci-fi way of dining: they pierce their victim’s body with a sharp proboscis and then inject paralyzing saliva into it. The saliva contains enzymes which digest the prey from the inside out. When the prey’s innards begin to liquify into a thick soup, the robber fly uses its proboscis to suck it down like a Slurpee.

Although you may not be familiar with robber flies, plenty of them are lurking in the understory. Worldwide, about 7100 species are described, with as many as 850 of those species occurring in North America alone. ­Robber flies have several features which—taken together—help to identify them. They have spiny legs to grasp the prey and bristly faces to protect them from prey that might bite back. They also have very short antennae and three ocelli which are located in a well-defined recess between the large compound eyes.

Considering all the bad players in a honey bee’s world, robber flies are a mere annoyance and not something to worry about. Still, if you want to write a creepy thriller, give these flies a second look.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite.com

Common brown robber fly catches a hover fly. Photo by <a href="http://www.flagstaffotos.com.au">Fir0002/Flagstaffotos</a>.
Common brown robber fly catches a hover fly. Photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos.

Danger in the borage

This photo by beekeeper Jeremy Gibbons shows a crab spider with one of his honey bees. I like it not only because it shows the capture, but because I think of borage as such a peaceful, bee-friendly plant. Since I never associate borage with violent death for bees, the image is full of contradiction. The photo was sent to me by Jeremy’s friend, Tom Allen, of Rapid City, South Dakota.

Hidden danger: crab spider in the borage. Photo by Jeremy Gibbons.
Hidden danger: crab spider in the borage. Photo by Jeremy Gibbons.

The allure of decapitation

So what is it with crab spiders? Why must they bite the head off their victims? Other predators are not nearly so insulting: Wolves take a chunk out of the middle, alligators take an arm or a leg, and snakes choke down the whole thing at once. But crab spiders have no tact.

“Crab spider” is a general term for many types of spiders that look and move like crabs, and many of them will eat bees. They don’t target bees specifically but will consume any type of invertebrate they can wrap their legs around.

I’m not a fan of spiders because they have too many legs. More importantly, when a creature’s eyes are arranged in rows, it creeps me out. But crab spiders attract my attention because I’ve watched them pluck foraging bees right out of the air and eat them, head first, with no social grace whatsoever.

The spiders in the photos below are Misumena vatia in the family Thomisidae. This species is able to change color from yellow to white to match the flower on which it sits. The great camouflage allows them to easily snare a meal. When the spiders remain white while sitting on a flower of a different color, such as the one on the California lilac below, their coloring is thought to mimic bird droppings and, as such, they appear to be harmless.

The crab spiders don’t spin webs, but ambush invertebrates when they visit a flower. They paralyze their prey with a venomous bite and then consume it at their leisure. The eight small eyes allow it to detect the slightest movement. True to their name they can move crablike forward, sideways, and backwards. When prey comes close, their forelegs rise up to strike in crab fashion. I photographed both of these smarmy creatures in my garden.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

White crab spider in California Lilac.
White crab spider in California Lilac.
The crab spider finally catches a small native bee.
The crab spider finally catches a small native bee.
Yellow crab spider in a dandelion eating a honey bee—<em>my</em> honey bee.
Yellow crab spider in a dandelion eating a honey bee—my honey bee.