Busy bees and butterflies in Perth

It’s a beautiful, hot summer’s day in Perth today and the warm weather is increasing insect activity. Insects are invertebrates and not warm blooded like humans; they rely on the heat around them to give them energy to move, rather that producing their own heat energy in the body like we do. So, hotter weather spurs insects into a frenzy of flying and feeding. There were bees and butterflies everywhere this afternoon, especially feeding on our buddleia or butterfly bush; the flowers are a very rich nectar source for insects and you can see the butterfly’s feeding tube in the picture. Bees have been busy too; there’s a wild bee on the right on the buddleia, as well as hover fly,  and there’s a bumble bee gathering pollen on the yellow  rose of Sharon.

There are a lot of yellow, buzzing insects around, and these include wasps as well as bees and hoverflies; we’ve had a lot of calls about wasps nests. Wasps have a narrow ‘wasp waist’ so it’s easy to distinguish them from bees. They’re a lot more aggressive than bees too; if you get chased, it’s probably wasps coming after you. If you suspect you have a wasp nest then look out for where the wasps are going to; you should be able to see them flying in to and out of their nest entrance. They build their nests low in the ground and high up in roofs too so you can find them pretty much anywhere. This the time of year when wasps are at their most active in Perth and Kinross and, if you’re unlucky enough to have one, then we recommend that you get professional wasp control to remove a wasp nest. Wasps are very aggressive, sting repeatedly and there are hundreds in one nest; it really isn’t worth the risk of doing it yourself.