Any bee experts here? Looking for some info! A solitary bee has made a nest in a garden ornament. She absolutely stuffed it with white fluffy stuff (2nd pic). I’m just wondering what the white fluffy stuff is and am I gonna be grandmother to some bees soon?

7 comments

1. Looks like a wasp

2. Wasp

3. https://streamable.com/shtg06

4. I don’t think that’s a wasp based on the video, looks like the wrong shape & colour.

   If it’s a solitary bee, she’ll make a nest, pack with food, lay a few eggs and cap it.

   These will hatch next year & start all over again.

5. [You should ask John Cleese.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGFz9gt0-Fc)

6. That is a common wasp and I’m not sure about the fluff, it’s probably part of the ornament interior the wasp is bundling to make a plug or using for cellulose, thought they might’ve been fibres but it’d be unusual for a common wasp to carry those to a nest site

7. Personally I think you’re right to identify it as a solitary bee. My gardens full of them. They’re incredibly diverse. Obviously his face is very waspish, but there are solitary bees with faces like that and bodies like that

   Edit:
   https://www.nhsn.org.uk/a-short-guide-to-solitary-bees/

   Some good intel there.
   I would assume it’s a solitary bee until totally sure otherwise. People are endlessly hurting bees because they misidentify them as wasps. I heard some dude recently killed an entire bee hive because the dipshit thought they were wasps