Bees and squash-bottle cloches :-(

[TallGirl]

Hi all,

Something sad I noticed earlier this year, wondered if any of the beekeepers could explain.

I put cut-off squash bottles over a few plants as cloches. This year they were over where the french beans were repeatedly failing to germinate. When I took the bottles off the plants (or rather, bare earth), I kept finding dead red-tailed bumblebees inside them.

What would attract the bees to the bottles? It was early in the year - too early for french beans I realise now - and there certainly weren't any flowers inside the bottles. Was it just the warmth?

And how come that after a bee had flown in, it couldn't fly up out again?

TG

PS, I won't be doing that again.

[Shadylane]

No idea what would attract them in there but once in something, they're not all that good at getting out. I'm forever rescuing them from the blowaways. They bounce around inside the roof bit ignoring the massive opening just below where the door is. Not very bright bless em.

[Florence Fennel]

I'd like to know the answer to that too. Bees seem to get stuck in my window area, even though the back door is wide open and they could easily fly out. Strange.

[shobhna]

My 2p worth..
If I find bees or wasps in my house, then I find that if there is a front door or window wide open and that the back door or window is wide ope, then they seem to sense the current of air and make their own way out. Having said that, wasps do seem a bit dim at that at times, though they eventually do get there....

If I get bees in the greenhouse, I find that again, left to their own devices, they do find their way out. Well, at least I have not found any dead ones so I am assuming that they flew out. I do have the louvers in the bottom pane of the green house open, the roof vents are open and the door is alwasy open.