What's Attacking 'My' Bees?

[vikkib]

I've just got back from work and I popped into the garden, as usual, to check on everything and I spotted one of the bees from the nest in our garden crawling around.

It's one of the larger bees and appears to have injured/damaged it's wing.



Does anyone know what might cause this sort of damage?

Can I do anything to help this one?

It was crawling around on a pile of earth seemed like it was trying to fly (i.e. buzzing it's wings and kind of moving a little into the air but kind of tripping over itself) and then seems to be standing and wiggling it's bum (technical term!) up and down and rubbing it's back legs together.

I've popped some sugar syrup out there in case it needs more fuel but I'm worried. I've got quite protective of the wild bees in the garden and I'm wondering if something is attacking them?

I found another dead bee yesterday with very damaged wings but can't be sure if that happened before or after it died.

[Two_Sheds]

I've been finding a couple of dead bees on my lawn. No idea what it is (apart from old age perhaps). I don't use sprays of any kind

[SueA]

It could be anything Vikkib but I think putting some sugar syrup out was about all you could do. It might have been swatted by a cat or something & just managed to get away or caught up in something else that caused the damage.

[peanut]

I've also found several Bees crawling around on the ground with what I can only describe as "shredded" wings. I give them sugar water or put them on a flower, but I can't see that they'd be able to survive. It's really sad.

[Graham S]

Possibly a number of explanations - old age, caught out it heavy rain, deformed wing virus (although not sure if this only effects honey bees).

[onefivenine]

Bees can get attacked by wasps. How high off the ground is the nest? Too low and it can leave them open to ambush. I think about 6-8 feet is recommended.

[Sue]

Hi
I posted a thread earlier about a bee getting attacked by a spider, it's the spider that lives in flower heads and looks a bit scorpion like. This spider had clasped the bee and had damaged one wing very badly. I did try to rescue it but reading up later found that this spider is a venom injector and my poor rescued bee then got taken by a larger spider who dragged it away in triumph.
So much for helping out.
Sue