View Full Version : Robber Flies
Rogerio
08-31-2004, 09:24 PM
Over the last week or so there are suddenly hundreds of those big robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae) around. These are the big ones, pretty close to 2 inches long. Are these guys significant predators on my field workers? I haven't seen one kill a bee yet, but that doesn't mean they aren't doing it.
Thanks,
Roger
Rogerio
09-06-2004, 06:53 PM
Nobody had any experience with these things?
Michael Bush
09-06-2004, 08:06 PM
I've never heard of them.
dcross
09-06-2004, 09:42 PM
I did a quick search, and got a page with the words "significant depredation of apiaries". Yikes.
Rogerio
09-07-2004, 05:41 PM
Wow, I stumped Michael Bush! This is actually better than getting a reply to my question.
Roger
Michael Bush
09-07-2004, 06:19 PM
Contrary to popular belief there are a few things I know nothing about. http://www.beesource.com/ubb/smile.gif
Anyone have a picture?
Check out Google. They've got loads of info and pictures.
Michael Bush
09-07-2004, 07:28 PM
Now that I see the picture I have seen them before. Never a lot of them.
Rogerio
09-09-2004, 09:47 PM
I saw one today with one of my bees. Usually they stay a little ways away from me but this one flew right up to me as if to show off that he was eating one of my bees.
There's one every 10 feet out in my fields. No wonder my hives stopped putting up new stores when these things showed up. They're the size of a small dragonfly, almost 2", but with a stockier body. There are so many of them around they must be decimating my field workers.
Roger
Kurt Bower
09-10-2004, 03:51 AM
I have seen them with a honey bee in their clutches and I do what I can to kill them. Doesnt seem to be a big problem with the survival of the colony. If you have hundreds of them it could be a problem. http://www.beesource.com/ubb/frown.gif
Kurt
BULLSEYE BILL
09-13-2004, 11:43 PM
I had a Eutolmus rufibarbis setting on the front of one of my hives this weekend sucking a bee. It was a bit difficult to identi-fly after I dealt with it.