Two years after our house was burnt (in a fire hot enough to melt lead) bees have returned to the same place on the same wall where they had nested for years. I had noted before a similar return to an outhouse (after a cold year which wiped out a lot of bees). Perhaps some melted honeycomb remained in the mortar of the wall; or a race memory brought bees back to the same location. Do bees dance to point their fellows to traditional sites, just as they dance to point to the direction and distance of honey-rich flowers? Gillies Macbain, Cranagh Castle, Co Tipperary
It's interesting that bees returned to an old site, but they dance to point out the location of honey-rich flowers only to members of their own colony.
After filling in a brick-lined hole in the ground, the bottom of which was filled with sawdust, leaves and various debris, I poured a three-inch bed of cement. The next day I found 50 or so grubs with tails (sample enclosed of grey grub, 2.5 cm long with a vertical, whip-like tail about 3 cm long). Two or more holes seemed to show where they came up. Tony Cullen, Kimmage Road, Dublin 6
The grubs, also aptly called rat-tailed maggots, are the larvae of a hover-fly called the drone fly because it resembles the drone of a honey bee. These larvae feed on decaying matter in stagnant ponds. The long tail is, in fact, a telescopic breathing tube.
Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo.