Bumblebee on the balcony: 4 effective ways to get rid of insects

Bumblebee striped insect

The bumblebee is a very large insect with a bright color. The average size of his body is from 15 to 25 mm. Females are several times larger.
Bumblebees feed on the nectars of flowers and trees. For this reason, summer city balconies become a paradise for them. In order not to starve, insects can settle right on your balcony or in a window slot.

Bumblebees instantly reproduce in the place where they settled

Today there are 11 varieties of them. Mostly they differ only in size, and the striped color is characteristic of all species.

What is a bumblebee and what are they like?

There are over 200 species of bumblebees all over the world and each has a different preference for nectar types and different flowers. If their colony has occupied your apartment, it is better to call professional exterminators. However, if only one individual has flown in, then this is not a reason to “shoot the sparrows with a cannon”: it is enough to politely wait until the curious insect leaves your flower.

The bumblebee is a useful insect. They pollinate plants and flowers as they get their own food. For gardeners, this is a welcome view, since these large flying insects carry a large load of pollen, flying around all flower beds and gardens in the country. While bumblebees are busy looking for food, they rarely become a problem, even when in close proximity to humans. They will go out of their way to avoid contact with people. Insects will protect themselves if they feel cornered and unable to fly away.

These hard workers have very few enemies by nature. The biggest and most destructive of these are skunks. They are omnivores that feed on insects, rodents, reptiles, small mammals, worms, etc. When they locate a bumblebee nest, they eat bee larvae and adults, ignoring the pain of the stings.

The nature of bumblebees is peaceful, so enemies attack their nests. In particular skunks

How to get rid of a bumblebee

In nature, carpenter bees are found wherever flowering trees grow. They don't eat wood. The holes drilled by them are used by insects to arrange nests in which they lay their eggs. These bees are attracted by dry wood, so they often settle in human dwellings. Read about what kind of insects they are and how to deal with them in the article.

Description

Carpenter bees, the photo of which is presented to your attention, belong to the order of Hymenoptera and are considered the largest solitary insects of this species. They are also called xylocopes or purple bees, whose appearance resembles a bumblebee.

Their body length can reach three centimeters. The body of the insect, black with a metallic sheen, is covered with long hairs. The width of the head and chest is almost the same. The wings are black with a purple tint. The dark legs are heavily pubescent. Individuals of both sexes are very similar, but females are larger, and their antennae are black, while males have reddish underneath.

Features of the

• Carpenter bees are not true honey plants.
• These insects are loners, which is completely uncharacteristic for bees.
• They do not form families with queens, therefore it is impossible to take away honey from them.

• Males have no sting. They are the guards of the nest. Female bees sting, and even then in case of emergency, when they feel danger.
• Adult carpenter bees stay in their nests for the winter, they sleep here. They feed on supplies of pollen and honey.
• They buzz strongly during flight.
• This type of insects in our country is listed in the Red Book.

Bee nest

The female, having mated with the male, is looking for a place to equip her home. She often flies to the ancestral nest, which can be used for ten years. If it is already occupied, it starts building a new one.

Carpenter bees do not bury themselves in the ground, but look for dry, unpainted wood for their home. The wooden structures of old houses are an ideal place for a future nest.

Insects choose the southern part and start building.

With powerful jaws, the females make an entrance, and then gnaw out another gallery with a diameter of one and a half centimeters. It sinks down to a depth twenty times the diameter of the hole. The insect holds the resulting sawdust with its saliva and makes walls of them for ten or fifteen cells, which it will then fill with pollen and nectar.

But they will still return to their place of birth to complete or repair it.

Winged insects are more likely to settle in the house if they cannot find a suitable tree outside. They want dry, unpainted wood. Most often, bees equip their nest in the ceilings between the beams. To begin with, you should carefully examine the wooden structure and determine where the carpenter bees are flying from. How to get rid of an unpleasant neighborhood? Lead the fight.

It is better to do this in autumn or spring. Before the onset of winter, insects prepare for hibernation and do not fly out. In spring, on the contrary, the larvae turn into young bees, which fly out of the nest, and it remains empty for some time. So multiple bites can be avoided.

Spraying with chemicals will do nothing. While the queen is in the bee house, it is impossible to cope with its inhabitants.

If it is not possible to get to the nest and destroy it, you can set up a trap, which is easy to build with your own hands from improvised material. To do this, you should prepare a plastic bottle, boards, saw, hammer, drill and nails.

First you need to saw off four boards of the same length and assemble them. These will be the walls. The roof board is slightly larger. She must speak for them. Next, a board is cut out for the bottom, it must correspond to the area of ​​the structure, built of four planks.

Putting everything together, except for the roof.

The next step. A neck is cut from the bottle, on four sides of which petal-shaped cuts are made. This design is inserted down the drain into the remaining bottle, secured with tape.

Next, a hole with a diameter of one and a half centimeters is drilled in the middle of the bottom. The petals of the neck are pushed into it and fixed inside. Only now is the roof mounted on the house with an attached hook.

The trap is ready! You can put bait in it - this way the bees will quickly gather in the bottle and die.

We took up arms against hornets, we see them as the most terrible enemy. Although European individuals are practically safe, but their Asian relatives that are frequent in Europe are quite poisonous (about forty people die from them every year).

Nowhere, by the way, is it specifically indicated that the hornet is a deadly insect. Yes, from the toxins contained in their poison, the pressure decreases, the heart and nervous system fail. An allergic reaction to poison can lead to asphyxiation.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself: The fly got into the ear what to do

It is because we do not know what will happen to us, for the reason that the hornet can attack more than once, because the whole swarm can intervene for one insect, we try to get rid of the hornets by any available means.

When fighting these insects, people go in two ways: either they destroy the hornets themselves, or they destroy the nest.The second method is more effective, since by the end of the season an order of magnitude more individuals will appear from the nests than you kill over the summer, destroying even ten of them a day. But both in the first and in the second case, in order to bring out the hornets, you need to know:

• where is their nest;
• that a mosquito net, gloves and tight clothing are a mandatory attribute against the poison of their stings;
• if the fight is carried out by chemical means, then it is necessary to take funds for the wasps, since hornets are the largest representatives of their genus.

These insects are destroyed, both by chemical means and by physical influence.

If there is no remedy for wasps at hand, then they often use dichlorvos in cans. But, using any spray, you need to have clay in order to immediately cover up the entrance through which the poison was injected, and all possible cracks, otherwise ...

Hornets correctly understand any aggression against them as a declaration of war. It is quite successful in the evening to light up a gray hollow or crack where they settled.

You can also put watermelon peels or other sweetness seasoned with a remedy for the Colorado potato beetle not far from the nest (but you need to take into account that bees or rabbits do not eat this "good").

Naturally, cats, dogs, chickens should not get to the feeding places. If you are lucky and you found the nest in the spring, where at this time there is only a female and a few soldiers in it, then there is no question of how to get the hornets out.

It is enough to knock it off with a stick into some container and throw a rag with ammonia into it - everyone will take a break.

A large "harvest" of hornets is collected by simple traps made from plastic bottles. Sugar is poured into the bottle, water and beer are poured, a cross-shaped incision is made on the lid and bent inward.

The meaning is this: the hornet gets there without difficulty, but cannot get out back. A similar method: the top of the bottle is cut off, the cork is thrown away, the top of the bottle is inserted back into the bottom.

The bottle is filled with exactly the same solution as in the previous method; instead of sugar, there can be jam.

It gets soaked so quickly that not a single individual has time to fly out of it.

Or, if a hollow with hornets was found far from buildings and does not threaten a forest fire, then in the evening, when it gets dark, and all the insects come together, they put a torch into the hollow (maybe even made from a newspaper).

He also has the right to be recognized and this way to get rid of hornets (by the way, his video is posted on Runet): all extension tubes from two vacuum cleaners are connected to the vacuum cleaner, the hose is bent, but without kink, the vacuum cleaner turns on.

Now, having shaken them out of the dust collector, you can burn them or trample them, it depends on the degree of your humanism.

Why is the desire to breed hornets almost a necessity lately? There are no more dense forests and plantings, old trees with hollows have already been cut down. Insects need a new habitat. Hornets found it behind the cladding of country houses, in the trees of the gardens, since they have enough food in the gardens. Abandoned village houses are generally an ideal place for their existence.

Bumblebee bite is especially dangerous for people prone to allergic reactions

Before thinking about ways to get uninvited guests out, you need to find their habitat. Bumblebees, as a rule, settle in hard-to-reach places:

• Construction cracks.
• Empty containers, old clothes.
• Door jambs.
• Trays of flower pots.

This is what a bumblebee nest looks like

You can also determine the place of residence of a striped guest by a specific buzz. The closer you get to their "home", the louder and louder the rumble is heard.

Inconveniences from the neighborhood with insects under the roof

The phrase "Do not touch them - and they will not touch you" is not always true for wasps and hornets.With regard to these insects, one cannot be sure that, being a few meters from their shelter, a malicious flock will not fly out of it. The fact is that wasps can sense danger at any moment and rush to defend their home with a whole swarm. But what if a child walks around the nest, moreover, unattended?

Hornet is the most dangerous member of the family

An insect bite is very dangerous. The wasp can not only bite badly, but also introduce poison into the skin, which it has plenty of. Unlike bees, these insects can inflict several bites at once, each time injecting the toxin into the human body. The most dangerous are paper wasps and hornets. The latter are the largest representatives of the genus Hymenoptera, and their bites are the most painful and poisonous. Paper wasps often live under the roofs of houses.

This is interesting: Paper wasps got this name because of the substance they create for the construction of a dwelling. The fact is that insects make the building material for nests according to a principle similar to paper production: they grind wood fibers, binding them with saliva.

Nesting places

Striped insects are very resistant to cold temperatures. They live on all continents of the globe, except for the snow-white Antarctica.

They can nest in the most unexpected places:

• Underground. A buzzing insect can evict any rodent from its burrow. Be extremely careful if you like to walk barefoot on the grass.
• On the ground. A bumblebee can settle in a grass bump or in an old bird nest. In addition, bumblebees love the holes between the rocks located in the springs.
• Above the ground. Houses can be wooden buildings, old trees or birdhouses.

The insect is dangerous not only when it flies, but also on the ground.

Bumblebees reproduce incredibly quickly. From the initial stage to the beginning of active existence, only 20 days pass. The very same life span is equal to the period from early spring to late autumn. Therefore, the question of how to get bumblebees out of the balcony will be relevant throughout the summer.

Output

The bumblebee is a unique insect that will not attack first, but everyone should know about the rules for providing medical care after being bitten. If you have no desire to coexist with him, you need to think about preventive measures.

Videos in this article will show in as much detail as possible how to get bumblebees out of your balcony. And if you have any questions - ask them in the comments.

December 28, 2020

Balcony and loggia

If you want to express gratitude, add clarification or objection, ask the author something - add a comment or say thank you!

Methods for accelerated breeding of bumblebee families

The mass emergence of working bumblebees in nature (as well as those that have settled in bait underground hives) begins, on average, about 20 days later than clover blooms (Kupchikova, 1954). Along with the early cropping of the clover, delaying the time of its mass flowering to the “bumblebee peak”, measures have been developed to stimulate the mass emergence of the bumblebees themselves.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with: How to get ants out in the country

This is achieved by the accelerated education of families in artificial conditions. Various experiments with females nesting in open-air cages and simply in rooms, and generalization of the results of the experiments of other entomologists allowed the author to develop a simple pavilion for early nesting of bumblebee females - bombidarium (Grebennikov, 1973).

This is an isolated light room of sufficient area, with flowering plants, feeders and artificial nests, which are transferred to the fields as they are settled. Bumblebee nesting in such conditions has several advantages.

It is easy to create the necessary microclimate in the pavilion and plant flowering plants, therefore bumblebees lay their nests here much earlier than in nature. At an early stage, the nests are protected from frost, winds, rains and are free from most parasites and predators (ants, psitiruses, moths, mutilids), and are constantly provided with food.

All females - both founders and successors - are under control and cannot leave the pavilion. The change of females at different stages of nesting is facilitated, which has a beneficial effect on the development of families in a number of cases, both natural and artificial (for this, they must be carefully caught and planted in the desired hive).

The nests can be examined regularly and painlessly for bumblebees. The bombidarium device and its equipment are shown in Figure 12. The area of ​​the pavilion is 20–40 m2, the volume is 50–200 m3. All walls are glazed, except for the panel at the bottom. It is useful to lightly spray the glass from the inside with small drops of white paint - so that females can see it from a distance and do not hit it during flight.

For bombidarium, ready-made greenhouse frames can be used, as well as ordinary glazed greenhouses (part of the greenhouse is fenced off with gauze, which the females do not gnaw through). For through ventilation, 3 - 4 frames are made opening, and their openings are tightened with a metal or nylon mesh with cells not larger than 3 - 4 mm. They arrange a double door - with a corridor fenced off at least with gauze. This eliminates the "shoots" of bumblebees when the bumblebee comes out.

Bomber

All slots and holes wider than 3 - 4 mm (in the grooves of doors, frames, near the floor) are carefully sealed with slats, rags, plasticine.

All internal parts of the bombidarium and equipment are painted white in advance, so that the smell disappears by spring (water-based whitewash can be painted a day or two before the start of work). It should be borne in mind that each dark spot serves as an unwanted bait for females, similar to the entrance to the nest.

Willow pollen and nectar are a prerequisite for the nesting of many bumblebee species. It is best to leave a group of willow bushes inside it when installing the pavilion. They can also be planted in the ground or in tubs. At the same time, male (stamen) specimens of willows are selected. Before the flowering of the planted bushes, you can use willow branches placed in the water.

It is necessary to ensure that such bouquets are constantly in the room from the day the first females populate the bombidarium until the end of the flowering of the ivy in nature. Other shrubs are also planted in the pavilion. Herbaceous melliferous and pollen-bearing plants are sown in wooden boxes and directly into the ground floor of the pavilion, if necessary, add fresh soil or apply fertilizers.

The assortment of plants is selected in such a way as to ensure the constant flowering of several plant species throughout the spring and early summer. The timing of sowing seeds, holding seedlings in greenhouses, transferring boxes with plants from greenhouses to bombidariums, delivering stems for bouquets are regulated so as to ensure the flowering of plants at the right time.

With an excess of soil moisture, the pavilion is dug from the outside with a drainage groove. Top dressing - fresh honey solution of various concentrations - is placed in the feeders on a separate table. The feeders are filled daily. For feeders, plastic wine corks are used, which are inserted into cardboard discs with a diameter of 5 - 7 cm, painted to resemble flowers.

The most attractive for bumblebees is light yellow paint with radial black stripes (10-15 pieces) going to (Fig. 13). Some feeders (there are 8 - 12 in total) are poured with honey solution, in which a little pollen or bee pollen is placed. However, this type of feeding is by no means a substitute for pollen.

Artificial flower for feeding females

In our experiments, bumblebees took pollen only from the stamens of plants, refusing to take it from various devices that mimic flowers.

The aboveground bait hives are made exactly the same as underground ones, but without a tap hole; tap hole - a round hole with a diameter of 15 - 18 mm, drilled in the center of the front wall, which is painted white, and the tap hole inside and a little outside - black. The insulating material is the same as in underground hives. Wide gaps from the inside are covered with plasticine.

Hives are installed in groups of 3 - 5 pieces on hanging shelves or stools, the legs of which, in the event of ants appear, are placed in bowls of water. In each group of hives, the entrances are directed in different directions. If the hives are placed on top of each other, then in order to prevent them from swinging, lumps of plasticine are placed between them.

Bumblebee females are caught with a net (trying not to harm them), but only those specimens are taken that make "seeking" flights. Bumblebees feeding on flowers are not taken. Females are placed one at a time in small containers, for example, in aluminum film-strip boxes with holes for ventilation (they can directly cover females on the ground) (Fig. 14).

We suggest you familiarize yourself with: Cockroaches in bed how to get rid of

Females are brought to the pavilion as soon as possible and released there.

The moment of catching the female

After 2-3 days, bumblebees are fully assimilated, begin to feed and soon resume their search for nesting sites. Females of all species that can be caught are released into the pavilion.

However, overpopulation of the bombidarium is undesirable; the norm is 1-2 females per 1 m3 of space (no more).

All hives are numbered, and a separate card is given for each of them. Hives with bumblebees that have begun to fly out of the pavilion are removed even if they will not be used for field work.

Numerous worker foraging bumblebees collect a lot of pollen and nectar from flowers, leaving the rest of the bombidarium population on "starvation rations".

In the dark of the day, the entrance is tightly closed with a tampon, and the lid is pulled to the hive with twine and the family is carefully delivered to the seed areas of the clover.

If the clover fields are not far away, then the families that have arisen late can be left in the pavilion by removing several glazed frames to allow foragers to fly freely into the field, and young females to leave the pavilion.

But if by the end of the season several families of the same species are placed in it, then the emerging young females and males will begin mass mating here. Inseminated queens will bury for the winter right in the room and will nest here next spring.

In addition to bombidarium, other methods of accelerated controlled breeding of bumblebee colonies are known. In the beekeeping department of the Institute of Horticulture in Puławy (Poland), on the flowering areas of the white ash (Lamium album L.), mesh-membranous insulators measuring 1X1X1 m (each for one queen) are installed (Fig. 15).

Isolators for nesting females

by HyperComments

Bumblebee hives on the ground

Ways to control insects in the garden

The most common place to establish a bumblebee colony is in the topsoil. Usually the former burrows of rodents become bumblebee nests. Such an underground house is difficult to spot right away. It is betrayed by the furry relatives of bees buzzing over it. Among them, there are different types of arthropods:

• earthen bumblebees, which prefer to settle in soil layers to a greater extent;
• stone, which differ from others in black color;
• field - the most common in central Russia;
• gardeners constantly pollinating fruit trees and berry bushes;
• urban bumblebee. He has a pronounced red color. It is found almost throughout Russia, feeds on pollen and plant nectar, as well as fresh honey.

Important!

In no case should you try to get rid of bumblebees in the ground mechanically. Digging with a shovel or a motor-cultivator will not destroy all individuals at once, but it will definitely anger them.Insects will definitely start attacking the culprit of the destruction.

It is better to choose a toxic remedy for bumblebees in the country or in the garden, containing permethrin. Gett slurry or regular Dust insect powder is great. The solution should be poured over the ground at the entrance to the hole and into the hole itself. The powder is also scattered near the entrance. Insects crawling inside will drag some of the poison into the nest, thereby infecting all family members.

For a more humane way to evict unwanted neighbors from the site, scare away with smoke. You need to smoke in dry and calm weather. To do this, near the entrance to the nest, you need to organize a place for a fire. Green tree branches, grass, unnecessary rags are suitable as smoking materials.

On a note!

This method of expelling bumblebees from the nest may not please the closest neighbors in the country and other residents of houses nearby. Before lighting a fire, it is better to warn them about possible inconveniences.

The pillar of acrid smoke will help get rid of black bumblebees and their other relatives. You can smoke bumblebees in this way from an open porch and garage. Only the fire needs to be kindled in a sturdy metal bucket or basin. The smoke will drive all insects out of buildings and help drive out bumblebees without killing them.

House for bumblebees

If on a clear summer day bumblebees fly and buzz over your site, then you can no longer doubt a good harvest. And there is no need to be afraid of bumblebees. They are more peaceful insects than honey bees.

There are no problems with pollination on my site because I try to attract wasps, wild bees and bumblebees to my site by planting various flowers and herbs that attract these natural pollinators. If you want these tireless workers to work on your site in the summer afternoon, you should take care of a dwelling for bumblebees in advance.

In order to build a nest for bumblebees, take a wooden box, resembling the size of a birdhouse, with a small hole in one side.

A small diameter pipe (about 15mm) must be inserted into this hole. The length of the pipe is about one meter. The pipe, or in other words, the manhole is supposed to protect the nest of bumblebees from ants.

It should also be borne in mind that there should be no anthills near the bumblebee nest.

Use any mouse nest bedding to attract bumblebees. It can be cotton wool, tow, straw, where the mice lived. Fill the prepared box with these contents by 2/3 of the volume.

To choose the right nest site, first observe the bumblebees.

Where there are no bumblebees on flowering plants, where females do not circle above the ground in search of a future nest, it makes no sense to lay a hive.

And where, in good weather, you will see flying bumblebees exploring the soil surface, it means that in this place you can safely install our kind of hive. Bumblebees love peace, so it is better to look for a place for a nest in the depths of the garden, away from roads and working equipment.

Bumblebee females leave their wintering grounds in April - May. On meadows, forest edges, ravine slopes, young females actively explore the soil surface, looking for a place for a nest. It is better to have hives installed by this time.

In a new apartment, a female bumblebee lays a dozen oblong eggs, at the same time begins to build a honey pot of 1.5-2 cm high from wax. A few days later, the larvae are born, which the female feeds through the hole in the cell with pollen and nectar.

After pupation and the release of the first batch of working bumblebees, the founding female becomes a uterus. She only lays eggs. From this moment on, all work in the nest will be performed by other family members, such are the laws of the caste.

Some of the workers take care of the brood, while the majority store feed.

The age of workers is short-lived. Those who have lived for two months are deep elders, but the size of the family is increasing every week.In the middle of summer, there are several dozen bumblebees in the nest. In the second half of it, after the flight of young queens and drones, fertilized females look for secluded nooks for wintering and leave their home forever. By autumn, the nests are sadly empty.

How to remove a nest in the ground

The most popular habitat for bumblebees at their summer cottage is the land, especially in the former burrows of rodents. The main thing is not to dig up the habitat, since it is useless to fight bumblebees mechanically. They regard any stirring and touching their house as aggression and danger. In this case, the attack of a flock of bumblebees cannot be avoided.

Bumblebee breeding

The easiest way to get rid of bumblebees in the soil is. Here you can safely apply a cardinal method - pouring boiling water over the hole or burning out the hive. Before the procedure, insects must be distracted with a sweet bait (honey, fermented jam). After that, the hive can be poured with boiling water. The hives are composed of a very light material, dry in structure. The walls are poured with kerosene and a lighted match is immediately thrown. The nest burns to the ground in a matter of seconds.

Important! Burning out is the easiest, fastest and most effective method, but it is completely unsuitable for indoor use.

How to remove a nest in the ground

First aid for a bumblebee bite

Experts say that the bumblebee will never attack first until it senses danger. If, nevertheless, a bumblebee has bitten you, first aid will help to avoid unpleasant consequences.

Bumblebee bite can lead to severe allergic reactions

Bite symptoms and first aid:

• Incessant soreness at the site of the alleged bite.
• Burning and possible itching.
• Puffiness and the appearance of a hardened bump.

In order to remove poison from the body, it is necessary to consume a lot of fluids. If symptoms of intoxication are observed: nausea, vomiting, dizziness - be sure to consult a doctor.

Alternative ways to neutralize insects

It happens that bumblebees build a nest high - on a tree, under a roof, under a canopy. It is not immediately possible to detect it, since it is hidden from view. In such cases, it is better to use proven and effective methods of destruction. These include:

• Setting fire to the nest. The house of the bumblebees is poured with fuel, they make a fire. The method will not work for wooden houses.
• Drowning the hive. Carefully remove the socket and sharply lower it into a deep container of water. Its size must be larger than the dimensions of the nest. To prevent the bumblebees from getting out, the hive must be crushed with something heavy. It should stay in water for several hours until it gets wet.
• Wrapping the nest with polyethylene. Individuals will die due to lack of air. For best results, you can make a hole in the bag and let in a spray of poison spray. It is necessary to take bags of durable material so that insects cannot break through it. If this does happen, you need to run and hide until the bumblebees do harm.
• Treatment of the nest with a fire extinguisher. At night, the hive should be blown out with foam from a fire extinguisher, making sure that all the combs are covered. As soon as the substance dries up and the hornets stop making sounds, the nest must be removed and burned. You can also use polyurethane foam - it dries immediately.

The principle of operation and the consequences of a flamethrower

Thermobaric ammunition has not previously been used in infantry weapons, so the "Bumblebee" can be called revolutionary of this kind. The projectile is arranged as follows: in the front part there is a shaped charge that penetrates armor and walls of buildings.After hitting the target, a fuse is triggered on a capsule with a fire mixture, which forms an instantly exploding aerosol cloud, especially dangerous in closed rooms. So, according to the memoirs of Afghan veterans, a single shot from the "Bumblebee" is capable of guaranteed destruction of all living things in a two-story house, not to mention the caves and improvised mountain shelters, against which it was originally developed. The power of the cumulative part of the projectile is about 2.5 kg in TNT equivalent, which makes RPO-A even more similar to grenade launchers, and allows you to hit lightly armored vehicles.

Bees as a defender: their capabilities and secret weapons

In nature, the species Giant Asian Hornet and European honey bee do not overlap with each other: the former lives in Japan and Southeast Asia, the latter in Europe and the Middle East.

But Asian bees fight hornets with a very original, developed in the course of joint evolution, method: a large number of potential victims stick around the predator, forming a huge - up to 30 cm in diameter - ball of their bodies around it. In this case, insects actively move their wings.

This behavior is explained by the fact that from such muscular work the air inside the ball heats up, and the heat from the movement of the wings is directed to its center, i.e. to the attacking insect. For a giant predator, a temperature of 46-47 ° C is destructive, therefore, after an hour in such a ball, it dies, destroying only a few owners of the nest.

Tactical and technical characteristics (TTX RPO)

The performance characteristics of the Bumblebee flamethrower are listed in the table:

Construction RPO "Shmel"
The bumblebee has four parts:

• container;
• ammunition;
• scurvy;
• engine.

RPO-A "Bumblebee" launch container
The container serves as a launching device with which the Bumblebee weapon is aimed at the target. The container has a simple structure and is a flange pipe. The launch container accommodates:

• aim;
• firing mechanism;
• connection nodes;
• belt.

See also the article Cumulative weapons and their principle of operation

Ammunition and engine

The ammunition serves to engage targets and is an artillery projectile with stabilizing wings that open during flight and facilitate longitudinal rotation around the axis.

4 parts

ammunition consists of so many parts

The ammunition is similar to an artillery shell and consists of four parts:

• capsule;
• fiery mixture;
• fuse;
• tablets of a flammable-bursting charge.

The collet serves as an attachment between the shell and the motor. The engine has a powder system and is used to transmit speed to the ammunition. The RGO Bumblebee engine is detached from the projectile and attached to the barrel.

Component parts of the RPO Bumblebee engine:

• propellant charge;
• camera;
• igniter.

RPO Bumblebee shell modifications

Shaitan Trumpet in Afghanistan against the Mujahideen