Last summer, all the hedgehogs visiting a garden in Langstone, Hampshire, were killed by road traffic, leaving the hedgehog house beneath a purple-leaved elder empty over winter. A few weeks ago, fresh faeces on the patio, glistening with undigested insect exoskeleton, signaled a new prickly visitor. Camera trapping revealed a rotund adult hedgehog with a distinctive arrowhead mark on its rump.
Cleaning the Hedgehog House Leads to Surprise
After checking nocturnal video recordings to ensure the house was unoccupied, the gardener decided to clean it out and leave fresh bedding. Lifting the lid, they found a palm-sized giant house spider had been living there. Using a bamboo cane, they gently prodded the old hibernaculum—a compressed sphere of barley straw and dried leaves.
Suddenly, a burst of radio static erupted. The noise intensified into a thin, high-pitched, harsh hiss, unlike the defensive huffing of hedgehogs. Before the gardener could react, a squadron of gingery tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) flew out of the box, heading straight for them.
Tree Bumblebees: Aggressive Reputation, Mild Behavior
Tree bumblebees are known for aggressively defending their nests, but this reputation proved exaggerated. Several bees hovered around the gardener's head and bumped against bare arms as a warning. Only one pursued them across the lawn, and they escaped unstung. The hiss, produced by workers vibrating flight muscles without taking off, is a defense mechanism against nest-raiding mice seeking bee brood. It is triggered by vibrations and carbon dioxide in mammalian breath, making the gardener's presence seem threatening.
According to the gardener, who has rehabilitated many hedgehogs, the bees' reaction was surprising but ultimately harmless. The incident highlights the unexpected wildlife interactions that can occur in suburban gardens.
