(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Gardening with a Purpose: Bee Hotels [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-23 Image from https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/nine-bee-hotel-ideas/ Now that spring is at last on the way, slowly in some regions, sooner in others – in the Willamette Valley crocuses are blooming and the flower buds on shrubs and trees are getting bigger - I am thinking about soon to emerge bee queens and what they need for larvae nests. Last summer I contemplated installing a bee hotel in the garden. There are plenty of commercial options, as well as instructions for homemade models. The image above, from an English gardening website, shows an over-the-top array of various type of bee hotels in one garden plot. www.gardenersworld.com/... According to the pollinator website Xerces: xerces.org/...: there are: ‘…approximately 3,600 bee species are native to the United States and Canada alone. Of these myriad bee species, more than 90% lead solitary—rather than social—lives, in which each female constructs and provisions her own nest, without the assistance of others. The majority of solitary bee species are not aggressive and many are stingless—undeserving of the fear many people feel towards bees. Bugguide has a good overview of the different families of native bees in North America: bugguide.net/… Many nest in tunnels dug in the ground, but two bee families are hole, or tube, nesters. From the Bugguide.net webpage: Hole nesters: masons and leafcutters ‘Members of several families take advantage of already existing holes; that is, they use hollow stems or holes made by beetles or other agents in trees. There, they construct chambers, usually lined up in a row, which they stock one by one to serve as nurseries. Most members of the family Megachilidae are hole nesters who use certain materials to prepare the nest properly. Some use clay to build walls between cells and to seal the entrance; therefore they are called mason bees. Others cut round pieces of leaves for the same purpose and also to line the inner walls of the tube; they go by the name of leafcutters. You may have seen those nearly perfect circles missing from the leaves of your rose bushes. Please, don’t begrudge this housing material to such hard working mothers. Holes in a leaf in my garden, probably made by a leafcutter bee to line or seal a cavity nest for her larvae. So bee hotels are meant for the larvae of mason and leafcutter bees. In nature, tube nesting bees use dry plant stalks and stems to burrow into, or holes in wood made by beetles. That is why gardeners are urged not to cut stems of winter-dormant perennials down to the ground, but instead to leave the stems standing, and in spring to cut dead stalks to 6 to 12 inches above ground for tube nesting bees to use. This does not look as tidy as complete shearing of a dormant plant, but is much better for queen bees searching for a suitable home for their larvae. Leaving dead wood in the garden for beetles to bore into, making future nest holes for bees, is also encouraged. The question is: are man-made bee hotels a worthwhile substitute for dry plant stalks or beetle holes in dead wood? Robert Pavlis, an expert gardener in Ontario Canada, has a website on Garden Myths. Here is the link to his synopsis of bee hotels: www.gardenmyths.com/... Pavlis discusses a study in Toronto, Canada that examined how successful bee hotels were in raising native bees: From May to October, 2011–2013, 200 bee hotels were set up each year throughout the Toronto area, providing a total of 600 hotels for the study. Cardboard tubes of various diameters were used. “At the end of the season, the tubes were collected, marked and placed in storage to overwinter at 4°C. In April of the following year brood cells were moved to a sealed incubation chamber kept at 26°C and 60% humidity until adult emergence. They were then sexed and identified to species, and opened for examination.. The results of the study: On average each hotel produced 45 insects. 31 species of pollinating bees were found, which represents 52% of all cavity-nesting species in the area. 10% of the bee species were non-native, representing 37% of the bees reared. Broods produced were 2,500/year of native bees and 6,000/year of all others (non-native bees and wasps, and native wasps). Wasps used the site more than bees. Hotels located in gardens had a higher ratio of native bees than non-garden areas. The bottom line: Bee hotels certainly work for rearing insects, but they should probably be called Wasp Hotels. Keep in mind that many of the wasps are also important predators in the garden so their presence in hotels in not a bad thing. However, some wasps are also parasitic to bees.’’ Pavilis’s conclusions: It is clear bee hotels do work if you use the right kind, and maintain them correctly. Occupants will consist of both bees and wasps, but both are good for the garden.As a way to protect bees, it probably has limited value because attracting a lot of bees to one location may result in the increased spread of disease.One of the issues with gardens is that much of the dead plant material is cleaned up in spring. If plant reeds are removed, then cavity-breeding bees may not have places in the garden to nest. In this case small bee hotels can be a benefit.’ Pavilis also cautions that adding a proper bee hotel to a garden is not so simple His advice: - Keep Them Small: Tubes or reeds are used to allow solitary bees to lay their eggs. These also make a great place for pests to live. Both wasps and flies also find the tubes a good place to hang out and the developing bees make a great meal. Research suggests that the so-called bee condominiums, (large hotels with many compartments) will attract more pests and make it easier for diseases to spread. - Install it Properly: Position the hotel so it is facing south or south east, at least 3 feet above ground, higher is better. Don’t hide the entrance with vegetation and mount securely so it does not sway in the wind. - Replace Regularly: Replace the nesting sections when they start being covered with mold, or consistently hold parasites. Replace drilled wood blocks every two years. This is one reason many people prefer using reeds or rolled up paper that can easily be replaced. The commercial mason bee tubes i bought on Amazon - Use Good Reeds: The reeds you use must: be the right size, be free of splinters inside, have the end closed, allow moisture to exit (ie no plastic or glass) If you use natural plant reeds, the ends should be cleanly cut with no splinters and no cracks. The use of reeds or rolled up paper is much better than drilled blocks of wood since they can be easily replaced each year, reducing the chance of spreading disease. - Dry and Wind-free: The bee hotel should have an overhanging roof, so the nesting bees stay dry and out of the wind. Few commercial products meet this requirement. - Keep Birds Away: Woodpeckers and other birds may attack the hotel looking for a quick meal. If this is a problem, cover the entrance with wire mesh, keeping it an inch or so away from the openings of the holes. - Maintenance and Care of Your Bee Hotel: Commercial products and many websites make it sound so simple to provide a bee hotel. Buy or make the product, mount it, and stand back to watch your bees. Following this advice will almost certainly lead to disappointment and dead bees….The single most important thing with a bee hotel is that it should be cleaned out every year, all the pupae removed and cleaned as well and then presented for release the following year. Otherwise your bee hotel will become infested with parasites and full of nothing but dead bees.” After bees have emerged from the hotel, clean out the holes or remove the reeds. Everything should be empty and clean before new bees start laying their eggs. In fall, store the hotel in a cool, dry, safe place such as a garden shed. Return them in early spring. Some people open all the reeds in winter and remove living egg cocoons so that they are easier to store. The bee hotel can then be prepared for spring.’ My, all this does sound like a lot of effort. As Pavil says, these structures are called ‘hotels’ for a reason. My homemade bee hotel using the mason bee reeds from Amazon, set high up under a roof overhang on the gutter drain So what am I going to do? Well, first I have left reasonably sized dead stalks, about 3/8 to 1/3 inch in in diameter from last summer’s growth of my perennial flowers, 6 to 12 inches long, for bee queens to use as nests. If the queens do decide my plant stalks are worthy of their larvae, I’ll need to keep the dead stalks through the next winter and spring until the larval bees hatch out. Less work that a bee hotel! And, I did buy on Amazon bee hotel tubes a quarter of an inch in diameter: 120 Pcs Mason Bee House Tubes Refill Cardboard Bee Tubes Paper Mason Bee Tubes Beekeeper Cardboard Inserts www.amazon.com/... I stuffed as many of the tubes and inserts as would fit into a cleaned plastic container, and when the first spring flowers come out, I plan to secure the container on a gutter drain under the eaves of my house. This will be a test to see if any bee queens that come to my garden do use the commercial tubes. Hopefully not wasps! Do you have experience with commercial or homemade bee hotels? I would love to have your comments and advice. Thanks! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/23/2152712/-Gardening-with-a-Purpose-Bee-Hotels Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/