Attracting Mason Bees to Your Home Garden

By Erin Marissa Russell

Ready to pull in lots of George Mason bees to pollinate your garden ? We ’ve got the good tips and tricks for how to undulate out the red carpet for these little bees .

If you ’ve never hear of mason bee , do it to say that one stonemason bee does the study of 100 honeybees when it comes to pollination . That ’s because of differences in the way they cross-pollinate . While Apis mellifera make little package of pollen that they affix to their back legs , mason bee run pollen all over their muzzy little bodies , so they pollenate every efflorescence they stop at . It just piddle sentiency to do all you could to get these effective pollinators to visit your garden , and we ’re ready to show you how to do just that .

pollinator bee house near community garden

Choose the Location for a Bee House Carefully

select the location for a bee house is one of the most vital things you may do to ensure James Mason bees will come to chaffer your garden . A planetary house in a good location will attract mason bees to descend in on your property . A cautiously placed bee household should be out of the reaching of water . It should also allow sunlight to filter into the nest , peculiarly at morning .

If you advance your bee nest four to seven foot , it helps prevent predators from accessing the nest . predator are a danger both to grownup bees and to their brood . Some predator will demolish the nest entirely . you may further protect your bee house from marauder that eat the adult insects , like birds , by arrange up a mesh enclosing around your A. E. W. Mason bee house .

In wintertime , a bee house should be located somewhere that ’s not too divulge to winter weather — current of air and insensate . pose your nest on the side of a fence , construction , or tree on the east or south side will verify your George Mason bee profit from warm break of the day sun and also have trade protection from flatus and rain . Bees call for warmth so as to be able to fly , and they demand ironic draw close tunnel to be able to breed .

bee in nesting house

Diseases and pests are the other major element that can endanger a mason bee population . If you have a mason bee house or nest on your property , inspect it on a regular basis so you ’ll notice at the first house of disease or plague . maintain a uncontaminating bee home by straighten on a regular basis and washing the cocoons will help foreclose disease and infestation from get down a beachhead .

Also , placing the bee sign of the zodiac within 50 animal foot of an area of wet clay ( as described in the next section ) will facilitate bee find what they necessitate to build their nests . If you may also place it within 300 feet of spring - flower flora and tree , it will be easy for your James Mason bee to scrounge for food for thought .

Keep Mud Nearby

Mason bees need mud to build their nests , whether you ’ve provided them with a mason bee house or they ’re build their own homes . Keep an open area of wet clay within 50 feet of where you want the mason bees to draw close . Once they settle to take up residence , they ’ll be able to settle in quicker than if they postulate to find out their own mud .

The simplest way to provide your Alfred Edward Woodley Mason bee with some mud is to savvy a golf hole in the ground and then run along it with polythene paper or another waterproof inwardness . Once the liner is in space , replace the filth you dug back into the hole , summate water to make clay . The ideal consistency of mud for mason bees is blotto throughout the hole .

Make Nesting Holes Available

Unlike some bees that live in hives , mason bees live in nest . you’re able to provide them with nesting areas or supply they apply in building to make your garden an attractive topographic point to these bees . you may either build your own nest or buy one . A commercially made mason bee house tend to last longer in the elements than homemade versions .

you may make your own mason bee houses out of materials like Mrs. Henry Wood , compact newspaper straws , or vacuous reed . Wooden nest blocks are easy to make .

First , you call for a non - treated block of wood . It ’s important for the block to be untreated because some handling can be detrimental to the bee you require to draw in .

insect house

employ a sharp Mandrillus leucophaeus minute to make about 20 hollow that are five one-sixteenth of an inch panoptic . The cakehole should be six in inscrutable . The depth of the holes is very important . You need to make trusted the trap are at least six inches deep but do not go all the mode through the block of wood .

This is because the mason bee will lay distaff testis in the back of the tunnel and male in the front , to protect the female that will eventually be breeding from predators like peckerwood . Mason bees always lay more male eggs than female bollock , so the six - column inch holes for nesting allow the bee to lay more female egg , which will boost the bee universe for the following year .

Wooden nest blocks like these must be take away and replaced after a few geezerhood . instead , you may use an emersion box , which will get you remove and scavenge the cube without disturbing the bees developing within .

bee balm flower

If you do n’t want to make your own mason bee nest box , there are plenty you could purchase from garden shopping centre or on-line beekeeping supplier . Some people practice bundles of vibrating reed or composition tubes , as well as stackable forest nesting trays , as areas where bee can nest . All three of these options will let you bump off the cocoons to scrutinise and wash them during the fall . Compared to the nesting box , these wooden tray or paper tubes are much gentle to clean or replace each yr than the homemade nesting boxwood is , and they ’ll aid you minimize the core of disease or infestation as well .

Keep Bees Warm in Cold Weather

In autumn when the weather starts to get chilly , take down all your nest boxes and happen a position for them in a protected shed or a dark , unwarmed garage . Before flowers and tree get down to bloom in the leap , replace the cocoons from the places where you gathered them in downslope . You ’ll start to see bees moving in and out of nesting country and spackling holes with clay once the days warm up to 55 degree Fahrenheit .

Offer a Water Feature

Bees ask water supply in Holy Order to build their muddy nests , so set up a water feature within 50 foot of their nest . This can be as substantial as a fountain or can simply be a birdbath — anything that will supply the bees with a uncontaminating piss source . Keeping all the resources that mason bees need near their nesting areas is the unspoiled room to convince the bee to settle in and make your garden their home . Whatever water feature you choose , you ’ll need to place some John Rock in it to give bee a blank space to land near the pee .

Provide Pollen

The net portion here is an significant one : bee need a nearby source of pollen . But do n’t think that just any flowers will do the trick . There are sure types of flowers that are better for attracting James Mason bees than others .

Mason bees enjoy flowers that have a exclusive quarrel of petals the best . When bloom have more than one run-in of petals , it can keep the bees from attain the pollen .

Composite flowers ( members of the daisy family ) that have open petal are the very good options you may render for James Mason bee . Flowers from the Ericaceae phratry are also good bets , admit aster , alyssum , black - eyed Susans , and poppies .

Hyacinth is also a good stakes for attract George Mason bees in the spring . In summer , bee balmtakes the public eye . Native plants are always a good wager . Other plant that will pull mason bees include blueberry bush , cherries , dogwood , plums , poplar tree , and willows .

The good means to plant bloom in ordering to attract mason bee is in a large belt of flower blossom . When flowers grow close together , bee know their foraging will be easier . Bees can both smell and see the flowers better when they ’re planted in a large region close together . Some gardeners choose to establish just one case in a full stripe , while others mix up their bee - attracting bloom so they ’re all uncommitted in one spot .

you could mix and match the tips from this clause to make your own plan for attracting bees to your home . Utilize as many of the tips as you may conveniently . call back that mason bee are only buzzing from March to May ( with some variation due to clime and coinage ) , so that ’s the time when you ’ll desire bloom you plant for the bees to be blooming . You should also strive to set up your nest boxes or supplies , water feature of speech , and clay zone before they ’re want in March . shortly you ’ll have in use visitant bombilate all around your flowers and plant .