A Friend in your Garden

With the demise of the honey bee gardeners are looking for other great pollinators for their gardens.

The Mason Bee, not to be confused with the destructive Carpenter Bee, is a friendly, helpful and productive worker in your orchard or flowers.

This photo is from the web

They are not aggressive and won't sting unless you attack them or if should they get trapped under your clothes (not likely). Neither do they make honey.

The Mason bee doesn't live in hives, but builds nests in hollow stems or insect holes found in trees or wood. Or you can purchase nests already constructed.

I purchased one nest for them several years ago. Even though they started nesting in it immediately, it took a couple of years for the nest to reach capacity. This nest is constructed from some type of bamboo and has stood up under the heat and fluctuating temperatures of S GA for at least three years. I paid less than $20 for it.

Front View

The Mason Bee is anti-social. They take care of their young, but only their young! The male is useless except for procreation. The males are sacrificial and forced to hibernate in the most exposed area of the nests. In case of a severe winter, they'll be the ones to die rather than the females.

In the spring the females are hard at work gathering nectar for their young while simultanously pollinating your fruit trees and flowers. They will range about 100 yards from their nest, but I keep my nest right in the middle of the garden. Don't want these babies to wander too far from my gardens!!!!

Side View

I  worked for over an hour trying to get a good photograph of the Mason Bee - to no avail. They're fast, they're small and they are elusive.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Other/note109/note109.html provides good construction instructions if you're interested in making your own Mason Bee nest.