Native Pollinators: How to Protect and Enhance Habitat for Native Bees
Mace Vaughan and Scott Hoffman Black, Native Plants Journal
Summer 2008
The success of all restoration efforts—and indeed, of life as we know it— depends on a healthy and diverse population of native pollinators. Pollinators are critical for seed production and the perpetuation of native plants (and our food crops). Bees are our most important pollinators in North America. Nursery managers, seed producers, and field restorationists can protect and enhance habitat for native bees. Native bees have 3 basic habitat needs. 1) Bees need a constant supply of food—a diversity of plants with overlapping blooming times so flowers are available throughout the growing season. 2) Bees need places to nest. Most native bees are solitary, and none build wax or paper structures like we associate with honey bees or wasps. Most bees nest in small warrens they construct underground, or in narrow tunnels often left behind by beetle larvae in dead trees. Bumble bees require small cavities, either in tree boles, underground (often in old rodent burrows), or under clumps of fallen grass, in which to raise their young, as well as undisturbed duff in which queens burrow and hibernate through the winter. 3) Bees need protection from most pesticides. Insecticides are primarily broad spectrum and are therefore deadly to bees. Indiscriminate herbicide use can remove many of the flowers that bees need for food. Foster bees by observing, protecting, and enhancing nesting sites and year-round sources of pollen and nectar.
Read the entire article in PDF format
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
We are building bee boxes, and need to know: Best place to place them; their breeding cycle - that is, when and how do they develop? Thank you.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I have been looking for a good wildflower mixture for bees and other beneficial bugs. I would love some suggestions! Thank you.
February 7th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I bought a Mason bee box from masonbeehomes.com in Canada. I’m in southern California and I’d like some guidance on where to place the bee box so that it does not get over-heated in our hot weather. I gather that the bees should lay the larvae by May or so and then I should ’store’ the box. Most instructions are are for more northern climates so any advice would be welcome.
Thanks.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Hi,
This PDF on native pollinators is a great resource. Thanks, Xerces, for all the wonderful work you do!
I have a couple questions on bee boxes. I recently became the recipient of a large 3 x 6 piece of wood with tons of holes drilled in it. I can see it has been used by insects in the past. Unfortunately, the holes were drilled the short length so they are only 3 in. deep. Is it still worth cleaning this out and using it?
Also, I’ve seen other reports that emphasize the need to clean and sterilize homemade boxes each year. What is your position on that? If I just run the drill through the holes again, will that clean them enough? What happens in natural nests? Do they just not get re-used?
Thank you!
February 9th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Hi Jules,
We don’t seem to get too many answers on this list. From what I’ve read though, the 3 inch deep holes are likely to only produce male bees since deeper or longer holes are needed to create the environment for female larvae. We wondered the same question about sterilization. I’ve not seen any answers to that. I’d speculate that in the natural world with enough bees, some could be lost to mites and the like and bees were had more opportunity for finding new nests in the natural world. When trying to encourage bees and mitigate risk of loss, then it is worthwhile to sterilize. At least that’s my ‘common sense’ thinking on the subject. Hope it helps.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Another good PDF for Blue Orchard Bees is:
http://www.sare.org/publications/bee/blue_orchard_bee.pdf
Step by step instructions for managing the bees are available either as a book or DVD from:
http://beediverse.com/
February 17th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I have had bee boxes for a number of years. I have blue orchard bees and alfalfa leaf cutter. They nest in the same boxes, at different times. My boxes are only 3-4 inches deep and they produce millions of females. The boys come out first–don’t dispair! the girls will be there in a day or two. I have never cleaned out my boxes, just let the bees use the holes that are there. I also make nests by rolling clean paper arouond a small dowel and taping it shut, then folding up the end to make a closed on one end tube. The bees use them just fine.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Answers to many of the questions that folks have raised can be found in the Pollinator Conservation Handbook published by none other than The Xerces Society. This is a great little book and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in bees or other pollinators.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I use the “leave some bare ground for them to do their own thing” approach, but I know that’s not pro-active enough for most people. I can’t say that I “have” any bees, but they do spend a lot of time in my yard. In the 7 years since I’ve been taking up lawn and gradually adding native plants the number and diversity of the different kinds of pollinators and other beneficial bugs has been gradually on the rise. And the side benefit is that I don’t have to kick myself anymore for not filling up all the open space fast enough.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I live in southern California and have a nest box for native bees that was put up several years ago. NOw that it is spring here, what do I do about the box because the cardboard tubes are filled from last year? Should I replace them with new tubes? Or what?
Thank you.
March 14th, 2009 at 2:12 am
Hi,
I’m from the UK and I run a website called Solitary Bees: http://www.insectpix.net. I regularly get enquiries from the USA, from people wanting to eliminate ground nesting bees, for all the usual reasons around fear of insects and bees in particular. I always do my best to reassure correspondents that there is really nothing to fear and I usually signpost people to the Xerces website. It would be very useful if Xerces could produce some basic material explaining how active aggregations of ground nesting bees are harmless and actually provide a great opportunity to enjoy nature. The Native Pollinators leaflet is really great, but could be improved by adding something along the lines I have suggested - right at the beginning of the leaflet, or by producing a separate leaflet - as simple as possible, expounding the delights of solitary bees and the harmless nature of these wonderful insects.
Best wishes
Nigel Jones
March 15th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I live in PDX and have been hosting Orchard Mason Bees for 6-7 years. My yard is a bee and bird-friendly habitat, plus I live near a park; my bees are healthy and active. I have lots of hibernating bees if you’re looking for some.
I’m also glad to help people get started hosting bees, and share what I’ve learned about the different ways people manage their bees.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I found this honey bee wildflower seed mix on the web. I am going to try and find some mixes locally. If I can’t find any, I may order this one and try it.
http://www.wildflowermix.com/info/custom/honeybee.html