WARNING: reading this blog post could lead to an obsession with hosting gentle, solitary mason bees right from your patio.
Like me, you are probably familiar with bumble bees, honey bees, and those sometimes-pesky carpenter bees, but have you ever heard of mason bees? Until a year ago I had not, and now I am obsessed with these gentle, spring pollinators.
Of the more than 3,600 species of bees in North America, about 90% of them are solitary rather than social. That means they live and work alone. They don’t have hives, and they don’t make honey. Mason bees are solitary bees. They are native, hole-nesting bees who are easy to host and fun to watch. They make excellent patio partners. Some people even refer to them as pets.
The 411 on mason bees:
Like many solitary bees, mason bees use pre-existing holes for nests. Unlike Carpenter bees, they do not chew or drill holes, so they won’t damage your home or other wooden structures. Because they are looking for pre-existing holes, you can easily attract them and provide a house they will love and use. In return for safe shelter, they will give you hours of free entertainment and abundant yields from your garden. They’re safe for people – even the little ones – and pets. Because they do not have a queen or hive to defend, they are incredibly friendly. The males don’t have stingers. The females have barbless (think painless) stingers, but they are very reluctant to use them. They would rather entertain you with their adorable buzziness.
Female Mason Bees Do the Heavy Lifting.
In the mason bee family, every female is a queen, and every sibling gets their own room. Every female lays eggs and is solely responsible for finding, supplying and protecting her nests. It is quite a lot of work!
These hard-working, single moms are incredibly productive. After a brief day of fun and frolic, she gets straight to work. The first task is finding appropriate housing. She looks for a hole about the diameter of her body, and six or more inches deep. Once she has found an acceptable hole, she looks for some mud nearby. Mason bees use mud like a brick mason uses mortar. She collects mud to make a plug to seal the back of the nest. It might take her ten trips or more to make one mud plug. Next, she collects nectar and pollen to place in the nest. It could take her up to 30 or more trips to create a pollen ball large enough to feed one larvae. Once she has provisioned the nest, she lays one egg on the pollen ball and seals it up with another mud plug. Remember, this takes her another ten or so trips. Mason bee moms lay an average of one egg a day or 34-36 during a lifetime. Astonishingly, she chooses the gender of each egg and lays the female eggs in the back of each nest. This gives the males a chance to emerge from their cocoons a few days before the females, so they can be ready for their one and only date. Male mason bees live just a few days. Females live about four weeks or so, working tirelessly every waking minute. That doesn’t sound like the life of a queen to me!
Check Out Mason Bees on Video:
This three-minute video, produced by the Cincinnati Nature Center, is one of my favorite visual introductions to the mason bee lifecycle.
Why Should You Host Mason Bees Around Your
Garden/Patio?
There are two great reasons you should consider hosting native, solitary bees like mason bees.
Reason #1
First, they are a gardener’s best friend. They will give you increased yields in your garden or orchard while freely and happily entertaining you. Although they don’t make honey, they are critical to our food supply.
Prolific Pollinators
Bees are the most prolific pollinator group, accounting for about one out of every three bites of food we eat. Mason bees are super-pollinators. They are 90-99% efficient at pollinating, as compared to honey bees at around 5%. One mason bee is roughly as effective as 100 honey bees when it comes to pollinating.
One reason that mason bees are more prolific pollinators than honey bees is that mason bees shop and eat locally. They tend to stay within 100 yards (think football field) of their nests. Honey bees, on the other hand, often fly miles from their hive to collect pollen and then return to the hive. Mason bees spend less time commuting and more time working!
Efficient Pollinators
Another reason why mason bees are more efficient pollinators is based on body type and style. Honey bees collect pollen in sticky pouches on their legs. They carefully collect pollen to take back to their hive for food. In the hive, some of the pollen falls off and sticks to other bees. When those bees go out to collect pollen, they cross pollinate the plants they visit.
Belly Flop Pollinators
Mason bees have fine, dry hairs all over their bodies. Unlike their better-mannered cousins, they belly flop into flowers and literally get covered in pollen. The pollen easily falls off them when they dive in to the next flower. Check out this interesting photo showing the difference between honey bees and mason bees in how they pollinate at rentmasonbees.com. Mason bees also tend to meander between plants more than honey bees, which adds to their cross-pollinating effect. I have read that six mason bees will pollinate one fruit tree as compared to 10,000 honey bees. Don’t worry! Mason bees and honey bees are not competitors, they are coworkers! The more we support mason bees, the more we help the honey bees, too!
Reason #2
The second really big reason you should consider making mason and other wild, hole-nesting bees your patio partners is because all bees are threatened by shrinking habitats and harmful chemicals. The fact that you’re interested enough to read this far indicates that you’re probably aware that bee populations are shrinking. The statistics are shockingly sad. I’m choosing to focus on what we can do to help.
Provide Mason Bees a Good Home
Whether you have a large yard, a postage-stamp, or even just a balcony or porch, you can provide safe habitat and invite solitary bees to nest. It’s pretty simple to get started, but I encourage you to learn a little first, before you make a commitment. Our experience was that as soon as we made a bee house – before it was even off my husband’s workbench – the bees moved in! It was a little like when we adopted our first son as a two year old: no time to prepare! We adjusted (then and now), but you have time to prepare for your bees.
Before You Decide, Use This Guide:
In nature, solitary bees have, well . . . solitary nests. They do not typically congregate in one place. While they are perfectly happy living in community, when they live closely together predators and diseases can potentially wipe out many bees at once. So if you are going to host wild, solitary bees, and I hope that you will, please learn how to do it responsibly. It is not complicated, and it is fun and educational.
A really great place to begin your journey is here: Mason Bee Beginner’s Guide by Crown Bees.
Yes, Mason Bees are Patio Friendly!
I hope you’re now considering hosting solitary bees from your patio, and I hope you’ll have as much fun as we’re having doing it. As I am typing this, I hear my husband drilling in the workshop, keeping up with our friends’ requests for his adorable hand-crafted bee houses. That obsession I warned you about at the beginning: it affects the whole family. Happy hosting!
Other Resources:
There are tons of resources online for learning about Mason bees and other solitary bees, like Leafcutters. Search on Google or YouTube or Pinterest, and you’ll find more than you’re looking for.
- One of my favorite online resources for Mason bee information and products is crownbees.com.
- Mason Bee Lifecycle Chart
- Excellent Native Plant Guide at Pollinator Conservation Resource Center | Xerces Society
This is a guest blog post written by Mary Beth Stanley. See her bio below.
Mary Beth Stanley
My husband and I grew up in Michigan and raised our two sons in North Carolina, which we proudly call “Home.”
I love people, and I’m passionate about our planet. In 2002 I was looking for green household cleaners when a friend introduced me to Shaklee. I fell in love. For the past 20 years, I have been privileged to partner with a purpose-driven company with exceptional products, an unwavering committment to the environment, and a community of people who embrace living in harmony with nature. I would be honored to introduce you.
Join us and make Earth Day every day! PWS.shaklee.com/hww
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