Orchard Mason Bees: Better Garden Pollinators Than Honeybees

Native Orchard Mason Bees: Better Pollinators than Honeybees

COPYRIGHT © 2011 Cherie Kuranko ~ "InkSpot"

All Rights Reserved.

Mason bees are a native species of bee and make excellent spring pollinators. There are over 200 species of mason bees found worldwide and about 140 species found in North America. Most are found in the western region of the United States. This bee is well-known as one of the greatest beneficial insects to have in the orchard or garden.

Most mason bees can be found in wooded areas, but they are found in towns and cities as well. They are solitary bees and do not colonize like honeybees. With the steady decline of honeybees, the awareness of using mason bees as pollinators is growing. In fact, mason bees have proven themselves to be better pollinators than honeybees. These bees emerge in early spring, often when the first fruit trees are just starting to bloom, and work tirelessly in cooler, wetter weather than honeybees.

The orchard mason bee (Osmia lignaria) is gentle, rarely stinging unless trapped or severely aggrivated. They are slightly smaller than honey bees and are commonly mistaken for a fly until one examines them more closely. They are shiny dark blue in color. The females are larger than the males, which have longer antennae and an extra tuft of light colored hairs on the face. The underside of the abdomen on females have hairs designed to aide her in the carrying of pollen.

It is the females who do all the work, nest building, egg laying and pollinating. The males are not known to be good pollinators and their primary purpose appears to be for reproduction purposes only. The males emerge just before the females in early spring and wait for the females to emerge. When they do, the males mate with the females and then die.

The females will live about a month after emerging. She will spend her days nest building, providing the nectar and pollen food supply for the larva and nest building. The female chooses a hole for the nest that is slightly larger than her body. She then makes a mud plug for the bottom of the hole and brings in about 15-20 loads of food, which consists of the pollen and nectar she collects from spring flowers. She carries this on the underside of her abdomen, using the tiny hairs to carry a large load.

She will then lay an egg and seal the cell with a thin layered mud plug. She will continue to lay eggs daily in this fashion until the hole is almost full and then seal the end with a much thicker layer of mud to protect it from predators.

Inside the egg will hatch within a few days and the larva will consume the meal provided by the adult female. In about 10 days the larva’s meal will be finished and it will spin a cocoon and pupate inside its nest. It will remain in the nest throughout winter, but by the end of summer it will have already transformed into an adult mason bee. When the spring weather warms the males will chew the mud plug away and emerge and within three to four days the entire cycle will begin all over again.

Scientists are amazed at how the female mason bees are capable of placing the males at the front end of the plug. It is uncommon to find a male mason bee in the rear of the nesting tube or hole.

To encourage these natural pollinators in your fruit orchards and gardens you can provide nesting boxes, a mud/water source and early spring flowering plants or fruit trees to provide the necessary nectar and pollen these bees need. They feast on native and garden plants. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation suggests the following:

Provide a wide range of plants that offer succession of flowers throughout the entire growing season. Be sure to include early spring flowers for mason bees.

• Use local native plants, which studies show are four times more attractive to native bees than exotic flowers.

• Plant different varieties of heirloom perennials and herbs

• Plant in clumps rather than individual flowers

• Choose several colors of flowers. Bees are especially attracted to blue, purple, violet, while and yellow.

• Choose flowers of different shapes and sizes to benefit all sizes of bees

In the Pacific Northwest the following Native Plants are recommended:

• Aster

• California Poppy

• Clover

• Currant

• Dandelion

• Elder

• Fireweed

• Goldenrod

• Huckleberry

• Larkspur

• Lupine

• Mint

• Oregon grape

• Sunflower

Garden Plants recommended for bees in the Pacific Northwest:

•  Basil

• Borage

• Cotoneaster

• English lavender

• Globe thistle

• Hyssop

• Marjoram

• Mexican sunflower

• Rosemary

• Wallflower

• Fruit trees (early spring flowering for mason bees) Cherry and apple are great.

• Berries 

Discover how to make a mason bee nest using recycled items commonly found in your home.

COPYRIGHT © 2011 Cherie Kuranko ~ "InkSpot"

All Rights Reserved.