Mason bees – unique moment captured on camera
I have put paper inserts inside in my mason bee blocks this year so that I can count the cocoons and keep the parasitic fly population under control. If not …
6 Responses to Mason bees – unique moment captured on camera
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@solitarybee I think my last reply to you was on the wrong video, or the
wrong reply to the right video lol.I know yours aren’t commercial nesting
tubes. I am rolling my own inserts now having seen your reasons for
replacing with clean ones each year, to help against mite, pest and
diseases It ‘s quite a tricky job to roll perfect edges.I’m trying to
devise a method which does not cause curled edges and hurt my arthritic
hands so much. Where’s that old fag rolling machine gone from days of old?
eccentricoldcow
November 19, 2014 at 4:20 am
@eccentricoldcow These were not commercial nesting tubes… I use the brown
paper used for parcels or recycled envelopes. So there’s no problem with
the spiral compression tension of prefabricated nesting tubes + you can
reuse them and they’re low cost if not free if you save them up over the
year. As you can see here, the bees occasionally decide to trim the
internal edges if the potential inner curl gets in their way. They were
also pretty successful and the parasites could be cleaned out.
solitarybee
November 19, 2014 at 4:39 am
I am not keen on these nesting tubes as I find them very difficult to
remove the cocoons from when cleaning. They unroll in a spiral and I’m
unable to view the contents intact as they tend to pop out all over the
place. So I shall not buy anymore and make my own by rolling on a thin
length of plastic I kept just right for the job
eccentricoldcow
November 19, 2014 at 4:57 am
@solitarybee How many times do you roll the paper around your chopstick you
use & do you leave the paper proud at the entrance?I am doing some that way
and some cut back flush. One wonders what the bees would use if we didn’t
provide such unique homes, as I’ve never found any evidence of sbs in the
wild when collecting giant hogweed or Japanese knotweed stems.
eccentricoldcow
November 19, 2014 at 5:21 am
what was the unique moment?
exo teric
November 19, 2014 at 5:22 am
It’s in the info above – it’s a mason bee doing some housekeeping by
removing a long piece of the paper lining of a tunnel that if you look is
more than twice the length of her body. I knew they would occasionally trim
the paper, but have never seen let alone filmed that level of
fastidiousness.
solitarybee
November 19, 2014 at 6:01 am