They're Back: Turquoise Sweat Bees Emerge in Vancouver on Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day! We celebrated with a picnic at the farmer's market and I spent some happy time gardening at home and at MACC. I noticed that the white Dutch clover and red clover are blooming today, which may be an indicator for the arrival of some late spring emerging bees such as this turquoise sweat bee and the common large Adrena mining bees we have here. These flowers are five spot, which reseeded themselves from last fall. There were all sorts of bees in the flowers from honeybees down to tiny black solitary bees.

The last of the blue orchard mason bees were also foraging in the five spot and the poached egg flowers, which also reseeded themselves generously.  I also witnessed a small female mason bee tripping the keels of the lupin flowers and drinking the nectar in my back yard.

I noticed that even though the two patches of flowers were side by side, the syrphid flies seemed more attracted to the yellow flowers, and the bees were more bonkers over the five spot. It would be worth doing a quick survey of these flowers every time I visit the garden.

The native roses we planted are also in bloom and they were full of little mining and sweat bees swimming in the stamens. Another phenological indicator that's about to happen is the mock orange trees are just starting to bloom.

On a completely different note, I am suddenly seeing a lot of click beetles this year. Keep an eye out for wire worms!

Bee Gardens Trump Bee Hotels: A New Canadian Study

A new study out of Toronto suggests that planting bee gardens is a better strategy than building bee hotels. The study by Laurence Packer and J. Scott MacIvor  found that bee hotels fill up with about as many introduced bee species as native bees, but that wasps that predate bees outnumbered the other guests. The research took place over two years, so it will be interesting to see future studies to see if pest buildup increased over four years to a population "sink" or crash, which is a natural cycle.

The study suggests that it's very important where you put the hotel. The best place? In a bee garden.  The highest percentage of native bees on the guest list were found in backyard gardens. Another important finding was that it is very important to locate the hotel in a sunny spot which will be less likely to be overcrowded with wasps. The conclusion to the study warns businesses who sell bee hotels not to "bee-wash" their products with claims that they boost native bee populations, when in fact more research needs to be done. In the meantime planting more flowers for our native bees is your best investment.

The sad little mason bee in the photograph above is from my back yard. She is covered with mites and was trying to groom them off. Males will mate with her and the mites will jump onto them. She will probably not live very long. These bees are nesting in the cedar shingles of our house. Speeking of bee-washing, if you do have been hotels, make sure you clean the cocoons in the fall to prevent bees being overloaded with mites and to help prevent the buildup of parasitic wasps. If you have a bee hotel you cannot clean, learn how to cycle out old materials to prevent this buildup of pests and research which hole sizes are best for native bees rather than introduced bees.

You can read the entire study called 'Bee Hotels' as Tools for Native Bee Conservation: A Premature Verdict? by Laurence Packer and J. Scott MacIvor in PLOS One.

Mason Beepalooza at John Henderson Elementary: Bees are Life!

The plum trees are blooming in the John Henderson Schoolyard, the Oregon grape shrubs are just starting to show their yellow blooms, and the pieris are coming into flower too.  The pussywillows will soon be producing yellow powdery pollen. That means it's mason bee time! Erin Udal from the Environmental Youth Alliance and Madame Beespeaker spent an inspiring day with students from the school learning all about mason bees so they can install this condo on their school and take good care of their blue orchard mason bees.

The garden club met with us over lunch time and each named a mason bee cocoon becfore putting them in the secret cocoon release compartment in the condominium. Many were named after flowers: daisy, daffodil and rose. It's still a too early to put out the cocoons. I usually wait until I see a mason bee flying in the flowers before putting out cocoons. Master Beekeeper Brian Campbell also suggests putting them out in stages 1/2 early, 1/2 two weeks later, just in case the weather turns bee unfriendly. Most of the trees you see blooming right now are the plums, but when the cherries come into blossom, hopefully it will be warm enough for the mason bees.

Then we acted out the life cycle of the mason bee, the joyful ups and downs growing from egg to larva to pupa, laying eggs, gathering pollen, sipping nectar, and making mud walls to keep our babies safe from woodpeckers.

Each class told us why they were grateful for bees: because  through pollination they provide us with a rainbow of fruits and vegetables for our plates. That's called biodiversity, folks!

The grade 6/7 class made seed packets that would inspire gardeners to plant flowers that feed the bees.

The students came up with some great advertising slogans for their seeds: bees are life!

 

Erin brought out her fabulous bee box with examples of real bees, wannabees and wasps. Upon discussion we decided that wasps were omnivores rather than carnivores because they sip nectar as well as eating other insects. I've always called wasps carnivores, but I stand corrected. Bees are vegans, wasps are omnivores.

We also planted microgreens with the grades 4/5 which they will water and grow once they get back from spring break. Plants like overwintered broccoli produce flowers in the spring that feed mason bees. Then they produce seeds which you can grow into micro-greens for a nutritious snack. (Radishes are great for bees too).

As we learned, all good things must come to an end, even the sweet little mason bees. (Although not every one gets a proper Christian burial). They only live a few weeks, but they play an important role in keeping our fruit trees brimming with cherries and apples. Thanks bees and bee-lovin' students and thanks to the bee-loved adults who helped make this project possible with a Neighborhood Small Grant.

The Shape of April Bee Flowers

One of our neighbors has planted native bushes on the boulevard in front of her house. This has created a super bee habitat, with mason bees zipping back and forth from holes in the adjacent power pole to the Oregon grape bush and the Pieris japonica (not native, but very popular with native mason bees).

 I never noticed before that the Oregon grape blossoms are like miniature daffoldils

The female mason bees will transform from larvae to adult bees in the back of these holes, and the males will develop closer to the entrance. Some of the boys will inevitably be lost to woodpeckers.

 The blossoms of the redflowering current are also like miniature daffodils.

 The honeybee is one of many bees who can access the nectar in the blossoms. All kinds of currants are attracted to currant blossoms. We really need to load up our city parks and gardens with different varieties of currant bushes.

This little mystery bee showed up on the current leaf. He's got a sweet red moustache and large mandibles. I don't know the Latin name, but I'm going to call him Angus.

 And for a completely different blossom shape--this purple dead nettle flower has the bilateral symmetry of the mint family. Did you know this weed is edible? Just remember to leave some for the bees!

Finally, here's the narrow bell-shaped flowers of the Pieris japonica. In June, the native rose nearby will also provide food for native bees. Thanks to this gardener, this boulevard is an excellent bee habitat!

Cleaning Mason Bee Condos with Brian Campbell

 It's that time of the year to prepare your mason bees for winter by cleaning the cocoons and condos. Brian Campbell gave a thoroughly fascinating workshop on mason bees as part of the VanDusen Garden workshop series. Brian started the class with a talk on the diversity of bees in British Columbia. He says our province is a great place to practice native bee conservation. This talk is worth the price of admission alone and Brian can come to your garden club or school and tell you all about our local bees. He can give you the confidence to clean your mason bees and help them live to produce another generation next spring.

My father-in-law says he brings his houses in to dry a few days before he cleans them out. Brian takes his in much earlier to protect them from birds and predatory mites. If you had two condos you could try both methods and compare the results. (Note that it's important not to disturb the egg while it is developing into a larva.)

If you have houses made of drilled holes with paper tubes you need to pull out the tubes and unroll them to remove the cocoons. I recently read that parchment paper for cooking is the best paper for rolling your own tubes if you are using the system with the drilled holes.When cleaning cocoons it's important to watch for hibernating wasp queens. We had found one that appeared totally dormant until she woke up and began flying around the room. There are several other mason bee pests you may find in your tunnels including parasitic wasps, cuckoo bees, cuckoo wasps, carpet beetles, flour beetles, spider beetles and pollen mites.

Also look for any cocoons that are damaged and empty and put them in the garbage pile. If your tunnels are filled with crumbly brown matter and chalky white hard  dead larva you may have a condo infected with chalk brood. In this case you've got to quarantine your condo and clean it with water and bleach. Clean your hands as well to prevent the disease from spreading.

If you've got some healthy cocoons, separate them out and wash them in a tub. Some people use bleach, and some don't. There are other people experimenting with natural oils to eliminate the mites and also the cleansing action of gentle abrasion with sand. There are natural eco-sensitive bleaches on the market that would work for this. Brian assures us the healthy cocoons are water proof and the bleach will not get into the bees.

 This condo was interesting because it contained the cells and larva of resin bees. If these are put back together once the mason bees are cleaned out they should pupate and hatch next summer. The exact species of this bee remains a mystery to us. I really wish we had a digital microscope to look more closely at all the insects and debris in the tunnels. (If anyone knows of a good digital microscope for classroom and home use with a MAC OS, please let me know. Price is an object, BTW!)

 It's as simple as this: just putting the cocoons in water and letting them float to the top. You can remove them and let them dry on an old towel. Some people repeat this three times or also use sand to help abrade debris from the cocoons. The most common debris is black pellets of bee poop and pollen mites. These hairy footed mites hitchhike on the backs of bees to eat pollen. Like Varroa mites they reproduce at an alarming rate which can all end in tears. If hairy mites in the tunnels run out of pollen they eat the mason bee cocoons and then they eat the mason bees.

Next you can "candle" the bees by laying them on a powerful flashlight or light tray. Brian encouraged us to keep track of how many large (female) cocoons and smaller (male) cocoons were intact. By mid December (or earlier) puts the cocoons in a plastic bag in a jar in the refrigerator until spring. He adds a wet piece of paper towel on the bottom to keep some humidity in the jar, but not too much. Check your bees periodically to see if they are too dry or too wet.

We also found a tiny dead cuckoo wasp: Pseudomalus auratus. It was just a few mm long and it had a shiny turquoise thorax and a red shiny abdomen. It is one of the wasps that parasitizes mason bees. This wasp does not sting, but curls into a ball when it feels threatened. Awwww.

Should you clean your cocoons? Yes. Most folks had not cleaned their condos for a couple of years and they were overrun with pollen mites and disease. From my research I also learned it is best to buy cocoons from a trusted local mason beekeeper like Brian who checks to make sure he sells disease-free Western mason bees.

Citizen Scientist Uniforms with The Environmental Youth Alliance

It's June. School's almost over, the sun is shining and the world is full of distractions. That must be why my son forgot his lunch kit. That must be why I was late returning his lunch kit because I had to stop and take photos of the bees mobbing this Bridal Bush on the Ontario bike route. I am imagining a future Vancouver in which are bike routes are also bee routes and pollinator corridors.

There are late bloomers and late rises and here's a mason bee when I thought all the mason bees had finished their cycle for the season. There were also honey bees, bumble bees, and syrphid flies on this bush and the California lilac beside it.

 I met Erin Udal at what is unofficially the Citizen Scientist club house in Strathcona Community Garden. We silk-screened the logos she designed onto t-shirts to wear while we are monitoring native bee populations in our neighbourhood over the summer. So if you see us wearing these uniforms, carrying clipboards, and counting bees feel free to ask us what we're doing because we love to talk about bees.

This is a line drawing of a mason bee.  This is a two colour print with the registration slightly shifted.

Scenes from a Community Garden

 What up? Look at the florets around the edge of the calendula centre. That's where the nectar is. Is that pollen on your forehead?

A mason bee stops to groom on a viola.

 The same bee hides from the paparazzi. You can faintly see the pollen on her scopa.

The holes are filling up fast. I'm thinking we may have to put a bird guard on this baby because it might be tempting to flickers.

There's a bee on the thyme. Small flowers, small bee.

 It's easier to take photos of bees when they are resting or grooming.