We used to have man-made bee houses for native solitary bees, though we’ve stopped using those and now recreate natural places instead. And this is a general principle I’ve come to embrace: Recreating the resources of nature (to the extent possible in a suburban setting) is always better than offering man-made resources.
We now provide a number of places for bees to raise their young, including bare ground and old logs and other wood.
Bare ground
Since about 70%(!) of native bees nest in the ground, we make sure we have bare ground available (in other words, not covered with mulch).
Bumble bees in particular need natural areas to nest. We have little lawn and no mulch so we have plenty of nesting areas.
This bumble bee has found a nest spot in our front yard. We pass by this area all the time, but we’ve had no problems co-existing!
I believe there may have been a shrew in this grassy area during the winter.
Bees will often nest where rodents have nested or under old grasses.
Old logs and other wood
We’ve collected logs when we’ve seen them put out to the curb or, more rarely, when we’ve created them ourselves, such as when we cut down our non-native kousa dogwood. We have a pretty good supply of replacement logs. So few people think of them as useful that they just put them out to the curb.
At first, I thought of them as an inexpensive, natural-looking border for our flower beds, but now I realize that they’re also a valuable nest site for bees.
Beetles often stake their claim on this resource first, and their holes and tunnels make it even more useful for native wood-nesting bees.
We spotted this leafcutter bee taking a leaf down into the stump to use to separate its egg cells.
And where do the leafcutters get their little circles of leaves? From our plants, of course. This doesn’t hurt the plant, and I think it creates an interesting pattern.
I later read that redbuds are actually a favorite source of leaves for this particular type of leafcutter bee.
Old plant stems
A harder way for most people to accept is to provide homes for bees by allowing dead stalks to remain. People just like to have “neat” yards! And yet this is a very important nest site for many bees.
(See the Xerces graphic in the Resources section below for a good description of how they use the stems through the year to raise their young.)
We left these dead flower stems all winter, and now at the end of April we’re cutting them back to 20″ or so — not to the ground.
This will make a good place to raise some little insects!
Our house (and other buildings)
Although it is not our intent, we’ve had some bumble bee nests in various places next to our home (never actually inside, of course, unless you count the garage). Although it’s not our first choice for bee homes, it’s a small repayment for the many services they provide, including making our delicious garden produce possible.
This bumble bee nest was under the edge of the house near our side entrance, which serves as our primary entrance. (You can see a bee entering beneath the shingles right about in the middle of the photo.)
In this case, the bees were a little less friendly. I never got stung, but I got chased a few times. I think they were fine until I started spending a lot of time with my camera right up next to their entrance. They finally had enough I guess.
One year, the bumble bees decided to nest in the garage — not exactly in our house, but it comes close. The photo was taken looking down to the garage floor, the sheetrock wall at the bottom of the photo, and the wooden step at the right.
Despite some misgivings (ours, not the bees’), it worked out fine. The only real inconvenience was that we had to remember to keep the door to the backyard open since that’s where they were entering and leaving.
There was a lot of activity in this small area (both bees and humans since that’s where all our tools are), but we managed to coexist just fine.
It was reassuring, though, to remember that this nest would be a one-time thing. At the end of summer, only the bumble bee queens survive, and they go hibernate elsewhere for the winter and so they wouldn’t be returning to this nest. They start from scratch the next spring, which is why bumble bee colonies never reach the size of honey bee hives.
We were glad to have provided a place for the colony to produce next year’s bumble bees. BUT we try to keep the garage door closed so they don’t build in there again. After all, we try to provide enough places for them outside!
Honey bees
On the other hand, honey bees — because they store honey and the colony grows and grows — can be a real problem.
Our local nature center found them in the walls of their building (pictured) and hired someone to remove them.
Resources
This graphic from Xerces Society explains the cycle very well. (It can also be printed as a 1/3 sheet brochure — i.e. three on a sheet, front and back.)
- The Xerces Society:
- Tufts Pollinator Initiative:
- The Science:
- VIDEO: Meet the bees that build rooms out of leaves – Great 2-min video!