Yay! Me too! I had so many different species visit my yard this year. Like 3 different species of big 'bumble bees'. And so many of the other kind. I like the iridescent green one!! :-D
If you have a drill, they’re stupid easy to make. Read about what size holes the bees in your area like. And leave a smooth edge on the entry! They won’t use it if they sense a risk to their wings.
Might as well roll your own, not like you can reuse them after they nest. Mites and such are an issue.
You can reuse them, but you have to carefully clean the nesting holes. I have professionally made bee houses that I use. The wooden blocks that hold the nesting holes can be removed, opened, and sanitized. This also allows you to harvest cocoons to keep safe from predators/weather for the next year.
Not many realize this, but sticking with the non-bee pollination theme you have things like beetles, butterflies, moths, some species of flies, ants, wasps… the list goes on.
Non-inscect options include some speciea of bats and birds.
That’s not even getting into the tons of other useful things insects do.
I’m all for symbiotic relationships, but that should also mean I get to eat an apple in peace. We literally have four apple trees in our backyard, plenty for everybody, and I let them eat whatever they want to their hearts desire.
I think they’re just nearsighted and not very smart
Yep yep! The main bees in trouble are cute little bumble bees. Since some native plants work best with their native bees, it’s problematic that the sweet little dummies are struggling.
But we just really love their cousins that produce candy in exchange for houses.
Fucking carpenter bees (aka winged termites). Ironically, the males have no stingers but they are extremely aggressive and will kamakazi dive bomb you in the face repeatedly if you get near the entrance to the nest.
Yeah fuck those guys. Had an awning built over our patio and didn’t even get through the whole summer before one started digging a hole into one of the rafters. Our backyard is now a no-fly zone for those bastards.
I don’t mind bees if they’re minding their own business, but once those carpenter bees started trying to burrow or whatever into my shed and fence I was quite annoyed ha.
It looks like they’re good pollinators, but leave my shit alone.
In this thread: Animals only deserve to live if they have a direct use case to us humans. People here are not sure whats alle the fuss about mass extinction. Carry on beloved free market capitalism.
I mean they pollinate too and are important to keep some pests in check. So they are important to the ecosystem.
They are also tiny demons and give me a sense of panic no other creature can because there is just so many of them and they are so small and full of hate.
It is a bummer that these are not mutually exclusive.
Apparently there are some wasps that are pollinators and also not assholes, but I don’t bother to Google which is which before murdering them. If they want to live they shouldn’t be asshole shaped.
Paper wasps are generally good pollinators and not assholes, but they have yellow striping to make them look scary.
Yellow jackets are assholes, unusually aggressive and territorial and this becomes a problem because they also tend to love human food and beverage. In my region, I would also say fuck the bald-faced hornet, which is naturally related to the yellow jacket and is similarly aggressive. Fortunately less common (I haven't been stung by one, but apparently it's worse than it is with a yellow jacket).
Boll's Potter wasps (if I'm remembering their name correctly) are also common where I am and they are pretty chill and just go about pollinating. I'm sure there are a bunch of others that I haven't yet learned to identify.
tl;dr: Yellow jackets and their relatives are assholes. The rest are mostly okay.
We got a small hornet nest somewhat nearby. They tend to come over and murder all the asshole wasps which is nice. The hornets are reddish orange, no idea what kind they are but I like them. Otherwise they are super chill and avoid humans.
The ones I know of are exclusively bumble bees. Which yeah, don’t make honey we can eat. They actually hibernate during the winter, so they don’t need to make a ton of honey. Just enough to snack on if it’s too stormy to go looking for food.
And FYI to anybody reading, the best thing you can do for bumblebee populations is to grow wildflowers native to your region and don't cut them down before they flower so the bees have a chance to get to them.
Bumblebees are these fuzzy, gentle, fat little guys. They're fun to watch and harmless, as long as you don't try to go catching them with your bare hands or something like that.
My grandma was stung by a bumblebee after she ignored it bumping into her for 10 minutes. She was working in the garden next to its nest. I can’t think of another organism that has that kind of patience.
Viewing things from a solely commercial perspective is myopic and like most capitalistic business practitioners, promotes a mindset that thinks waaay too short term. You can’t make your money off your crops decades from when you’re only thinking about this quarters profits. Put simply, the selfish you today fucks yourself over tomorrow.
But even if you were to take this myopic and short sighted approach, Honey Bees are just average pollinators amongst a diverse range of insects and some small birds.
Additionally planting a wide variety of drought resistant flora is better for both wild as well as domesticated pollinators and is a more environmentally friendly practice than just keeping honey bees.
Bees help plants maintain genetic diversity among certain plants that other pollinators may not target. Genetic diversity helps maintain a thriving variety of plant, tolerant to different environments. Especially important is our environments are changing.
Animals that are bred until they cannot survive outside of certain environments, (co-dependence) are destined to become extinct in the absence of said environment. (In case there’s any confusion, insects fall under the umbrella of “animals” taxonomically. Also, in this sentence, the codependent animals may be humans.)
Diverse populations of bees provide benefits and necessities outside of commercial purposes, and are going the way of the American Bison. (Please note the differences from the way of the dinosaur.)
I recently watched a video of a bee keeper showing how his bees were kept save because he fed the wasps fermented pare. So it kept them happy and docile and really showed how some wasps species can co exist and play a part in Mother Nature which we often forget.
I keep (as much as solitary bees can be "kept") native mason and leafcutter bees every year. I love when they first emerge from their cocoons. They're so tiny and adorable. They're also completely non-aggressive and never mind when I mess with their bee houses (mostly to remove spider webs). My plants love the bees as well.
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