Mason Bees
This large group of bees contains several hundred mintage . Mason bees are burrow nesters that create brood tunnels in wood and empty stem turn . They are authoritative former - time of year pollinators , specially in the orchard . They carry pollen on the bottoms of their belly rather of on their hind legs , so their abdomen is often coated with whatever vividness pollen they consumed . Mason bees use clay or chewed - up leaves to separate the brood cellular telephone in their nest . They are far more efficient at cross-pollinate orchard Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree than Honey bee .
Mason bee are average - sized , usually a gamy - black people of colour , sometimes with gray hairs . Some species are iridescent blue or immature . Mason bees are also sell commercially as brood jail cell in paper tubes . If you choose to purchase mason bees , be sure they were reared in your realm of the country . Many diseases and undesirable genetics are spread by enrapture bees into other regions . You ’re better off setting up an empty nesting cylinder block or hollow twig bundle and get the indigenous population move into it .
Squash Bees
This mathematical group consists of about 13 species that are all medium to large in sizing , often with somber - brown coloration and soft striping . They specialize in pollenate fellow member of the cucurbit family , includingpumpkins , melons , squash rackets andgourds . Squash bee are abundant where squash is on a regular basis grown and are found everywhere in the U.S. except for part of the Pacific Northwest . They nest in the ground and are solitary .
Sweat bee
These small insects can drift from 1/4 to 1/2 inch in length and are highly abundant in temperate regions . Sweat bee visit a large number of crop , and some have very drab colouration while others are brilliant and metallic . They cross-pollinate everything fromraspberriesandstrawberriesto watermelon vine and fruit tree and are also found regularly on many differentherbsand decorative flowers . They are particularly important pollinators for stone fruits , pomme fruits , alfalfa and sunflowers . All the hundreds of sweat bee species are ground - nesting , and most are lone .
humblebee
These well recognizable bees visit a variety of crop and are active from other spring until late fall . Bumblebees pollinate blueberry bush , squash , sunflowers and many other crops . They ’re societal bee that live in colonies and nest in cavities .
You know you ’re look at a bumblebee if its consistence is big and fuzzy , often yellow with pitch-dark stripe . About 50 coinage of bumblebees live in the U.S. , and they ’re specially significant to crops in the nightshade folk , such astomatoesand pepper , because they resonate the peak to shake out the pollen find deep within the flower . ( This is bid buzz pollination , and the buzz takes place at about the same frequency as a middle C. )
bumblebee ’ numbers are in sharp decline as several imported disease have been introduced to wild population .
This clause originally appeared in “ Pollinator Central ” in the July / August 2013 issue ofHobby Farms .
