Nesting Habitat for a variety of NATIVE BEE SPECIES
Wood Cavity Nesting
Similar to native bees/ wasps that nest inside hollow cavities, there are also bees which nest in the tunnels that are created by wood boring grubs. There is overlap between the two types of habitat eg. Hylaeus. (Check out the caps of the nests!)
- Female native bees don’t die when they sting (males don’t have stingers), and only ~31 species don’t sting (Meliponini + Stenotritidae)
You can expect to see:
Wasp Mimic Bees – Hyleoides
Grass Carrying Wasp – Isodontia
Resin Bees – Megachile
Hollow Stem Nesting
Native solitary bees (and semi social like Exoneura) will use the hollows inside flower stems and bamboo to create nests and lay eggs before collecting pollen to store with the eggs for when it hatches.
- 30% nest in cavities in dead wood/hollow stems
- We have lots of short tongue bees in Aus
You can expect to see:
Reed Bees – Exoneura
Leafcutter Bees– Eutricharaea
Masked Bees – Hylaeus
Ground Nesting
Ground nesting native bees like Amegilla will construct cells inside clay/sand/mortar mixtures in containers by digging or will also simply nest in bare patches of ground (leave some ground based real estate naked and bare for your native bees!)
- 70% of bee in Australia nest in the ground In clay and sand!
- Most species are solitary - one female for one nest.
You can expect to see:
Blue Banded Bee – Amegilla
Cuckoo Bee – Thyreus
More Native Bee Facts
- 11 species make honey, the rest do NOT
- European honey bees are NOT native to Australia
- There are 5/8 global bee families in Australia
- 88% of the world’s flowering plants need pollinators to set seed/reproduce
- 1 in 3 bites of food is because of pollinators
- 75% of Australia’s crops benefit from insect pollination, and 87/115 major global crops
How can I tell What Bee Species is using the bee hotel
What Bee makes a Orange Cap?
Resin bees from the family Megachilidae which collect tree sap to seal the entrances to their nests.
What Bee makes a Spider Web Like Entrance?
Wasp mimic bees from the family Colletidae and the genus Hyleiodes.
What Bee Seals the hole with leaves?
Leaf cutter bees from the family Megachilidae and subgenus Eutricharaea
What Bee makes a Glossy Clear Glass Cap?
Masked Bees from the family Colletidae and the genus Hylaeus
What Bee makes a Mud Cap?
This is actually likely to be a wasp. Potter wasps (Eumeninae) and square headed wasps (Pison)
What Bee Leaves Grass hanging out of a bee hotel?
This is actually a wasp. A grass carrying wasp from the genus Isodontia