It’s easy to hollow out the soft pith of an Elderberry branch with a drill. Leaf cutter bees will extend the hole with their great cutting ability. Mason bees will use this kind of nest but not as their first choice.
Archive for the ‘Leaf cutter bees’ Category
Elderberry nests
Posted by blueberrytalk on November 24, 2011
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Leaf cutter bees can help with pollination
Posted by blueberrytalk on June 8, 2011
Some leaf cutter cocoons in their leaf shells were moved into the house during April to hasten their emergence. One little male emerged at the end of April so the cocoons were moved to a station outside. Towards the end of May others emerged as the picture above shows. They are in time to help with the pollination
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Nests for leafcutter bees
Posted by blueberrytalk on December 5, 2010
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Incubating leafcutter bee cocoons
Posted by blueberrytalk on December 5, 2010
Leafcutter bees have been increasing in our farming area. The problem is that a lot of their lifespan follows the blueberry pollination season. Incubating leafcutter coccons is a big business in Alberta where the leafcutter’s lifespan is timed with the alfalfa pollination. They have been used in New Brunswick on lowbush blueberries.
We hope to give the cocoons in the box below a warmer environment in the spring to produce bees earlier in the season. The cocoons outside the box are the control group to find out the natural time for leafcutter bees to emerge from their cocoons.
UPDATE: On April 1 the cocoons in the box were brought in the house for incubation. On May 3 the first male emerged. He was able to squeeze through the wire!
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Leaf cutter bees
Posted by blueberrytalk on October 21, 2009
When we opened up a Mason bee nest we found one tube with the typical leaf covered cocoons of a Leaf cutter bee.

Leaf cutter bee cocoons
Then we found some blueberry leaves with notches that would make one suspect Leaf cutter bees.

blueberry leaves
Check out this video to see the Leaf cutter bees in action.
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