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Below: A leafcutter bee cuts pieces of petals to line her nest. Photo by Lisa Robinson

Give Credit Where Credit is Due: Honey Bees Aren’t the Only

Bees in the Garden

Wenatchee World Article for November 2024

By Julie Banken

Honey bees live social lives, and work together to tend their young and gather food to sustain

their colonies. Queens lay eggs and workers divide all the labor. Even in winter, their hives

remain busy, crowded places, literally buzzing with the activity of thousands of workers

collectively vibrating their wing muscles to keep warm.

Bumble bees also live in colonies. Unlike honey bees, their social life comes to an end at the

onset of winter. All bumble bees in a colony die in fall except the mated females. These future

queens dig shallow burrows and spend the winter underground in a dormant state. In the spring,

each new queen, or “foundress,

” will establish her own nest, lay eggs, and nurture the first

generation of daughters that will help her with foraging and caring for subsequent broods.

While bees are celebrated for their ability to work together, fewer than one out of ten bees are

social. The other 90% are solitary bees, and as their name implies, they spend their entire lives

on their own. They serve no queen and get all their work done alone.

Males typically don’t live long after mating, but female solitary bees have an extensive to-do list.

In the spring, they choose nesting sites, construct nurseries, gather nesting materials, lay eggs,

and provision egg chambers with pollen. The one thing they don’t have to do is take care of their

babies. Once their eggs are safely tucked in, the females’ work is done.Solitary bees don’t make honey or combs of wax, but they are incredibly creative when it comes

to building nests. Remarkably, over two-thirds of solitary bees nest underground. Mining bees

and digger bees are good examples. These small insects that we typically see in flowers also

dig burrows that can range from a few inches to several feet deep.

The rest of the solitary bees are cavity-nesters. They build their nests in hollow plant stems and

holes they find in dead wood. Starting at the back of the hole, they add pollen and an egg, then

seal them up together, repeating this process until the hole is filled. If you could open it up, the

completed nest of a cavity-nesting bee would look like a colorful pollen parfait.

Cavity-nesting bees are particular about the materials they use to seal each brood chamber.

Mason bees use mud, and resin bees use sap. Leafcutter bees are the best interior decorators;

they line and seal their nests with a quilt of carefully cut pieces of green leaves or colorful flower

petals.

Whether they are social, annually social, or solitary, all bees pollinate flowers as they forage for

food. Unfortunately, not all bees get the credit they deserve for the vital role they play in plant

reproduction. Honey bees may be the most iconic pollinators but are actually not native, and

have spread across North America like dandelions. In spite of threats from pesticides, diseases,

and parasites, thanks to their importance to the crops we depend on for food, there are more

honey bees in the world today than at any time in history. T o put it simply, honey bees are

hogging the resources. It is the native bees that need our help.

The best way to help native bees is to provide them with places to live as well as food to eat.

When flowers have faded, there are still things you can do to make your yard bee-friendly:

● Leave the leaves that fall in flower beds to provide shelter and habitat for ground

dwellers.

● Leave rodent holes, too. Bumblebees love to build nests in holes that come pre-lined

with fur.

● Add logs, rock piles, and sandy areas to your garden to create nesting sites that will be

ready for bees when they emerge in the spring.

● Allow some dawn-facing, bare patches of soil to remain undisturbed and uncovered.

Tilling and covering the ground with landscape fabric or thick layers of mulch prevent

ground-nesting bees from emerging.

● Save the stems on perennials that die back in the winter. Let flowers go to seed for birds

and other insects, then old stems will be ready for cavity-nesters to move in when they

emerge in spring. Vegetation will grow up and hide the dry stems, and a new generation

of bees will emerge to pollinate its flowers.

● Keep your yard chemical-free so bees have healthy nesting places to raise their young.

Many herbicides and systemic insecticides can persist in soil or vegetation for months or

even longer.