Justin Knopp and his daughter have just made their own Solitary Bee House ... find out how
Justin Knopp, of Typoretum (www.typoretum.co.uk ), and his daughter have kindly sent in the photographs of the bee house they made over Easter. It is for the Solitary Mason and Leafcutter bees, made using just some planks, off-cuts or blocks of wood, dry logs, a few differently sized drill bits, some screws and some ‘Oxford Bee Tubes’: Illustrating just how easy it is to make your own bee house using a few basic materials that can be found in most garden sheds, garages or easily obtained from a local hardware / DIY store.
Unlike Bumblebees or Honey bees, 'Solitary bees' are just that, they do not live in hives or build combs, preferring to make individual nest cells for their larvae. Some species nest in small tunnels or holes in the ground or in sandy banks, piles of sand, or crumbling mortar. Others use the hollow stems of dead plants such as brambles, or tunnels previously bored into dead wood by beetles. And they are perfectly safe and harmless in the garden, as they do not swarm or sting and can be quite small.If you find them (for example in old house walls) please leave them alone, they are very faithful to their nest sites and may have been living there for many decades. They are part of the 'fine grain' of your local biodiversity and something to be cherished. Quite a few species are commonly seen in gardens and they are great fruit crops pollinators.
For more information and full instructions on how to make you own Solitary Bee House visit Marc Carlton’s ‘Gardens for Wildlife’ website - http://tinyurl.com/dgjh9n
