Native Bee Bottle: Pollinate your neighborhood with a bee house to raise gentle native bees.
MASON BEES | (Osmia lignaria spp.) are gentle native bees with extraordinary pollinating abilities. With around 140 varieties of mason bees native to North America, these bees are essential to the pollination of flowers, vegetables and spring fruit trees. Mason bees are known as solitary bees because they nest alone. Unlike honey bees, mason bees do not produce honey and do not defend a hive so stinging very rarely happens. The female’s stinger is actually her egg tube, so should a rare sting occur, there is no barb or venom. They get the name “mason” from using mud to build their nests in gaps, cracks and other small cavities. One mason bee can pollinate what would be comparable to around 100 honeybees.
LEAFCUTTER BEES | (Megachile rotundata) are gentle native bees with extraordinary pollinating abilities. These summer bees are essential to the pollination of flowers and vegetables. Leafcutter bees are known as solitary bees because they nest alone. Unlike honey bees, leafcutter bees do not produce honey and do not defend a hive so stinging very rarely happens. The female’s stinger is actually her egg tube, so should a rare sting occur, there is no barb or venom. They get the name “leafcutter” from using bits of leaves to build their nests in gaps, cracks and other small cavities. One leafcutter bee can pollinate what would be comparable to around 20 honeybees.