The cells here that have clay appear to have already hatched.
Our native bee house seems to have been used and is still being used by what appears to be several different types of insect. Which kind? Heck if I know!
I have seen, once, a small bee looking insect inside of one of the cells (she she wasn’t very photogenic). Besides that we have cells in different stages of use and packed with different types of materials.
Mason Bee Hotel
Some cells in our Mason Bee House have been packed with clay and now have a hole, which tells me that something has hatched! I actually did not expect that. I wasn’t thinking of insects using this during the summer as a honeybee would in their hive, constantly breeding more bees. Instead I was expecting them to fill these cells up right about now, at the start of autumn, and to overwinter in this house and hatch out in Spring.
One cell has grass while another is capped off with clay. Photo by J&J
Clearly, I was wrong.
Native Insect Habitat
But now the question is – what exactly have we provided habitat for? Are these solitary bees, like mason bees, something more nefarious, like mud dauber (heaven help me I hope not), or some other insect that I wasn’t aware would use this type of habitat for their breeding.
There is at least one hole with clay that is still sealed up, but other have… get this: grass. Can you picture some insect flying around with grass in its grasp and dragging it into these little bamboo shoots? Like a bird taking twigs to a nest? I can’t, but clearly it is happening anyway!
This cell is packed with fresh grass.
Insect Identification
I hope someone out there knows what might be using our native insect habitat, as I’m very intrigued and sincerely hope we can find out.
As far as the mason bee house itself is concerned it is holding up to the environment well. It is staying intact and clearly the insects are happy with its general construction, so I will say that this habitat is a success and worth buying, should you choose not to try and DIY your own habitat.
Either way, it looks like this type of habitat works on our property so we just might be expanding this effort in the following seasons!
Be sure to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel if you want to keep track of how this habitat progresses. With luck maybe we’ll catch a sighting of what is actually using it!
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My mason bee house has long pieces of grass sticking out of it, too. Go figure! I haven’t been able to catch them in the act!
Crazy bugs!