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I have had one of these
for 3 years, and it is used by both mason bees and leafcutter bees. The neat thing is that it is all held together by 2 long bolts secured with wing nuts, so that you can take each 'layer' off to examine and clean out ready for the next year.
Most of the mason bees have come out already, but the leafcutters are later critturs, and I thought I'd have a quick peak to see how they are doing, so I carefully unbolted the whole thing and separated the layers.
The leafcutters are at the caterpillar stage, but that's not the reason for this post. There are a few empty holes, and in three of these, each contained a hibernating queen wasp
Much as I appreciate the way wasps catch and carry off caterpillars, I admit that these are now ex-queens. I have already had two wasp queens come into the house, so I wonder how many there actually were in there.
Next year I'll check it in January!
for 3 years, and it is used by both mason bees and leafcutter bees. The neat thing is that it is all held together by 2 long bolts secured with wing nuts, so that you can take each 'layer' off to examine and clean out ready for the next year.
Most of the mason bees have come out already, but the leafcutters are later critturs, and I thought I'd have a quick peak to see how they are doing, so I carefully unbolted the whole thing and separated the layers.
The leafcutters are at the caterpillar stage, but that's not the reason for this post. There are a few empty holes, and in three of these, each contained a hibernating queen wasp
Much as I appreciate the way wasps catch and carry off caterpillars, I admit that these are now ex-queens. I have already had two wasp queens come into the house, so I wonder how many there actually were in there.
Next year I'll check it in January!
Where did you get it from?
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