Where do native bees overwinter?
As the buzz of busy bees give way to the whisper of fall leaves in my fall garden , the last of the bumblebee stragglers hit up fading mountain mint ( Pycnanthemum virginianum ) bloom . twenty-four hours by day , few sparkly green perspiration bees and midget carpenter bee nectared on the asters ( Symphyotrichumspp . and loanblend ) , finally vanish along with the fluffy field thistle ( Cirsiumspp . ) seeds . Despite appearances , the bees never really leave us . While we snuggle under blanket indoors , bee of many shapes and sizes blot out under leafy covering fire of their own . Seventy percent of the nearly 4,000 native bee species in North America build nests on or below the aerofoil , and many of their progeny spend winter ensconced in dirt , emerging as grownup bees just in clip to catch preferred bloom . The residuum are pit nesters , spending winter in logs , brokenwildflowerstalks and twigs of shrubs like elderberry ( Sambucusspp . and hybrids ) and roses ( Rosaspp . and hybrids ) .
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It’s not about hives; it’s about habitat
Though domesticated honeybees have catch our cultural imagination since their founding by settler centuries ago , their extremely managed , social lifestyles are nothing like those ofnative bees . Most bee in the wild are only , building nests by themselves and laying a small number of egg . You do n’t take a beekeeper ’s lawsuit to be near these crucial pollinators because they do n’t have hives to defend and are improbable to sting . In fact , they ’re often so small and unnoticeable that you ’ve believably walk by them many time without even noticing !
Most mother solitary bee die after provisioning nests , where larvae then build up and overwinter . For bumblebees , who snuggle in little Colony , the situation is turn back : All but new queens die in fall , leaving lonely females to start new colonies in spring . It ’s extra - important to protect these hard - do work Mama , as universe endurance rest entirely on their wings . More than a quarter of North America ’s 46 bumblebee species face quenching risks , including the peril American bumblebees ( Bombus pensylvanicus)who live in my garden . Among the causes of their declines is loss of overwintering habitat .
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Helping native bees is easy!
decay flora are just as important to native bees as live flowers . Incorporate nesting and winter sites into your garden by leaving insulate leave under shrubs and tree and lining nerve tract with log . And pare spent perennial stem to about a foot grandiloquent in other fountain to make them accessible to cavity - cuddle mothers ; then exit them up until the following year to give hatch bees a chance to emerge .
As the weather warms , avoid tilling and unneeded digging , all of which can commove mining bees , cellophane bees , bumblebees and others cuddle in bare territory . Learn to coexist with voles and other minor rodents , whose burrows are pet bumblebee nesting sites . And eventually , grow some plants native to your region to facilitate specialist bees who develop to cumulate pollen for their immature only from certain flowers .
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