Leafcutter Bees Carve Nesting Materials from a Pin Oak Seedling
This activity is harmless to the tree, but vital to the bee.
Here is a pin oak leaf featuring the handiwork of a leafcutter bee.
Leafcutter bees use their strong mandibles to carve out circular and oval slices of leaves which they use to build nests in cavities that might be in dead trees, plant stems rocks or underground, depending upon the species.
I’ve also noticed the work of leafcutter bees on my obedient plants (Physostegia virginiana).
North America boasts 4500 species of native bees, of which 144 are leafcutter bees.
We can support our native bees by avoiding pesticides, including mosquito fogging, which kills all insects, not just mosquitos. To deal with mosquitoes safely and effectively, use a product called mosquito dunk, which interrupts the mosquito’s life cycle in the larval stage. Spraying adult mosquitoes is highly ineffective.
We can reduce our lawn and expand the area dedicated to wildflowers, native shrubs, vines, ground cover and trees.
We can let our plants grow so that the bees might have leaves to build nests. The leaf pictured here is that of a pin oak seedling that may or may not grow to maturity, depending on circumstances and my gardening priorities. But for the time bee-ing, 🐝 it is food for wildlife.
We can leave a few bare spots on the ground for those bees who nest underground. About 70% of native bees are ground nesters.
And we can plant wildflowers that support bees. Currently, bees are devouring the floral resources of my purple coneflowers, prairie coneflowers, wild bergamot, mountain mint and jewelweed.
I recommend Heather Holm’s excellent book: “Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Foraging Guide.”