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Re: bee friends (Attempt #2)

I messed up the last time I sent this, and half the message was
dropped. Sorry about the redundency.

Olin Miller wrote:
>Bill Loke wrote:
>> 
>"... Blue or orchard bees have been given excellent rating for
>pollination, especially fruit trees..."
>
>Some seed catalogs are offering cedar "Nesting Blocks" for Orchard Mason
>bees.   The blocks are  1/2" X 3 1/2" X 8 1/8" with 40 holes drilled on
>on a grid at about 3/4" between hole centers.  Does anybody have any
>experience, knowledge or opinion as to whether the bees will really use
>these things.

First a nit pick. The 1/2" dimension above is obviously a typo, since
it would be foolish to drill 5/16" holes in a 1/2" wide board. On a
side note, one of the enemies of the Orchard bee is a wasp (don't
recall the name) which lays its eggs in the bee chamber. The wasp
larva then kills the bee larva and feeds on it. The wasp is able
to insert its ovipositor (egg-laying syringe) through a relatively
thin layer of wood (1/4", perhaps more), and thus the closer the
drilled holes are to the outside surface, the easier you have made
it for the wasp.

What I remember is that the Orchard be prefers other kinds of wood to
cedar, although they will occupy the cedar if given no other choice.
would suggest you save your money, and drill your own holes. Free
wood can be gotten at home construction sites, and often in the
scrap box at lumber yards and building material supply businesses.
Alternatively, buy an economy stud for cheap, and cut it up.

--------
Don Gross
drilling holes in Portland, Oregon, a wet zone 8
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