Learn About Leafcutter Bees

Leafcutter bees begin to emerge when temperatures consistently stay above 75°F for about 6-8 weeks. As solitary bees, each female finds her own nesting hole, gathers her own food and lays about 30 eggs in her liftime—making them gentle and non-aggressive. To build each nest, she collects tiny crescent-shaped pieces of leaves or flower petals—harmlessly trimmed from plants—and carries them back to her nesting hole. There, she softens the material by chewing it, forming a protective lining inside the cavity. She then lays an egg, adds a pollen loaf as food for the larva, and carefully seals it in a leaf-wrapped chamber that looks like a snug little sleeping bag. This intricate process can take up to four hours per offspring! Unlike mason bees, leafcutters don’t spin cocoons. Instead, they overwinter in their leafy chambers as larvae and emerge as fully developed adult bees the following summer.

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