NEW Tips! Rescue Cocoons If You Missed Fall Cleaning & Move Your Mason Bees to a Healthy Home
Bamboo and drilled logs cannot be opened or cleaned, and often become a hiding place for predators. Instead, choose nesting materials that can be easily opened and maintained to support healthy bees.
In this video, we’ll show you how to rescue cocoons from predator-prone nesting materials and how to safely “move homes” from bamboo or drilled logs into healthy, openable nesting systems.
When raising your own mason bees, there are three crucial steps to protect them from harmful predators like pollen mites, chalkbrood, and houdini flies:
1) Beginning of Spring: Place Clean Nesting Material Out Every Spring and Use Nesting Material that Can Easily Be Opened. Avoid bamboo and logs with holes drilled in it.
2) End of Spring: Remove and Store Nesting Material Safely Over Summer
At the end of spring, remove the nesting material and store it in a cool garage or shed. Since mason bees only live for 6-8 weeks, leaving them out over summer can expose them to predators like mono wasps and birds. Click here to watch a video on how to store bees over summer. https://youtu.be/ReJmfnISTZQ?si=BPwgjFc4NjVg2vBX
3) In the Fall: Harvest and Clean Nesting Material in the Fall – In the fall, open all the nesting material and clean everything thoroughly. If you are renting nesting blocks from our program, simply mail back the nesting block in the fall, and we will handle the harvesting and cleaning for you. If you are raising your own bees, here is a step-by-step video on how to do it.
Learn How to Harvest and Clean Your Bees in the Fall – https://youtu.be/9_1WlEDTyhk?si=o5sKP4j3H14LPCjE
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Other videos we mention- How to swap from old to good nesting chambers using sawdust. https://youtu.be/PFNEnJWC-YA?si=L1ukIa8oey26eop4
How We Clean 3 Million Mason Bees in our Rental Block Program – https://youtu.be/wzDWeADhOno?si=oWj04caBL3l1CM-R
To learn more, please visit our website – https://rentmasonbees.com/
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