In through the back door
While traipsing through the farmer’s market last weekend, I met a beekeeper with an interesting question. Having heard that honey bees are poor pollinators of alfalfa, she wanted to know where alfalfa...
View ArticleThe leafcutter bee: nature’s hole punch
The bee in the photo is a leafcutter or leafcutting bee in the family Megachilidae. This is the same family that contains the mason bees, and like mason bees, female leafcutters carry pollen on their...
View ArticleLeafcutting bees in action
Leafcutting bees are everywhere. Dozens of them nest in my backyard, and I’ve seen alfalfa fields served by massive leafcutting domiciles containing millions of these little bees. I’ve photographed...
View ArticleCosmos: a multipurpose bee flower
I planted two different types of pollinator seed mixes this year, not for the bees to tear up, but to provide pollen and nectar. Both the mixes contained cosmos varieties that grew tall and strong. At...
View ArticlePerfect disks or ragged holes?
Point of view is everything. On Monday evening I attended a pollinator meeting in Olympia. Part of the discussion centered on leafcutting bees and how gardeners often lament the damage the bees inflict...
View ArticleSunflowers transition from bees to birds
It is easy to forget that humans aren’t the only ones dependent on bees. A whole world of creatures out there needs bees to provide seeds, berries, and plants. After the bees were done with my...
View ArticleCosmos seeds for all kinds of bees
When I was a kid, the kitchen windows were decorated with colorful curtains printed with flowers and the word “cosmos.” The word was upside down and right side up and sideways. Not only did I think...
View ArticlePlanting a garden for leafcutting bees
Whenever I write about leafcutters, someone from the Entomological Society of America writes to remind me that the official common name is “leafcutting” bees. To me, the phrase “official common name”...
View ArticleEmergence box vs hatching box: what’s the difference?
Sometimes I use the wrong word. Yesterday, when someone asked, “What’s a hatching box?” I felt sheepish. I should have written emergence box in my post on lovage. Here’s the question: I planted some...
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