Cleaning the tubes, Nov.-Dec. 2021 – Mason Bees and Phragmites tubes for sale

CLEANING THE PHRAGMITES TUBES.

Any time from September on it is safe to open the Phragmites tubes to collect the mason bee cocoons inside. The earlier you do this the better as it prevents further development of pollen mites. Below are some photos from this years crop.

The ideal tube that you want to find will look like this

One side of the tube will show clear cocoons like this . note the neat arrangement with the plugs of mud where the pollen supply was deposited and the egg was laid, now holding the individual cocoons.

If opened from the other side they will appear like this. The small black cigar-shaped objects are frasse, or larval waste, indicating a healthy cocoon

Occasionally I come across large white larvae in the tubes. These are not parasites, they are pollinator wasp species. See this post for photos of the wasps

Beneficial wasp pollinators.. do not destroy!

When one of these tubes shows up I simply carefully replace the other half of the phragmites tube and tape it together. I incubate these in a separate container in the refrigerator

So this is what a successful bunch of tubes looks like. These tubes are about 18 cm in length.

PARASITES of MASON BEES

Pollen Mites

When a brownish orange material fills a cocoons space

These are cleptoparasite iparasitic mites. They steal the pollen of the bees.See the video below

With a hand lens or as above, a closeup view on a cellphone you can see this mass of mites on the move. When I come across a tube with these mites, I segregate all other cocoons from the tube, and give them a thorough wash and cleaning before storing them in the refrigerator. I am also careful not to sell any of the cocoons from that batch. Mason bee houses that are not cleaned will have a build up of mite infestation so bad that eventually very few bees will be produced.

MONO WASPS:

I didn’t have many of these Chalcid wasps ( Monodontomerus) this year, I have done a previous post showing these in detail. These are “bodysnatchers” as they lay eggs on developing larvae which then eat the larvae

However, some other bodysnatcher parasite did get in and eat cocoons in a few tubes, typically leaving half the cocoon casings. I am not sure what this one is , but usually all the cocoons in a tube will have been opened if these have entered.

Mummification:

A hard dark colored mummified larvae on the right is produced inside a cocoon. Probably spores of the fungus would be released from this form.

This is similar to a fungal infection called chalkbrood in honeybees.

UNKNOWN?

A new parasite turned up this year in a few of the plastic cases with channels which a neighbour gave to me. This one is like a cutworm larvae. I find the plastic containers are very bad for parasites, especially mites.

Other entries on this website about parasites and Problems with Mason Bee Culturing can be found here

Crownbees.com also has an excellent article on parasites of mason bees.

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