Mason Bee tube preferences

I did an experiment this year comparing the wooden blocks to phragmites tubes , and bamboo tubes to phragmites reed grass tubes .. here are the results in the third week of May 2023.

Phragmites reed grass tubes at the top, bamboo tubes at the bottom (these were split first then taped together so they can be opened if there are cocoons inside)
Here a block of wooden stackable trays is compared to my phragmites tubes .. note so far in the third week of May 2023 only one hole in the wood trays is filled .. we will check again later.  Follow-up … at the end of the season there were no more holes in the wooden trays. All the phragmites tubes were fillled.

The native reed Phragmites australis ssp. americanus  is grown on my farm. These are considered to be the best tubes for encouraging the native mason bee pollinators….Check out the reasons for using Phragmites tubes and comparisons with other types of tubes on the “Mason Bees for Sale” website;

This post was originally published in May 2023