Tag: Phragmites

Phragmites tubes and Mason Bee Cocoons–2025 season

See all my posts on Mason Bees here https://www.gfletcher.ca/?cat=2

I will not know until the spring of 2025 if I will have mason bee cocoons to sell this year, as results in my boxes here in the southern end of Vancouver Island were very poor this year– most likely a weather-related cause. However, I do have for sale, Phragmites reed grass tubes for culturing mason bees .   I can ship the tubes through the mail.–  For customers who are not local, I package these tubes in lots of 30 for $15.00 plus shipping costs of $7:00. So 15 tubes =$22.00, (Canadian) Included are a variety of lengths and diameters. A few smaller diameters attract other mason bee species and leafcutter bees. Indicate the maximum tube length you prefer when ordering.

See all my posts on Mason Bees here https://www.gfletcher.ca/?cat=2
If I have enough Cocoons this year I will sell 25 Mason Bee Cocoons for $25.00 for pick up at my farm in Metchosin. Please check with me first by email before ordering.
NOTE: I DO NOT SEND COCOONS BY MAIL. you can pick them up at the farm

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 here: 

Also by putting out the tubes alone without releasing bees, you can in some areas attract the native pollinators to build their nests in the empty tubes anyway.  That’s the way I first obtained mason bee cocoons.

See below for details on ordering if you cannot pick them up at the farm. I can have these available at any time of year, and it is best to get them set out by mid-March. 

For shipping in Canada, the price for 30 tubes=$22.00 Canadian

For shipping in Canada, the price for 60 tubes=$44.00 Canadian

For shipping in Canada, the price for 100 tubes=$70.00 Canadian

For shipping in Canada, the price for 130 tubes=$90.00 Canadian

In a separate email with your address, state your size preference as sizes 4″ (10cm) to 7 “(18 cm)  or mixed are available. This will depend on the depth of the box you have in which to put them, as there should be at least a 2 inch overhang to keep out the rain–
Use the email garryf followed by the@ sign then gmail.com for e-transfers address

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Scroll down through other posts to see my suggestions for building inexpensive Mason bee homes out of recycled and re-purposed material

See all posts on Mason Bees here https://www.gfletcher.ca/?cat=2

Mason Bees prefer Phragmites tubes

I have several videos on here about harvesting Phragmites reed grass and cutting the tubes for mason Bee culture.  Here is an example provided by Brian Guzda of Duncan (https://www.instagram.com/briansmasonbees/?hl=en) which shows how mason bees preferentially fill up the Phragmites tubes before laying their eggs in wooden trays.  Brian also comments on those plastic trays-” 70% corn material and 30% plastic resin.  I have used one since 2018 and find not a great return with lot of mold and mildew inside the holes. No place for the moisture to be absorbed like wood or cardboard tubes can do. ”

This post was originally published in March 2023**

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

Cost comparisons of Mason Bee Cocoons and Phragmites tubes


I have had a hunch lately that the cost of mason bee cocoons has followed the pattern we see in the rest of the industries and has risen considerably so I have done some comparisons with my prices with an American and  Canadian companies.
I also saw Brian Guzda at Duncan Seedy Saturday and he has also done some investigating and found the following :
He said “I checked mason bee cocoon prices from 12 different sources mostly on the island and a few from the lower mainland with :
The average price per cocoon working out to $1.68 each.
The high  was 2.25. per cocoon.  Definitely over priced.”

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Buckerfields 10 cocoons– regular $15.99. that’s $1.60 per cocoon !

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BC Bee, Beekeeping Supply: (Canadian)
Mason bee cocoons $22.50 per 10 cocoons = $2.25 per cocoon
Cardboard tubes: $14.00 for 20 = $0.70 per  tube
(unknown if there are shipping costs)
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Crown bees in the US:
Mason Bee Cocoons: 20 for $29.95 US = $40.28 (Can)= $2.01 (Can) per cocoon
Phragmites tubes: 50 = 16.95 US , or $22.79 (Canadian)= $0.4558 per tube (Can)
(unknown if there are shipping costs)
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Metchosin Mason Bees: (in $ Canadian)
Mason bee Cocoons : 30 for 25 cocoons = $0.83   per cocoon

Phragmites native reed grass tubes  33 for $15.00  = $0.4545 per tube
and if they have to be mailed  33 for $20.00  = $0.60 per tube

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Mason Bees for Sale in Metchosin / Victoria / Southern Vancouver Island

See this page for the 2024 Mason Bee Cocoons now in stock. available for pick up now at my farm in Metchosin .

Also phragmites reed grass tubes which may be ordered on line are noted

If you are concerned about storage over winter you can also pre-order and pay now… for pickup in February 2024;

 

Harvesting Phragmites Reed grass stems from the Marsh for Mason Bee Homes..

I was fortunate to have on our property, a brackish water estuarine marsh in which grows the native Phragmites sp. reed grass.

See this file on the Gooch creek swamp which tells the story of how I had to “save” the Reed Grass beds from extirpation by the BC Forest Lands and Natural Resources Department: (FLNRO)phragmiteskalleFrom Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. subsp. americanus I get the hollow tubes that I use for the mason bee homes. This is what they look like in late summer.

phragmites
At this stage it is too early to cut the stems. That is best done in February

 

In about 1 in 20 plants, the stems  are the ideal size for Mason Bees.

The tubes are cut in the early spring from the lower 1 metre of the stems.

The internode lengths range from 15 cm. to 30 cm .  I select only those sections with an adequate tube diameter. 5/16 ” diameter is ideal.

Since this reed grass is not generally available, it is easiest to sandwich small plates  of wood with 5/16″ channels routered or sawn into them . There are many references on the internet that show how to do this.

See this post on Harvesting and Cleaning the Mason Bees in the fall.

Phragmites Reed Tubes vs Plastic tube-trays for Mason Bees.


Cindy, one of my regular mason bee customers has had to move East and she was so dedicated to her mason bees that she left them with me to look after.  She had run a small experiment in her bee box that I thought would be useful to comment on here.

Today I opened the tubes to remove the Cocoons for storage over winter in the refrigerator.

On first glance, the plastic containers appear to have a good number of successful plugged tubes. When the plastic containers were opened however, it was obvious that mites had taken a large toll on the cocoons:

Top and bottom halves of the plastic containers, The parasitic wasps were present in many of the plastic tubes.

 

I was interested in comparing the productivity of the phragmites tubes versus the plastic tubes so I kept track of the number tubes, the number of cocoons and the number of tubes with parasitic mites. Here are the results:

Number of plastic tubes: 24    —  Number of phragmites tubes: 18

Number cocoons in plastic=108 — Number cocoons in phrag= 91

Ave. number -plastic tube=4.5—-Average number-phrag.tube =5

Mite-infected-plastic tubes=14  —- Mite-infected-phrag. tubes=2


So it appears from this small sample that the Phragmites tubes produced more cocoons and had fewer mite infestations.

 

NOTE : I have created this post in order to place it closer to the recent mason Bee posts

 

Mites infest Costco Mason Bee houses

 

 

 

So once the house had all the tubes and trays removed,. The cleaned trays were reinserted and the bamboo tubes were replaced with very short Phragmites reed grass tubes. Now its ready to be placed outside

 

Phragmites Reed Harvest and Mason Bee Tube Preparation

In January and February I harvest the native reed grass tubes  from the seasonally flooded estuary on on my property.  It is important to do this now before any new shoots start to emerge, as trampling could wipe out the reed bed.  Trampling by livestock has probably been the cause of the elimination of the native Phragmites sp.  from other estuaries on Vancouver Island.

Diving into the base of the reeds to cut out the one in 100 or so stems which will be large enough to provide  mason bee tubes.

Stacking up the cut reeds from the swamp

Carrying the bundle to my house for cutting.

Cutting the Phragmites reeds near the nodes to produce the tubes for the mason bees.

sorting the reeds and making bundles.