Tag: Phragmites

Why use Phragmites Reed Grass Tubes for Mason Bee Homes?

I have several posts on this website about the Phragmites reed Grass tubes for Mason Bee homes. Access the posts here:
https://gfletcher.ca/category/mason-bees-and-phragmites_reed-grass-tubes/

On the website  masonbeesforsale.com 

I have found a list of the best reasons for using  the native Reed Grass tubes Phragmites australis  ssp. americanus for homes for Mason Bees. The pros and cons are listed:

Phragmites Reed Tubes:
pros: Phragmites Reeds are by far our top choice in nesting materials! They are the best option for several reasons,

1- Size/Shape-Reed tubes naturally vary in size, bees also vary in size and preferences so most bees will find a size they like to nest in. Each tube is cut between nodes so there is a natural back wall. Solitary bees prefer a fully enclosed space to nest in.

2-Protection-They are pest resistant. Mites and parasites aren’t able to burrow through the sides or the backs of the tubes because of the nodes in the stem.

3-Waterproof– Water will not soften or ruin the tubes. phragmites reeds will naturally wick away moisture. This also decreases the risk of mold, fungus and mildew affecting the bees.

4-Sustainable-Each reed is hand cut to the ideal length (approx. 6 inches= 15.6 cm) from natural sources. Cutting reeds is more environmentally friendly than the burning that often takes place to get rid of the reeds.

5-Easy Sorting– At the end of the season the reed tubes can easily be split in half. Bees can easily be sorted without damaging the cocoons.

cons:

1- Disposable-Reeds need to be replaced after each season, this requires purchasing new tubes. Luckily they are affordable.

2- Predators– Squirrels and Raccoons are sometimes able to get the tubes out of the bee house if not packed tightly enough. Placing some chicken wire over the front of the bee house and packing the reed tubes tightly in the house will prevent predators from getting your bees.

Cleaning the tubes, Nov.-Dec. 2021

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

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 

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.

 

Mason Bees (Blue Orchard Bees) and Tubes for Sale now.

ARCHIVAL: This post has been re-dated from 2015 in order to position it closer in the blog to Mason Bee Information

RESERVE YOUR MASON BEES NOW

Now sold out for the 2016 season- there’s always next year!

Mason Bee
Mason Bee

Many garden and on-line supply outlets sell cocoons of the most efficient pollinator, the mason bee, for a much higher price. I can provide them now locally until the end of March (2016 )for $6.00 per dozen as supplies last.

See other posts on the Mason Bees cocoons produced here in Metchosin at  https://www.gfletcher.ca/?cat=2

hatchedmason
Blue orchard (mason) bee just emerged from a cocoon

 

Mason Bees (also known as blue orchard bees) can be picked up at our farm if only a few dozen are needed or for significantly large orders we may be able to arrange for refrigerated delivery  within the BC lower mainland/Vancouver Island area any time this spring. They can either be released in late February or March for early flowering peaches etc. or they can be held refrigerated until as late as June for release coinciding with the blooming times of other plants: blueberries, strawberries, apples, pears, cherries etc.

 

phragmites tubes
The local reed grass, Phragmites tubes for mason bee culture.

I will also be selling a limited number of packets of the local Phragmites reed tubes for $10.00 for two dozen this year. They can be inserted in a simply made house –- see other posts on this website for suggestions.

You can place orders now and arrange for pickup now or later by e-mailing.

 

NOTE OF CONCERN: As a former Biology teacher, I am concerned that websites advertising mason bees to send anywhere on the continent are making a big mistake in promoting population genetic contamination. As well as competing with local strains, introduced genetic lines could easily turn out to promote problems such as new parasite introduction and elimination of naturally evolved species .  So be sure to ask your supplier where they have originated, in order to be sure you are getting bees have been cultured  from natural varieties from your own area.  That’s why I would sell only to Vancouver Island or the lower mainland of British Columbia.  I have never bought mason bees. Fortunately I live in an agricultural are which avoids the use of pesticides, so native bees still thrive. My native mason bees from our farm found the first nest boxes I put up on their own, and it is from them that I continue to produce new cocoons each year.

Garry Fletcher: email to  garryf use the at sign gmail.com   (Jan. 2016)

Mason Bee Homes from Natural Reed Tubes- Phragmites

ARCHIVAL: This post has been re-dated from 2015 in order to position it closer in the blog to Mason Bee Information
The native reed grass here on Vancouver Island, Phragmites australis subsp. americanus provides the best tubes as homes for Mason bee larvae. This is from the native, non-invasive reed grass.

I am selling these for $10.00 for 2 dozen tubes.(OLD PRICE) They can be used one season, then split open easily to harvest mason bee cocoons for the next year’s pollination season.  (and then added to your compost!)

phragmites tubes for mason beesSee other information about Phragmites and the harvest of it:

Some advantages of using Phragmites tubes over other commercially available tubes:

  • Phragmites reeds are impervious to the parasitic wasp Monodontomerus, which can damage mason bee populations in thin straws.
  • Reeds are cut at the node providing a natural wall providing a plug that allows moisture to escape while preventing water from entering the reed.
  • You can build an inexpensive home by putting them in a piece of sewer pipe or a straight-walled jar, or you can assemble a wooden box to hold them. See several suggestions in the link above

Contact me to reserve your tubes for the spring 2016 season at the following e-mail:  garryf (use the at sign) gmail.com

Phragmites australis subsp. americanus: the native reed grass on Vancouver Island

phragmites

NOTE: I have updated this 2015 post in order to make it appear closer to the other mason bee information.

You will find many articles on the internet about the invasive species of Phragmites but the one that grows here on Vancouver Island is the Native species, Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. subsp. americanus. 

The following article on the Metchosin Coastal website describes an example of  misidentification of this species in British Columbia. titled:

A new Lease on Life for the Rare Marsh Plant: Phragmites australis subsp. americanus–A note of caution when attempting to control Invasive Species.  

http://metchosinmarine.ca/gf/a-new-lease-on-life/

 

Making the best of a bad situation

So you have gone out and bought or have been given a Costco bee house, shaped like a pretty alpine bungalow . Only problem is, their design is contrary to all the best practises of mason bee housing.

See the previous post I did on this here:

However, all is not lost. You can rehabilitate the house so that it has a better chance of working .

Steps to follow:

1. Remove all the short bamboo tubes which are glued in .. Just get a screwdriver and pliars and pry them out.

Nodes in bamboo tubes which meake the tube useless for bees.

2. Reject the ones with nodes halfway down the tube which allows only a few inches to be useful to the bees.  However if you have a drill, you could drill out these tubes.

3. The following diagrams show how you can split the tubes with an exacto blade and then tape them back up. This will allow you to remove the cocoons for cleaning at the end of the season and prevent a deadly buildup of parasitic mites.

4. In the tubes which have too large an opening, insert tubes of either phragmites reed, cardboard or rolled paper tubes so that these can be extracted at the end of the season to recover the cocoons.

5. Open-ended tubes should have the back end sealed.. I used a glue-gun to do this.

 

 

Mason Bees Houses

I have received several inquiries about making homes for Mason Bees. Here are some useful references that may give you ideas. They are expensive to buy and really not that hard to make , just make sure you use the type that can be cleaned out at the end of the season, removing the cocoons cleaning out the parasites and storing them for the winter. Do not use holes drilled in a wood block unless the holes are large enough to have a tube fit inside of them, so that the complete tube is removable.  The tube diameter that is best is  5/16” (8 mm) , but a variety of sizes close to this wont hurt.

They need a house, so go online and you will see a variety of ways to make one, buy one etc.  They are easy to make if you have access to a table saw or router. Place the bee home when completed  against a warm south facing wall.. be sure not to move it once they start using it as they cannot find entrances that easily if moved.
On the link on this  website https://www.gfletcher.ca/?cat=2  I give some other information on the Mason Bees.
You can also  buy various types of homes at local garden supply centres or order them on line..
The tube diameter that is best is  5/16” (8 mm)
Here’s one site , I believe he is up island.
and this one in Washington tells how to make your own: http://olypollinators.blogspot.ca/p/housing-mason-bees.html
stacking the Phragmites tubes in the bee house
stacking the Phragmites tubes in the bee house

Next winter I will harvest more of the Phragmites tubes so that I will have extras to sell. Then you just need the equivalent of a birdhouse without the  front on it.

NOTE: I have updated this 2015 post in order to make it appear closer to the other mason bee information.

Mason Bee Nesting Tubes: a Comparison


With a variety of information out on the internet on the best tubes to use for Mason Bee culture, I thought I would report here on some of the  trials I have run last season which compared different tubes and nestboxes.

In 2018 I placed Phragmites tubes alongside of the commercially available plastic hinged boxes.

For the question .. does availability of the number of nesting tubes determine the success rate?

In  the same location as the samples above , I also had a larger supply of tubes available with the following result.. I haven’t calculated the % of successful tubes here.  Note also the dimensions of the box.. I used maximum length Phragmites tubes for this box.

 

Beware of Tubes through which Parasites can Bore

I have experimented for a few years with a kind of plasticized paper tube someone gave to me which were promoted as mason bee home tubes. This year when removing the cocoons from the tubes I noticed small black dots (holes) in two of the tubes which had been mixed in with the phragmites tubes in the nest box . they were suspiciously drilled at very regular intervals, in fact the distance that cocoons are apart.

Sure enough, when I opened these tubes, the cocoon which had occupied the spaces beneath the holes did not contain live bees, but instead they were cocoon hulls containing 6-10 live white mono wasp larvae , or hulls with holes and outside of them dead mature mono wasps. Here are a few pictures taken when I was opening the tubes: I had never before seen an example where all cocoons in the same tube had been parasitised like this .

  • note the hole in the tube
  • note the hole in the cocoon
  • mono wasp larvae in one cocoon
  • dead mono wasp adults
  • larvae and cocoons with holes where adults have emerged.

Phragmites reed grass tubes are resistant to the penetration by wasps, so thats one reason they are considered to be superior .

(See https://masonbeesforsale.com/choosing-nesting-materials/) . QUOTE: ” pros: Phragmite Reeds are by far our top choice in nesting materials! They are the best option for several reasons,

1- Size/Shape-Reed tubes naturally vary in size, bees also vary in size and preferences so most bees will find a size they like to nest in. Each tube is cut between nodes so there is a natural back wall. Solitary bees prefer a fully enclosed space to nest in.

2-Protection-They are pest resistant. Mites and parasites aren’t able to burrow through the sides/backs of the tubes.

3-Waterproof– Water will not soften or ruin the tubes. phragmite reeds will naturally wick away moisture. This also decreases the risk of mold, fungus and mildew affecting the bees.

4-Sustainable-Each reed is hand cut to the ideal length (approx. 6inches) from natural sources. Cutting reeds is more environmentally friendly than the burning that usually takes place to get rid of the reeds.

5-Easy Sorting– At the end of the season the reed tubes can easily be split in half. Bees can easily be sorted without damaging the cacoons.

cons:

1- Disposable-Reeds need to be replaced after each season, this requires purchasing new tubes. Luckily they are affordable.

2- Predators– Squirrels and Raccoons are sometimes able to get the tubes out of the bee house if not packed tightly enough. Placing some chicken wire over the front of the bee house and packing the reed tubes tightly in the house will prevent predators from getting your bees. “

https://www.gfletcher.ca/?p=2103

here are some links for various species of parasitic wasp

 

chalcid wasp predator video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL6uWSc6rK0