Native Bees
Bees are incredibly diverse insects; worldwide, there are an estimated 20,000 species of bees, with approximately 3,600 species native to North America north of Mexico. North American species range in length from about 1/12 inch to more than 1 inch (2–25 mm). They vary greatly in their colours, patterns and sizes.
Of the roughly 3,600 species of bees in North America, more than 90 percent lead solitary rather than social lives, each female constructing and provisioning her own nest without any help from other members of her species. Solitary bees usually live for about a year, although humans only see the active adult stage, which lasts about three to six weeks. These insects spend the other months hidden in a nest, growing through the egg, larval, and pupal stages.
Female solitary bees have amazing engineering skills, going to extraordinary lengths to construct a secure nest. About 30 percent of solitary bee species use abandoned beetle burrows or other tunnels in snags (dead or dying standing trees). Alternatively, they may chew out a nest within the soft central pith of stems and twigs. The other roughly 70 percent nest in the ground, digging tunnels in bare or sparsely vegetated, well-drained soil. A few species nest in eclectic places such as empty snail shells and potlike cells that they construct on twigs from pebbles and tree resin.
California
There is an amazing variety of 1,600 species of native wild bees in California!
California is an ecological hot-spot – our state is home to insects found nowhere else in the world!
🐝 California’s Native Bees are very different to non-native European honey bees. There are many Native bee species which are indigenous to California and responsible for keeping California’s wild lands alive through pollination.
🐝 Honey Bees were brought to America from Europe over 400 years ago. They are used to pollinate non-native agricultural crops.
🐝 Native bees currently pollinate many crops and can be encouraged to do more to support agricultural endeavors if their needs for nesting habitat are met and if suitable sources of nectar, pollen, and water are provided.
🐝 Native bees do not live in hives like honey bees; many are solitary and some live in loose colonies.
🐝 The bumble bee (Bombus spp.) forms small colonies, usually underground.
🐝 The sweat bee (family Halictidae) nests underground.
🐝 Solitary bees include carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.), which nest in wood;
digger, or polyester bees (Colletes spp.), which nest underground; leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.), which prefer dead trees or branches for their nest sites; and mason bees (Osmia spp.), which utilize cavities that they find in stems and dead wood. Cactus bees (Diadasia spp.) are also solitary ground nesters.
🐝 Native bees are very fussy eaters! Some species will only feed from very specific native flowers because this is what they have evolved to eat. Native bees will live close to native plants and will only travel up to 1km to find food.
🐝 Some native bees cannot sting and rely instead on their appearance to make them look ‘scary.’ A good example is the stingless, large black female Valley Carpenter Bee.
🐝 It is important that we provide native flowers to provide food for these amazing pollinators as they are the foundation of life! They keep California’s complex and beautiful ecosystems alive.
Did you know?
40 million years ago, there were no flowers on our planet and as a result no bees existed. With no flowers in existence requiring pollination the world looked very different indeed. However, before bees existed – there were wasps. Through the analysis of fossil records, scientists have discovered that a wasp who could not find insects to feed her larvae (babies) adapted and fed them pollen instead – as pollen is a good source of protein. Her babies survived and this adaptation continued. Over millions of years, these pollen eating wasps evolved into bees and more flowers evolved to feed the bees.
Flowers would not exist without bees!
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Bumble Bee
Bumble bees move relatively slowly among flowers and are easy to recognize by their hairy chunky forms and yellow bands on their backs and abdomens. This hardworking yellow faced bumblebee is one of the most common and easy to identify from its bright yellow facial hair. Female bumble bees’ hind legs widen to form pollen baskets often filled with bright colored, moistened pollen pellets.
Sweat Bee
This is a group of medium to small elongate bees so named because of a tendency to alight on the skin and lap up sweat for moisture and salt. They are dark bees with pale hair bands at the ends of the abdominal segments giving a striped appearance. They typically carry pollen on their hind legs, but sometimes carry it on the underside of their abdomen. Common in our area, they nest in soil in annual colonies.
Ultra Green Sweat Bee
A remarkably colored insect, the females of this species are all metallic green, while the males are green on the head and thorax with a striped abdomen that makes them relatively easy to identify. You can find them in soil where they nest or on flowers in the daisy family (Asteraceae). Widespread and common, green sweat bees may be one of the first native bees you encounter, and one you will remember because of its jewel-like appearance.
Leaf Cutter Bee
These bees have triangular or heart-shaped abdomens, the underside of which is where their pollen carrying scopae are located. They are slow fliers with thick heads that hold muscles required for leaf cutting. They use the leaf material to partition their nests between eggs; most will nest in holes in wood.
Long Horned Bee
Medium to large body bees, this group gets their names from the long antennae of the males. Females of this species do not have long antennae. Males may be seen by day jostling for female attention above a patch of plants like blanket flower (Gaillardia). Look closely at the diligent females collecting pollen. Both the males and the female of this species have hairy legs, but only the females have scopae (branched hairs) for carrying pollen.
Mining Bee
Medium to tiny bees, their populations peak from March to May as this group is among the first to emerge from their soil nests in spring. Many have metallic coloring and are characterized by grooves (facial foveae) that run down the center of their faces and between their compound eyes. They carry pollen on the upper part of their back hind legs (bees have three pairs of legs) as well as on the back sides of the insect’s mid-section (thorax)
Carpenter Bees
Here is an example of a member of the carpenter bee family (see photo below). This is the female Valley Carpenter Bee. She uses buzz pollination to cover herself in pollen and take it back to her nest. She has no sting and her defence is her size and color.
Called carpenter bees because they carve nests out of decaying wood or untreated lumber and one of the most noticeable bees found in Valley gardens. They can be commonly observed “nectar robbing” at the base of flowers where they pierce the flower tube to steal nectar. Solitary and long-lived, the females burrow into soft or decaying wood or pithy stems. Males of this species are affectionately referred to as “teddy bear bees” due to their golden bodies and hairs.
Mason Bees
Called masons because they use mud to create walls between their egg chambers, this species ranges in size and come in different colors from metallic blue to green. All mason bees have round abdomens, heads and thoraces as compared to other types of bees which have more oval shaped configurations. They also carry their pollen on the underside of their abdomens instead of their hind legs. The female of the common blue orchard mason bee (Osmia lignaria) has horns on her lower face while males commonly have dense mustache-like white hairs on their faces. Most species nest in preexisting cavities in wood.
Mason bees are non-aggressive and non-colonizing solitary bees that are fuzzy with dark bodies and about the size of a house fly. They work with any and all types of bees.
What Do Mason Bees Pollinate?
California Mason Bees are generalists; they don’t stick to certain blossoms they pollinate whatever they find and like.
These bees are slightly smaller than honey bees. They make their homes in wood, for example in existing nail holes, knot holes, and crevasses, such as on the trunks of trees or in holes under the siding of homes or garden fences. They do not drill holes, like carpenter bees, but they clean out existing holes and then lay eggs that hatch into larvae.
Try planting wildflowers in November. You should have many native bees as a result. Secondly, don’t cover every bit of ground with mulch. Many native bees and especially bumble bees need ordinary uncovered and undisturbed soil in which to make their nests. Earthen banks are ideal for this.
We have found in our gardens that planting in clusters attracts native bees. Bees like the color purple. If you plant say 5 small lilac verbena native flowers approx 5 inches apart and fertilise them with organic fertiliser the plants can grow together into a large bush over the span of a year.
But you don’t have to make a large bush – you can plant them in pots if you wish individually or wherever you have room. It’s always best to plant in groups to attract bees.
We have seen different native bees and wasps on our gardens and the Dana Point Buckwheat, Lilac Verbena, California Aster, Seaside Daisies and Monardella Odoratissima seem to be favorites.
Most native bees don’t sting and live in solitary burrows in the ground close to native plant food sources.
Some Mason Bee interesting facts:
- The foraging behavior of mason bees makes them super pollinators. Honey bees gently land on blossoms and collect pollen on their bodies and store it in saddlebags on their hind legs. This method doesn’t allow for effective pollination. Mason bees, on the other hand, belly-flop onto flowers spreading pollen everywhere. The pollen sticks all over their bodies like Velcro and is more likely to fall off on different flowers, aiding in pollination.
- Mason bees pollinate around 95% of the flowers they visit, whereas honey bees generally only pollinate about 5% of the flowers they visit.
- Mason bees facilitate cross-pollination! Mason bees forage from tree to tree and row to row, facilitating cross-pollination, whereas honey bees tend to stick to one tree.
Hover Flies / Syrphid Flies
Garden Allies! See these on your milkweed – don’t kill them – they’re eating the aphids! They will pollinate your garden as adults.
Many species of hoverfly larvae prey upon pest insects, including aphids and the leafhoppers which spread some diseases like curly top. Therefore they are seen in biocontrol as a natural means of reducing the levels of pests.
Adult Hover Flies drink flower nectar, visiting many blossoms a day while feeding. They incidentally carry lots of pollen from flower to flower on their bodies which helps pollinate gardens. As if the benefits of having them pollinate weren’t enough to encourage them to thrive, they also eat aphids and other plant pests in their larval life stage. This diet helps curb aphid infestations that harm plants and diminish harvests, meaning Hover Flies are good to have around.
