When you set out a "bee hotel" to attract mason bees, you're also attracting invasive predators. In nature they find natural holes in their environment that are camouflaged and harder for predators to find, but a bee hotel has a sign hanging on it that says "VACANCY COME ON IN" Using the proper nesting material and fall maintenance is a key component to a healthy and thriving bee population. Pollen mites, houdini fly larvae, chalkbrood and mono wasps are invasive predators that will eventually overrun your bee hotel and cause your bee tenants to perish. If you are raising your own bees, it is important to harvest and clean them every fall. In this video we'll show you step by step how to do this. If you rent with our program, please send your blocks back to us in September and we will clean everything for you.

Dollar Store Shopping List:
• Mesh Grease Splatter Screen
• Bucket
• 1 or 2 plastic containers (1 for extracting cocoons/1 for clean water)
• Cat litter scoop
• 2 slotted spoons
• Measuring spoons
• Plastic food storage container
• Flashlight
• Roll of paper towels
• Pens with pointy lids
• Bleach
Videos we referenced in the video:
•"Life Cycle of a Mason Bee, Their Predators and How You Can Protect Them" [ Ссылка ]
•"Mason Bee Fall Harvest" How we clean 3 million mason bee cocoons [ Ссылка ]
•"Identify What is Inside Your Nesting Block During a Mason Bee Harvest" [ Ссылка ]
•"How to Transition Old Nesting Material to Healthy Nesting Material and Rescue Your Baby Bees Inside" [ Ссылка ]_

Solitary bees are gaining popularity with backyard gardeners because of how easy they are to care for because they don’t sting and are incredible pollinators. Our program makes it easy to become a solitary bee host. Gardeners purchase a bee kit that comes with shelter house, nesting block and bees. You release solitary bees into your yard and rent our nesting blocks for your bees. When you release the bees into your yard they will lay babies in your natural habitat and your nesting block. Harvesting and cleaning them after the season is a critical step when hosting solitary bees to remove harmful predators. When you rent from us we take care of the maintenance and cleaning for you. You keep the black house and return the nesting blocks back to us in September. The following year, you will just need to reorder refills of a new clean block and clean mason bees.

Mason bees emerge in early spring when temperatures are 50+ degrees and only live 6-8 weeks. Leafcutter bees emerge when temperatures are 75+ degrees.

If you’re interested in both mason (Spring) and leafcutter (Summer) pollinators, please watch our Pollinator Kit Video explaining how to set them up.
How to set up Pollinator Kit - [ Ссылка ]

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