🐝 It’s time to clean your mason bee cocoons!

Why?

Cleaning the mason bee’ cocoons, houses, and reusable nests increases the mason bees’ survival rate by ridding them of mites, other predators, fungi, and more. When we take care of our native, gentle mason bees, we in turn maximize the pollination of our flowers and food crops.

Here are 10 easy steps to cleaning your mason bee cocoons:

1. From Oct. through Dec. open the trays or tubes to reveal the cocoons. (Tip: Nesting tubes can be soaked for 8-12 minutes in cold water to make unrolling the tubes easier.)

2. With a harvesting scoop, scrape the contents of the nests onto a paper surface.

3. Pick out the healthy grey-brown cocoons without holes in them, and place them in a metal colander

4. Fill a container with a cold bleach solution. (Note: 1-2 tsp of household bleach per 1 gal. of water)

5. Dip the colander of cocoons into the water and agitate the cocoons for up to 2 mins to remove the mud, mites, etc.

6. Rinse the cocoons for 3-4 mins in cool water.

7. Lay the clean cocoons on fresh paper and examine them for disease or damage, disposing of the unhealthy ones. (Tip: If there are still mites on the cocoons, wash them again in the bleach solution for up to 2 mins, and rinse well for 3-4 mins.)

8. Allow the cocoons to air-dry for approximately 1 hour in a cool location.

9. Place dry cocoons into a humidity chamber to prevent dehydration. (Tip: Be sure to top up the moisture chamber with water throughout the winter.)

10. Place the humidity chamber in the fridge. The cocoons are healthier in stable, cold temperatures. (Tip: Don’t remove until spring when the flowering cherry trees begin to bloom!)

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below!

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