Mid summer Solitary Bee update

Since late spring I have kept the bamboo bee homes in a 27 gallon plastic container. I was hoping by moving them in the garage would keep down the pests going after the larva inside. Well seems some got in before I could pack them up. And shows having serviceable bee boards is probably the way to go. So I can easily clean the homes of unwanted pests.

I noticed that parasitic wasps were messing with the homes but luckily some spiders made homes in the boxes and have captured alot of them in webs.

Some wasps got out of the box and a spider was able to catch alot of them.

Upon first inspection of the 27 gallon container it looked normal. But upon a closer look there are little mites all over the box.

These little things are probably going into some of the bamboo reeds and unfortunately killing some of the bee larva.

Being that I cant go inside the bamboo without disturbing the larva i just have to leave them be.

Some of the mud homes haven been breached. By something inside coming out or by something entering the mud home. Probably those wasps I'm guessing. Though not all are breached from the looks of it. I guess we will find out next spring now many homes are still functional.

Waiting for the weather to cool down and then plan on resuming building bee boards, and hope by spring I'll know if they are a good product or not.

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