Solitary Native Bee Nesting Tube Reeds

These sustainably grown and perfect habitat reeds are good for not only your Blue Orchard Mason Bees and garden leafcutter bees but for other native bees as well. The larger tubes will attract blue orchard Mason bees while the garden leafcutter bees prefer smaller diameters.

They come in bundles of 50+ in a super fancy brown paper bag ready for you to put into your own choice of habitat. 

I have gone out with hubby for years to collect, cut and clean these. Our time and projects at the farm doesn't allow us to harvest ourselves right now. We get these from our old bee buddies who still go out every year to the lake and overgrown areas to help knock down the population (the phragmites reeds themselves are not a native and are in truth, invasive).

The reason you want to buy THESE type of reeds and native bee habitat tubes from me and not from some crafts store or another place online is that I have the correct diameter and length tubes. The diameter of the opening is important but so is the depth. More important than you'd think. Many of your hardware or craft store fun ones are made using PINE wood (which bees don't like the strong fresh fragrance of, they love OLD wood.) as well as the depth. Depth is important because they prefer to lay a certain number of females to male ratio in each hole. It's not always the case, by the females are laid first, in the back, where they can be protected. The males are laid towards the front where they can be eaten or sacrificed first as well as hatch first so there are plenty of males already around when the females emerge. By giving them habitats that are too shallow, the correct ratio of males or females is not achieved.

Using reeds allows you to safeguard the habitats by using the natural joint (like bamboo) to guard against parasitic wasps who like to go lay THEIR eggs in the back. By using these reeds that you can open and inspect yearly, you can greatly increase the health of your bees. It's important to check the habitat and exterminate unwanted pests. Bamboo is another common cheap alternative used and it can NOT be opened and is not preferred or suggested for native bee use.

These work wonderfully with the Blue Orchard Mason bees or Garden Leafcutter bees and can be combined with the wood habitat blocks.  I do this for the bees. We need more of THESE type of bees, not commercial honeybees. Ready to place in your bee houses or hotels.