What diameter and depth of hole do you use (well, offer to the bees)?
And woudl the bees reuse a hole -- lots of the commercail ones have some sort of inset or straw, and it that meant ot bechanged annually?
Thomas Prufer
I have a few, and have used off cuts of old garden canes 50mm to
80mm long, but run a drill through them to remove internal barriers. This gives a whole range of hole sizes, and interstices, so they can, and do, take their pick.They certainly do reuse. I don't think the ones with straw are really aimed at bees.
Chris
6 to 8mm diameter - 120mm long
There are two types of mason bees that will use (and reuse) them Red Mason in the spring using mud as a construction material and Blue Mason early Summer using chewed up leaves. The Red Mason prefer the larger diameter.
When all the bees emerge there is an empty tube that is reused.
The tubes need to be sited to get the full sun for the longest part of the day - NO dappled shade
Originally the card tubes I purchased were relatively cheap but now are quite expensive. I have some success with black jumbo drinking straws but the bees really do prefer something less slippery.
I believe when kept commercially the bees are removed from the tubes, hence paper liners in the card tubes. I don't remove the bees from the tubes year to year.
Have some of them (red) nesting in our garage walls most years, lovely looking bees:)...
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