Our current Willamette Valley weather has been hard on the bees. Last year we had the driest April on record and this year the fifth wettest April on record. More important is how many days that we had rain. Additionally, we have had daytime highs that were often 10 degrees cooler than normal. That meant many days with the daytime highs around 50 degrees. Cold nights are not a big concern, but with the rain and colder daytime temperatures we observed a lot less bee activity. Sometimes the bees stayed in their holes for 4-5 days.
We are hearing from quite a few people that they do not have any holes filled at all and many of us have a lot less holes filled at this point in the mason bee’s life cycle. For those who got eager to put out cocoons in mid-late March, the number of holes filled seems to be exceptionally low. For those who put out their last batch in mid-April or even a couple of days later, there is more activity. But even this activity level appears to be lower than normal.
In my experience, mold is one of the major causes of bee mortality. You need to watch for any signs of it.
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What you can and should do now is to prevent MOLD as much as possible.
- Look for signs that could mean you have damp conditions that can produce mold. If you use kraft paper tubes (Guard Tubes) with liners and you split your liners, look for liners that have curled up into a smaller diameter tube (see photo above). This is a sign of wet conditions, and you need to replace the liners with new and dry ones.
- If you are using laminated blocks in a wooden Mason Bee house, check to see if the block is resting on the wooden floor of the bee house. If it is, lift the block to see if they are wet on the bottom. If so, it is important to get the block off the wet floor. Put spacers about an ½ inch thick between the block and the floor of the bee house ASAP. Spacers should be made of waterproof material like plastic. Lego blocks or something similar will work well. You should plan to raise all your blocks even the dry ones to help prevent the blocks from getting wet in the future.
- If you find tubes that the bee has use that are wet, you have a choice. Mold will be a severe problem for this tube very soon. I suggest you take the tube and put them in a dry place to dry them out ASAP. Wrap the tube in some absorbent material to help with this. If you can remove the liner without breaking it do so. Normally you would not move these tubes till the end of the season, but you are going to lose the bees to mold, so you have little to lose by trying to dry out the tubes.
The Future
In addition to the cold, wet weather, another potential issue I have seen firsthand in my yard. Most of my cherry trees got ‘fried’ last June in our heat wave and as a result most of my cherry trees did not bloom this year. This means potential food issues for the bees. I am sure this issue has affected other trees and other locations as well.
A reminder for future bee seasons: if you have enough cocoons (at least 40), split your cocoons into 2 batches, so you can place the cocoons out over several weeks. Due to the unstable weather conditions, I released multiple batches of cocoons with the last ones going out just a couple of days ago. (Yes, that is later than we have recommended, but the weather this year was so unusual.)
This year I used new redesigned bee boxes to shelter some of my blocks and tubes. Past rain and wind issues drove my design changes. I am happy to say the boxes worked very well especially when some old boxes nearby got wet due to the wind driven rain. We are going to have to think of these issues and to deal with them in the future if we are going to continue to be successful in breeding mason bees and the other bees. I think we are going to be faced with major changes in how we breed these bees if we want to continue to be successful.
We are worried! Now we wait to see how May affects the bees. Let us know how you are doing and if you have questions.
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Did you miss our 8th annual BEEvent Pollinator Conference? Never fear, we recorded the entire day's presentations, and they can now be viewed online. Get your ticket HERE.
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As always, thank you for supporting bees!
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Note: Our guidelines are tailored to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. We want blue orchard mason bee cocoons that you purchase from us to be used within the east to west boundaries of the Coastal Range to the Cascades. The northern boundary is the Portland/Columbia River areas and southern boundary is the Umpqua Valley area. Check with your county Extension agent if you live outside these areas.
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Questions? Contact:
Ranee Webb - Email Ranee
Rich Little - Email Rich
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