Category Archives: Nest Plugs

Resin with Debris Plugs & Dianthidium

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Va

  As the nights cool and the leaves start to turn in the high country of Colorado, we find one of our Autumn bees laboring away. She’s collecting pollen to provision her nest, along with a smattering of sticks, stones, and resin that … Continue reading →

Posted in 2015, Nest Plugs, Plugs and Bugs | 1 Comment

Plant Fuzz Plugs & Anthidium

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Va

What’s white, furry, sits in a bee block, and looks like a joke? An Anthidium nest plug made from Plant Fuzz! Seriously, it looks like someone stuffed a cotton ball into the nesting tunnel(s). Well, someone – or something – … Continue reading →

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Colorado’s “newest” bee

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Va

Megachile apicalis, a species introduced from Europe and a close relative of the alfalfa leaf-cutting bee, has made its way to Colorado, and what a stunner she is!  We reared this bee from one of The Bees’ Needs 2013 bee … Continue reading →

Posted in 2013, Bee Blocks, Nest Plugs, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Silk Plugs & Hylaeus

Posted on August 5, 2015 by heatherblairs

One of the less common types of nest plugs we get in our bee blocks are the Silk plugs made by the yellow-faced or masked bees, Hylaeus species.  They are a real treat for those who do see them, often … Continue reading →

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Grass Plugs & Isodontia

Posted on July 24, 2015 by heatherblairs

Like the Little Pig who made his house out of Straw, we have wasps that make their nests out of straw too.  Our Isodontia wasps use only Grass to create their cell partitions and nest plugs.  These inch-long gentle giants … Continue reading →

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Boulder County Open Space and City of Boulder Open Space blocks

Posted on July 23, 2015 by brianlobbes

The Bees’ Needs was very excited to receive funding from the Boulder County Parks and Open Space (BCPOS) this Spring to document nesting bee and wasp diversity and abundance in six natural habitat types on BCPOS properties. This research will … Continue reading →

Posted in 2015, Bee Blocks, Nest Plugs | 2 Comments

Loose Debris Plugs & their Bugs

Posted on June 12, 2015 by heatherblairs

Sticks, and stones, and broken bones, that’s what my nest plug is made of… The plug type that we are focusing on for this week’s “Plugs & Bugs” is Loose Debris.  In all of our other P&B posts we have … Continue reading →

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Chewed Vegetation (part 1) & Mason Bees

Posted on May 29, 2015 by heatherblairs

Depending on species, Leaf-cutting bees (Family Megachilidae) use a variety of things to make nest plugs including mud, resin, plant fuzz, and as their name implies, leaves. Many of our leaf-cutting bees chew leaves into a pulp as they build … Continue reading →

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Resin Plugs (part 1) and their Bugs

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Va

Some of the best nest plugs in the bug business are made of sticky plant sap–as it dries, it hardens into a protective door and can stand on its own or be topped off with debris.  Today we’ll cover two … Continue reading →

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Insects of the Week: genus Isodontia

Posted on October 3, 2014 by heatherblairs

Scientific name: Isodontia Common name: Grass-carrying wasps Family: Sphecidae Nest type: dried grass blades Size: 18-20 mm Nest tunnels used: 1/2” to 5/16” tunnels Looks like: Large rusty orange or shiny black wasps If you’ve ever opened a window and … Continue reading →

Posted in 2014, Insect of the Week, Nest Plugs, Uncategorized | Leave a comment