Category Archives: Plugs and Bugs

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 →

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Mud “Plugs” (part 2) & Auplopus

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Va

What is THAT?  Looking a bit like a dried up worm, this is a series of mud-lined cells constructed by a wasp in the genus Auplopus.  This unique nest is one of the more bizarre we have found in our … Continue reading →

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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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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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Chewed Vegetation Plugs (part 2) & the Megachile who make them

Posted on July 10, 2015 by heatherblairs

Earlier this spring we talked about the mason bees, Osmia and Hoplitis, that made plugs from chewed vegetation.  Then, the last Plugs & Bugs post focused on Megachile that use whole leaf or petal pieces.  Now we are combining the … Continue reading →

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Whole leaf-petal pieces & the Leaf-cutting bees, Megachile

Posted on June 26, 2015 by heatherblairs

Did you ever see perfect circles cut for your rose leaves or even flowers?  Did you wonder who was responsible?  Did you ever imagine it might just be a bee?  All Whole Leaf Piece plugs are made by Megachile, though … Continue reading →

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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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