How to Create Habitat for Our Native Bees (click here for full article)

Spring might be the time when you want to do a "clean up" in the yard, but before you grab that rake or your pruners take a minute to consider doing a good deed for bees. Some insects like our native Bumble Bees (and other beneficial insects too) will overwinter in leaf litter or just below the soil. Raking out the beds can harm them by taking away their shelter and exposing them to the elements., or (!) sending them to the CSWD facility in a brown bag where they can't complete their life cycle. The stakes are high for these bumble bees - the Queen, who will lay the eggs for a brand new colony in the spring, is the one who overwinters so we can unintentionally wipe out a whole new generation of bees if we kill that Queen by mistake when "tidying up".

What you can do: Either skip this chore entirely and let the leaf litter turn to free natural fertilizer over time, or wait until the days are consistently in the mid-50's to allow time for the insects to come out of their winter homes.

Some Bees prefer nesting in the dried hollow stems of perennial plants (not all plants have stems that are are hollow).

What you can do: If you have left the stems long over winter, but want to cut them back now here's a trick to allow those stems to be available for bees to use. If you cut them in varying lengths about 8-24 inches from the ground you will leave enough old stem material for the bees to use later in the season. When the new growth pops up it will hide the cut stems and no one will be the wiser (except for the healthy, happy bees). Here is a great illustration of this concept by bee expert, Heather Holm and her colleagues.

Want to learn more? Here is some additional information from the Xerces Society: Bee Habitat Information