• Glifted
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    3719 days ago

    Honey bees are dying but you can help native bees in your area. Find out what they like and plant that shit. Also just letting weeds grow helps a lot of species.

    I get leafcutter bees at my place as well as a few other solitary species

    • @shalafi@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Making bee hotels for solitary bees is child’s play. Take a chunk of wood, drill holes, hang in a tree.

      Technical aspects:

      • Don’t use pressure treated lumber, anything else is fine.
      • Look up “solitary bee hotel” for your area to see what size holes to make for the locals. In any case, it’s going to be a variety of different sizes to cover all your bases. Doesn’t have to bee (heh) perfect.
      • Make the holes, especially the edges, nice and smooth. They’re not dumb enough to nest their if the hole is raggedy and might jack up their wings.

      That’s mostly it. You can research easily enough in an hour or less There’s a woman on YouTube that sells bee hotels and has solid advice for making your own. Wish I remembered her name. Anyone?

      Damned satisfying when you find the holes plugged with wax! You have new tenants! Stupid easy and basically free.

      CAVEAT: These things are single use. Chunk 'em out every season, or better, burn them. Keeps the mites out. Make another for free.