Attract wild bees with nesting aids
The February sun awakens the first wild bees from the Hibernationthat they spent in the protection of their doll's cover. After a refreshment from early-blooming nectar dispensers, wild bees start looking for suitable nesting opportunities. With these nesting aids, you can invite wild bees to linger in the garden:
- Filling the wooden frame with hollow stems (Knotweed, Bamboo, reeds), fasten with clay, secure against birds with rabbit wire
- Crumbly Deadwood as a hedge pile up, ideally with beetle boreholes as natural nesting tubes
- Build a nesting aid from old interlocking bricks
also read
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- Attract butterflies - the best tips for amateur gardeners
- Attracting compost worms - tips & tricks for hobby gardeners
Many wild species of bees prefer wood as their nesting material. A big one Tree grate made of hardwood or a cut branch without bark, you can turn it into a tempting wild bee hotel in just a few simple steps. For this purpose, use the wood drill to create nesting tubes with a diameter of between 3 and 10 mm at intervals of 1 to 2 cm. So that wild bee ladies do not injure themselves during the inspection, sand the entrances smooth and remove all chips.
Invite wild bees with gourmet plants
If a garden has the right forage plants to offer, wild bees will gather in droves. It is important to have a varied planting plan with native perennials that provide plenty of food for every wild bee species. A selection of the best gourmet plants for wild bees gives the following overview by name:
- Basic rule: in the bee-friendly garden Plant native wild plants with single, unfilled flowers
- Wild bees meadow: Spread seeds of wild bee willow or Veitshöchheimer Bee pasture sowing
- For silk bees (Colletes): Asteracea, tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), gold yarrow (Achillea)
- For mason bees (Osmia): Butterflies (Fabaceae), Lilies (Liliaceae), violet (Viola), willows (Salix)
- For fur bees (Anthrophora): Mint family (Lamiaceae), for example Dead nettle (Lamium maculatum)
Different species of wild bees have specialized in a single plant species as a feed supplier. This includes the Bellflower sawhorn bee (Melitta haemorrhoidalis) with a weakness for the tangledBellflower (Campanula glomerata).
Tips
Did you know that Bumblebees belong to the wild bees? Together with mason bees, sand bees and other wild species, the fat bums do more than 90 percent of the pollination work in the garden. Bumblebee queens are the only wild bee species to found a small colony shortly after the end of winter. From early flowering perennials such as lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis), mountainKnapweed (Centaurea montana) or Common heather (Calluna) wild bumblebees are magically attracted.
