5 Chapter 2: Planning for and Obtaining Mason Bees
There are two main approaches that growers may utilize for obtaining field scale-populations of mason bees as a pollination supplement in managed orchards. They can 1) purchase mason bees in bulk from a commercial suppliers or 2) trap their own populations of bee
At this time, it is not recommended to purchase and release managed Osmia lignaria populations into regions East of the Rockies. This is due to concerns over the origin and history of purchased species. While there is not legal restriction on importing commercially available solitary bees across state borders or geogrphic regions,
When to get them, how many to get?
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- Stocking rates vary depending on the time of year and the crop
- Put in orders in late fall/winter if you need a lot! Sellers don’t usually know how much they will have available until ~August- September
Wild-trapping
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- Primary source for most suppliers today
- Not sustainable, unknown repercussions on wild populations (but they are probably bad)
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- Can take several years to find good locations
Geography can be limiting (WA OR ID UT are great, MO TN FL PA are not)
- Bycatch – responsible stewardship
- Pest management
- ‘Reseeding’ the landscape with a cut of last season’s BOBs.
- Online/in-person from a BOB rancher or retailer
- Most of these are wild-caught
- Unknown origin and management history – risk of pathogen, parasitoid spread across landscapes (this is already a known concern for domesticated bumble bee colonies)
- From managed releases in orchards
- Not a currently sustainable practice – full return on bees is rare but there are some things you can do to help them out
- Minimize pesticide applications esp. during/immediately following bloom
- Plant wildflower enhancements between rows or along field margins – extend the bloom, diversify BOB nutrition
- Bee attractant on nest boxes
- Thoughtful spacing and provisioning of nesting tunnels
- Soil augmentation? – very little data on this
Cage propagation
