MASON BEE
Mason bees are more active than honeybees in colder and wetter conditions, foraging and visiting flowers while honeybees remain in their hives1. Mason bees will also forage earlier and later in the day than honeybees therefore, they have a range of foraging behaviours that is more diverse than honeybees1. Since mason bees are native to the area, they are already well adapted to the environmental conditions of the area, so it would be ideal for the LFSOG to provide mason bee habitat. Cover crops, hedgerows, or grassy places provide maximum benefit for the native bees for example, with wildflowers and shrubs or wooden nest blocks around the field edges1.
A mason bee entering a man-made mason bee home. Retrieved from https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2694/4508367437_3c05ed5290.jpg
The native bees prefer aster, indigo, buckwheat, lupine, borage, oregano, lavender, sage, and rosemary9; (full list included below). Furthermore, orchard mason bees are well known for pollinating apple trees, blueberries, and raspberries (Anelyse Weiler, personal communications, 2012). In fact, research has shown that two or three orchard mason bee females can pollinate an entire apple tree and also double cherry production, when compared to honeybees2. Dead nettle, Oregon grape, viburum forsythia, dandelion are also very good early foraging source for the native bees (Anelyse Weiler, personal communications, 2012). It should be noted though, that native plants are four times more attractive to native bees than non-native, introduced flowers3. Native plants can thrive with minimum attention, all year-round as they are adaptable to the growing conditions at their specific sites. Colours that are attractive to mason bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow3.
Preferred Native Plants for Mason Bees
Aster Aster , Bee balm Monarda , Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia , Ceanothus Ceanothus Chokecherry Prunus , Coneflower Echinacea and Rudbeckia , Cow parsnip Heracleum , Currant Ribes, Elder Sambucus, Fireweed Chamerion (Epilobium) , Fleabane Erigeron , Goldenrod Solidago, Hawthorn Crataegus , Huckleberry Vaccinium , Larkspur Delphinum , Lupine Lupinus, Madrone Arbutus , Milkweed Asclepias , Mint Mentha , Oregon grape Berberis (Mahonia) , Pacific waterleaf Hydrophyllum , Pearly everlasting Anaphalis , Penstemon Penstemon, Phacelia Phacelia , Rabbit-brush Chrysothamnus , Rhododendron Rhododendron , Roses Rosa , Salmonberry Rubus , Saskatoon Amelanchier , Snowberry Symphoricarpos, Spirea Spirea , Stonecrop Sedum , Wild buckwheat Eriogonum, Wild onions Allium , Willow Salix , Yarrow Achillea1.
Additional information on native plants
Some of these plants including the Oregon grape and Witch hazel, provide nectar during the “off season” (winter season). Buckwheat can provide flowers during the late summer season, and can be a useful cover crop so that is a strong contender. Ocean spray is a perennial shrub, which means low maintenance and no need to replant each year. It also can flower in May, which is a bit before the big bloom period. The rest of the plants bloom during the middle of the summer, which is when most plants are blooming. They have been noted as especially attractive to bumble bees however, so they may warrant the time to plant.
Buckwheat flowers. Retrieved from https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3258/2530497385_c062840fe2.jpg
Mason Bee Disease
Not enough research regarding specific diseases of mason bees is available because they habit in the wild, however mites can be found in the cocoons that affects the development of bees (Anelyse Weiler, personal communications, 2012). Also, pesticide use causes extreme stress to the native species (Anelyse Weiler, personal communications, 2012).
BUMBLEBEES
Bumblebees seem to be able to forage at temperatures as low as 6°C. Foraging can happen at even lower temperatures but only in extreme cases, such as starvation4. Queens will recommence activity after overwintering in their underground burrows, and look to establish new colonies5. Compared to honey bees though, their hives are quite small, with numbers reaching only a couple hundred during the summer months6. Bumblebees are also well known as buzz pollinators, which is extremely important for the pollination of certain species of plants, notably, tomatoes6.
Native Plants for Bumblebees
Not enough research has been found on preferred plant species for bumble bees however, since they are native to the area and native bees have been shown to prefer native plants, they could have similar plant preferences to mason bees such as:Lacy Phacelia Phacelia tanacetifolia, Fireweed Chamerion angustifolium, Foxglove Digitalis purpurea, Marigolds Tagetes erecta, Ocean Spray Holodiscus discolor, Oregon Grape Berberis (Mahonia) , Wild buckwheat Eriogonum, Witch Hazel Hamamelis, Yarrow AchilleaBumblebee
A bumblebee on a phacelia. Retrieved from https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3652/3665110813_930a258d9a.jpg
Bumblebee Disease
There seems to be some crossover between honey bees and bumblebees, in terms of pathogens. Currently known diseases include: Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), deformed wing virus (DWV), and kashmir bee virus (KBV), diseases also experienced by honey bees7. Additionally, one of the main diseases that afflict bumble bees seems to be Nosema bombi<8. It is fungal-like, and an obligate pathogen, as it requires a host cell in order to reproduce<8. Crithidia bombi is another disease to be cautious of8.
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