The Birds & The Bees: An Ozarks Mason Bee Project

It seems not to matter how many books you read or how much research you do when it comes to nature; nature will always do what it wants to do and there's nothing you can do about it. Earlier this year, I had launched my first Mason Bee project. I wrote all about it here:

http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-ozarks-mason-bee-project-part-1.html

When I put that housing out on 4/28/2014, I was very worried that I had missed the window to attract mason bees to my housing. Turns out, my instincts were right. Again. Not only was I right about my poor timing, I was wrong about where I placed the housing also. I had gotten the direction right, but after discovering tent worm caterpillars in my housing, I yanked them down from their mounts and did some more reading, eventually finding some text that said, "do not hang in trees". I found out why.
I brought in all my housing, disassembled it, cleaned it all with a 10% bleach solution and left it in the sun to dry for a week. I was very disappointed and frustrated at myself.
One week later, while sitting on our 4-wheelers in the shop, I noticed a small, flying, wasp-like creature flying around the small holes in the handlebar ends on both our bikes.

And she seemed to be carrying something.


Bob's handlebar grip, already stuffed and closed off with a small amount of clay.

Bob researched it that night on the internet and found out that our alien-looking insect was a Potter's wasp. Of course, we were conflicted in our ID, because she wasn't building anything that looked like the typical Potter's wasp nests that you see on the internet, but it never seems to happen that way here anyway. But one id factor in particular helped - she was carrying a small caterpillar into her nest. From the ID link above:

When a cell is completed, the adult wasp typically collects beetle larvae, spiders, or caterpillars and, paralyzing them, places them in the cell to serve as food for a single wasp larva. As a normal rule, the adult wasp lays a single egg in the empty cell before provisioning it. Some species lay the egg in the opening of the cell, suspended from a thread of dried fluid. When the wasp larva hatches, it drops and starts to feed upon the supplied prey for a few weeks before pupating.

Sounds kind of brutal, but fascinating at the same time. Realizing that I had 4 empty Mason bee homes and this poor wasp could not be allowed to continue building in our handlebars, I mounted my Mason bee homes just outside the shop and gently coaxed the wasp outside so she could find her new homes. I figured if the Mason bees weren't going to use my homes this year, something might was well take advantage of them.
It didn't take her long to find them. She must have attracted others because I frequently see at least 2 of them building in their nests. They have been very tolerant of me taking pictures and so far, I have not been stung. I have really enjoyed watching their progress, even if they're not Mason bees. Next year, I plan on getting my housing out earlier and will work on a better location also. For now though, I'm perfectly happy to watch these busy, busy wasps building their nests. Things didn't work out exactly as I planned because Mother Nature decided to do something different and I'm perfectly happy to take an alternative path with Her.

Photo taken 6/21/2014 - 2 weeks after placing the housing.

7/2/2014 - can you find her? Tip: she's in the upper house.

7/4/2014 - Closeup of the top home - notice the dried clay that has fallen off the entrance holes. While she is completely capable of finding her own clay or making the seal on her own, I do spray water on the ground to keep some clay wet for her close by.