Solitary Bees

Just saw these two videos (part I and II) today, by Norm (the father and inventor) and his son Gordon of Hutching Bee Services (YouTube channel). (Update: their new and fascinating site is here)

Rather than using a wet disinfectant (bleach and water) method of ridding cocoons of mites which they suggest is less effective, and has an inherent risk of humidity and mould problems, they use a sand scouring method. They:

1. gently scrape their cocoons from the solitary bee blocks/condos
2. sieve out most of the larger debris of mud cell walls as well as loose excrement and unconsumed pollen,
3. roll the cocoons in a jar of fine sand to scour off the residual mites, and
4. use a finer sieve with residual sand being swept of the cocoons with a soft brush.

The sand is later ‘cooked’ clean to kill off the mites so that they can re-use it again. The cocoons are then placed in a box on a a corrugated cardboard tray with small open holes to allow them to fly off (and also not be picked off by birds).

Here are is the first video (9 mins) where we begin to see the large numbers of bees that they obtain each year.

Some of the nest traps are very long and it’s interesting to hear them talk about the ideal length of tunnels that they’ve tested in this first video. They call it the “Hutchings Peekaboo system” where they have covered the detachable router-cut blocks in perspex flaps so they can look inside. The solitary bee cocoons are scraped out with a soft-blade scraper that apparently they made themselves. They found that the 12 to 15 inch trays produce the “most bees per inch”. [I will have to try this]. They have also played around with different variables of width and lengths – 5/16ths of an inch (7mm) they found was the optimum width, and just under 12 inches (29.5cm) was optimal to get the most female bees.

…and here’s the second one (8mins), where they show the filtration and scouring methods.

Anyway I hope you find these two videos fascinating as I have. If its of interest to you, here are some close-ups of the solitary bee mites (or at least their debris) and the larvae of the parasitic fly Cacoxenus indagator.

Please feel to share your comments about the Hutchings videos on their channel, and/or other cleaning methods below. Would be interested in your thoughts/methods for keeping your mason bee populations pest free.