Attract Pollinators to Your Yard

Wildlife habitat gardens can support twice as much wildlife as conventional lawns or ornamental non-native plant gardens. Many pollinator populations are in decline, due to the loss of natural habitats and native plantings along with the impact of pesticide use. You can help pollinators survive and flourish by creating a pollinator-friendly environment in your yard.

Mason bees are all the buzz as an incredibly effective, native pollinator and are among the easiest bees to raise in your yard, while also being the safest due to their gentle nature.

• Unlike honey bees, mason bees carry pollen on their bellies rather than on their hind legs, which helps to make them highly efficient pollinators. A single mason bee will visit between 1,600 to 2,400 blossoms daily, and pollinate over 90% of them. A female visits an average of 75 flowers per foraging trip.
• Mason bees lay their eggs in tunnel nests that are constructed in abandoned holes created by wood-boring insects, hollow plant stems or artificial houses and tubes. Although mason bees are solitary, they are often gregarious and will nest near other mason bees. When building their nests, female mason bees use clay to build partitions and to seal the tunnel entrance. This unique mud-building behavior is what led to the name “mason” bee.
• Mason bees are not aggressive towards people. You can watch them work without fear of being stung. Mason bees are metallic blue, black or green in color and about the same size as a house fly. There are 140 species of mason bees in North America.

Visit our store to learn what you can do to cultivate pollinators in your yard.