Lewis&Clark Facilities

Bee cultivation

September 27, 2012

Welcome Orchard Mason Bees!

The PEAS students of Lewis & Clark in collaboration with Facilities Services and our friendly neighborhood partners are bringing eight Orchard Mason Bee nests to campus.

Why Orchard Mason Bees (OMB)?

• OMBs are native to US and Canada
• OMBs are very effective pollinators and are low maintenance
• OMBs are a solitary species—they don’t defend their nests the way that social bees and wasps defend their hive.  So they won’t attack you if you get near the nest, and they won’t sting unless you handle them roughly.
• OMBs make their nest in ready-made tunnels in wood or other substrates.  That makes it easy for us to manage them by providing artificial nest sites.
• Native bee populations are in decline.

Books:

• “The Orchard Mason Bee”, Brian Griffin
• “Pollination with Mason Bees”, Dr. Margeriet Dogterom
• “How to Manage the Blue Orchard Bee”,  Drs. Jordi Bosch. and William Kemp: http://www.sare.org/publications/bob.htm